How to set up WooCommerce weight based shipping?

If you have a store that sells stuff of different sizes and weight, you need to calculate delivery fees upon weight. But is it possible in WooCommerce? If yes, is there a simple way to do this?

Of course, you can do it in WooCommerce. There are many ways to set up weight-based shipping for your website. The easiest way is to install a plugin. In this article, we will show you how to set up WooCommerce weight based shipping with 4 simple steps.

Why do you need to add WooCommerce weight based shipping?

Obviously, the heavier items, the higher the shipping fee you need to pay. This is very headache when you have to sell big items or ship out of your country. The best way to deal with that is to add weight based shipping for WooCommerce website.

That makes your website automatically choose the right shipping fee to depend on the weight of the total item customer bought. It benefits both buyers and sellers.

The WooCommerce itself does not have this functionality, so you need to find a plugin to do that thing.

Which plugin you should use?

There are many plugins out there. And I tried all of them, so I know which is the best plugin for this.

It is the “Table Rate for WooCommerce by Flexible Shipping” plugin. It is a very simple but powerful tool. You can easily add different shipping fees based on the weight. You can also add many rules for different conditions.

Furthermore, this plugin is compatible with all other WooCommerce plugins and all WordPress plugins as well. It is very easy to set it up.

This is the list of features of the free version of this plugin:

• Order Weight,
• Subtotal,
• Destination,
• Flexible Price Calculation,
• Conditional Option for Free Shipping,
• Minimum and maximum shipping fees,
• And much more …

You do not need the pro version in the first place. Because the free version may already give you all the things you need. But you better check it out.

This guide will be based on the free version of the plugin.

4 easy steps to set up WooCommerce shipping based on weight for your website

First, let’s take a look at how to install this plugin for your WooCommerce website. And then, we will show you how to use it correctly and efficiently.

Step 1. Download and install a plugin

Installing and activating this plugin is like any other WordPress plugin.

You can install it by going to the WordPress Plugins page in your WordPress admin dashboard. Search for the plugin, then install “Table Rate for WooCommerce by Flexible Shipping” and activate it.

Step 2: Create weight based shipping method

After having the Table rate shipping plugin worked on your eCommerce site, please follow the steps below to create new shipping zone and WooCommerce weight based shipping method.

1. In dashboard, go to WooCommerce -> Settings > Shipping

2. Under the “Shipping” tab, click on the “Add shipping zones” button to add a shipping zone.

3. In the “Shipping method” section, click on the “Add shipping method” button, one popup will appear. Choose “Flexible Shipping” for the box and then click “Add shipping method“.

4. It will guide you to a new page:

This part contains taxable and title options. Now you need to fill all these boxes as you want.

Tip: type the things that are relevant so you can easily know which is being used and when it is being used.

Now, you can add any weight-based shipping rules that fit your store. If you do not know how to create the right weight-based shipping rules, do not worry, let’s come to the next step.

Step 3. Think about your pricing condition

To do this, simply use Excel or draw a table on a sheet of paper. You should create three columns:

1. Weight: from
2. Weight: to
3. Price

You can have many different ways of shipping items to your customer, such as in-store pickup, traditional mail, FedEx, etc. And every WooCommerce shipping method has its own way of charge.

Step 4. Create rules in the Flexible Shipping plugin

Once you finish your table on Excel or paper, you can create WooCommerce weight based shipping rules for your website.

To add a rule, simply click on the “Add New” button on the screen. This will guide you onto a new page. The way you fill the options on this page based on what shipping rule action you want it to do upon checkout.

Let me introduce you to some important configurations.

1. General settings

• Check “Enable this shipment method” for this rule to take effect.
• Method title: This is the title which the user sees during checkout.
• Method description: This is optional. It is displayed under the method title.

2. Free Shipping

• Free Shipping: type the minimum order amount for free shipments,
• Free Shipping Label: type the custom label for free shipping.

Note: you can skip this stage if you do not want to add free shipping.

3. Shipping Cost Calculation Rules

This is where you need to fill in with the information you created before on paper or Excel.

Once everything is perfect, click on the “Save change” button at the bottom-left corner of the page.

Now, your rule will appear, show that you have created a new WooCommerce weight based shipping rule successfully. If you want to add more rules, just repeat the process.

Finally, do not forget to enable them, they will show as options to your customers on the checkout page.

Final thoughts

Setting up WooCommerce shipping based on weight is pretty easy, but the effects of it are tremendous. It does not just make the shipping process easier for both you and your customers, but also save you a lot of effort and time to figure out the right shipping price for certain items. That will help you increase the shopping experience and improve the conversion rate for your WooCommerce store.

Hopefully, this article helps you set up WooCommerce weight based shipping for your online store.