The Benefits Of Table Rate Shipping In Your WooCommerce Store

Table Rate Shipping

In this article, we will see the benefits of table rate shipping and how it makes shipping flexible for your WooCommerce store. Table rate shipping is the most advanced yet convenient way to handle shipping and calculate shipping rates for your online store. So, sit back and read along.

Benefits of Table Rate Shipping

With such a huge variety of products, it is not surprising that an online store owner has to go through a lot of trouble to ship his products. Variable product weight and dimensions can make it quite difficult for you to have a particular mode of shipment. Some products are small but heavy, and others may be huge but can weigh less. Besides, different products have different shipping needs. Some may need extra padding to avoid getting damaged while others may only be shipped via letter mail. In such cases, you require a flexible way of calculating shipping rates for your products. Hence, Table Rate Shipping. Table Rate Shipping is one of the most flexible ways to ship your products. It provides different ways using which you can make shipping easier for your store. In this article, we will cover the awesomeness of table rate shipping and how great it is to have a table rate shipping solution for your WooCommerce store.


Flexibility to Add Unlimited Shipping Methods

Unlimited Shipping Options
Unlimited Shipping Options

Possibly the greatest benefit of using Table Rate Shipping is the flexibility to choose your shipping methods. There is no limit to how many shipping methods you can create. You have the power to provide as many options as you want for your customers. Selling products locally..? Provide your customers with an option to pick up their orders instead of shipping them to them. Selling food items..? Make sure your products are delivered on the same day using Same-Day delivery. And don’t forget to ask for a review from your customers. You may very well get a five star for your delivery or the fresh products that you sell. There are unlimited ways to ship your products. And fortunately, with table rate shipping, you have got yourself unlimited shipping methods to display on your website.


Easy To Understand Rules Table

Easy To Understand Shipping Rules
Easy To Understand Shipping Rules

As the name suggests, Table Rate Shipping allows you to configure all your shipping rules inside a table. While discussing the shipping scenario for a WooCommerce store, you may very well get confused as the shipping scenarios can be very complex sometimes. Especially, in the case of multiple products, where you need to have dedicated shipping rules for every product type. Table rate shipping allows you to create and display shipping rules in a tabular form, making it easier for you to work on a particular shipping rule without affecting the others. Moreover, having multiple shipping options and handling such a large quantity of rules can be a pain sometimes. Especially using WooCommerce default shipping options, where you need to create and manage multiple shipping options for different shipping zones separately. Table Rate Shipping allows you to have all your rules stored in a single table so that handling shipping rules is a quick and hassle-free job for you.


Shipping Methods for Single or Multiple Shipping Zones

Shipping Methods For Different Shipping Zones
Shipping Methods For Different Shipping Zones

Speaking of the shipping zones and shipping methods, unlike WooCommerce where you have to manually add flat rate shipping for each zone, Table Rate Shipping does it only once. It takes a lot of unnecessary time and effort to create shipping rules for a single zone itself. On top of that, if you have multiple shipping zones and you are planning to provide, say 5 shipping methods for your customers, then it would be a really time-consuming job to configure that. In table rate shipping, you have the flexibility to add more than one shipping zone and assign multiple rules to them. This not only saves you a lot of time, but it makes it very easy to focus on the shipping zones where your business is doing great. You can provide discounted shipping rates or even faster delivery options to the zone with higher sales. Or you can even focus your effort on other zones and provide relatively better shipping options for the zones with lesser sales. In both cases, it will benefit your online store.


Achieve Complex Weight Based Shipping Scenarios

Handle Complex Weight Based Shipping Scenario
Handle Complex Weight Based Shipping Scenario

One of the biggest reasons, WooCommerce store owners are using Table Rate Shipping is because of the weight-based shipping. Different products have different weights and hence they require different packaging methods. For example, heavy products require additional reinforced boxes so that the packaging may not get damaged while the shipment is in transit. Hence, to make up for the added cost of shipping and even the handling charges, you might need to have custom shipping rates based on how heavy your products really are. On the other hand, weight-based shipping alone may seem simple initially. However, combined with different factors such as shipping zones, shipping classes, shipping cost based on additional weight, etc. setting up a complete weight-based shipping scenario can trouble you a lot. Hence, in a situation where you have to handle complex weight-based shipping for your store and know that WooCommerce, by default, doesn’t support weight-based shipping, table rate shipping is the only option for you. Apart from all that, there are tons of ways table rate shipping proves useful in handling various WooCommerce weight-based shipping scenarios.


Target Sales with Quantity Based Shipping

Quantity Based Shipping
Quantity Based Shipping

It is not new for WooCommerce store owners to use the concept of Free Shipping to increase their customer’s interest. After all, high shipping prices are one of the major reasons customers abandon their carts and look for a better option. In such cases, providing shipping free of cost can prove a lifesaver. However, free shipping also serves as a way to increase sales if you provide free shipping based on the number of products in your customer’s cart. In simple words, make the customer eligible for free shipping if he is buying more products from your store. Table rate shipping makes it possible for you to target high sales by focusing shipping methods based on the product quantity. This way you not only increase your sales but also provide customers with cheaper shipping options if they choose to buy more. You can also check out how table rate shipping helps deal with the various WooCommerce quantity-based shipping scenarios.


Flexibility To Combine Various Factors To Achieve More Complex Shipping Scenarios

Different shipping scenarios combined
Different shipping scenarios combined

So far, we discussed how table rate shipping makes life easy for you by handling various shipping scenarios. These scenarios may include handling weight-based and quantity-based shipping, providing various shipping options for different shipping zones, etc. Table rate shipping not only covers a particular aspect of day-to-day shipping but also helps you combine various ways to make shipping an easy task for you. Similar to how shipping carriers calculate shipping rates, you get accurate shipping rates using table rate shipping every time a customer purchases something from your store. However, the flexibility of table rate shipping to let you customize the way shipping rates will be calculated makes it more effective than the shipping carriers. Besides, your business requirement can change at any point in time. You may require a way to calculate shipping based on the number of products customers purchase, instead of the weight of the products in the cart. Or let’s say, you now require both weight and quantity-based shipping for just one shipping zone. In such a case, table rate shipping allows you to just easily modify your existing shipping rules and add or remove any factor you require. It provides an easy and flexible way to work out shipping for almost any shipping scenario without having to look for a new shipping solution.


It’s Easy & There Is A Plugin For That!

For those WooCommerce store owners, who want flexibility in calculating shipping rates and the ease to achieve almost any shipping scenario, WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro is the right choice. The plugin allows you to enjoy all the benefits of table rate shipping in your WooCommerce store. It integrates perfectly with WooCommerce, the shipping classes, and shipping zones, and even provides an easier way to set up free and flat rate shipping. WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro provides the convenience and flexibility of calculating shipping rates based on the following factors,

  • Product Weight
  • Product Quantity
  • Cart Value (Price)
  • Destination Address (Country, State, City, ZIP Codes)
  • Shipping Zones
  • Shipping Classes
  • Product Category

And much more. The plugin is easy to use and the fact that it can translate complex shipping rules to easily understandable plain English sentences makes it even better. So if you are looking for an advanced yet flexible and easy-to-use shipping solution that integrates table rate shipping with your WooCommerce store, feel free to check out WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro.


Live Shipping Scenario Made Easy using Table Rate Shipping

Scott owns an E-commerce store based in Michigan, US. His customer base spreads out throughout the US, Canada, and some parts of Europe. However, he focuses more on the US and Canada as it is relatively easier for him. Scott’s shipping scenario can be easily summarised by the following points.

  • Two Shipping Options for the customers
    • Standard Shipping – Delivery within 5-7 working days
    • Priority Shipping is charged $10 more than standard shipping – delivery within 3 days
  • Small products must be shipped for a flat rate shipping charge of $20 for up to 10 lbs
  • Beyond 10 lbs, Small products must be shipped for an additional shipping fee of $1.5 per lbs
  • Large Products must be shipped based on the quantity
    • Up to 5 items must be shipped for a shipping fee of $35, with an additional fee of $4.5 per unit
    • Beyond 5 items, customers must be charged a shipping fee of $50, with an additional fee of $1.50 per unit.

Now, take a look at the image below. It shows all the shipping rules configured using the WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro plugin.

Shipping Scenario using Table Rate Shipping
Shipping Scenario using Table Rate Shipping

As you can clearly see, there are separate rules which you can modify at any time. Further, the rules are based on Scott’s shipping needs and make use of shipping classes, shipping zones, and weight-based and quantity-based shipping to set up both Standard Shipping and Priority Shipping.


Final Thoughts…

So this was about table rate shipping and how it makes shipping flexible for your WooCommerce store. It is one of the most advanced yet convenient ways to handle shipping and calculate shipping rates for your online store. The only thing you need is a plugin that combines the flexibility of table rate shipping with the ease of using it for your store. And once you find such a solution, it will make you fall in love with the way table rate shipping handles your shipping. Do you have any complicated shipping setups? Check out how to set shipping rates based on product categories using the table rate shipping plugin. As far as finding an easy-to-use table rate plugin is concerned, the WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro plugin is the best out there. The plugin combines the flexibility of table rate shipping with the ease of creating different shipping rules, very well. You can take a look at all the things that makes this plugin the most flexible WooCommerce shipping rates calculator.

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