Flexible shipping choices are essential to avoiding “price shock” and cart abandonment when a customer reaches this stage of the purchase. This article explains how to use Shipping Zones and Shipping Classes together in WooCommerce to optimize your shipping cost calculations.
Did you know that you can significantly reduce cart abandonment by offering your customers a variety of shipping methods? The more flexible your shipping options are, the more likely shoppers are able to find what works for them and follow through with a purchase. In addition, as a store owner, you might need to offer different shipping rates depending on the type of product you sell or by geographical area.
As more and more online stores look to expand their shipping horizons let’s take a look at how we can get the ball rolling with Shipping Classes and Shipping Zones.
First of all, what’s the difference?
Shipping Classes: are best used when you have products with different shipping costs such as: t-shirts, books, posters, etc.
Shipping Zones: allow you to specify which geographical areas you would like to ship your items to, using postal and other area codes, i.e. continents, countries, provinces/states, cities, etc.
Can they be used together?
Yes! And we will explore that closer to the end of this post, but if you would like to skip ahead, feel free!
Shipping Zones
Shipping Zones allow us to control what shipping options customers see depending on where they are located. Customers enter their address and shipping is calculated through their corresponding zone.
A few examples:
I want free shipping to all customerslocated within the province.
I want to allow local pickup for those within our City/County ONLY.
I want flat rate shipping to customers within the country, outside of the province.
Step 1: Setting Up Shipping Zones
Go to: WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping > Shipping Zones.
Select Add shipping zone.
Name the zone.
Click on the Zone Region field to select all regions that apply.
Shipping classes allow you to group products of similar type and can be configured todetermine shipping costs at checkout. While they are not used directly to offer shipping rates to customers, we can use this in concurrence with Shipping Zones and Shipping Methods to calculate rates.
Examples:
Custom T-shirts have free shipping.
All 5 x 7 ft picture frames require local pickup.
Sketchbooks and pencil sets have a flat rate shipping cost of 5$.
Step 1: Setting Up Shipping Classes
Go to: WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping > Shipping Classes.
SelectAdd Shipping Class.
Enter a Shipping Class Name and description
You can leave the Slug blank and let it auto-generate, or you can enter one yourself.
Select Save shipping classes.
Step 2: Assigning Shipping Classes to Your Products
Go to: WooCommerce > Products.
Hover over the product and select Edit.
In the Product Data section go to Shipping, and select the Shipping Class from the dropdown menu.
Note: Each product can only have one shipping class.
How We Can Use Them Together
You have a product that where the shipping rate changes depending on if you’re going to ship international vs domestic. We can do this by setting up different rates for a class in a zone. For example, you have two different sized picture frames that require different flat rates of shipping depending on product size and location:
Product
Shipping Canada
Shipping US
Small Picture Frame – $30
Flat Rate: $4
Flate Rate: $6
Medium Picture Frame – $40
Flate Rate: $7
Flate Rate: $9
We create two zones, Canada and US. Then we set up shipping classes for the Small Picture Frame and Medium Picture Frame for each zone individually. See below:
A guide to 2022 Canadian Sales Tax Rates by province.
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About the Author
Sierra Pomerleau served as Team Coordinator for Elev8 Web Studio. She’s now doing #allthethings, from social media management to supporting WE Data Tools— a suite of placed-based, data-driven tools that support a strong and sustainable workforce.
Don't miss out on future articles!
Useful tips for website owners and content managers, delivered once a week.
About the Author
Sierra Pomerleau served as Team Coordinator for Elev8 Web Studio. She’s now doing #allthethings, from social media management to supporting WE Data Tools— a suite of placed-based, data-driven tools that support a strong and sustainable workforce.
Don't miss out on future articles!
Useful tips for website owners and content managers, delivered once a week.