WooCommerce shipping itself is good. There’s enough for beginners to manage shipping – distribute products to their desired locations for a ‘standard’ fee.
Unfortunately, ‘standard’ is where it all ends – WooCommerce shipping offers some rules that define the general shipping criteria.
Again, in many cases, that’s more than enough.
However, the advanced cases require a lot more than ‘standard’. For example, handling fees are something that’s overlooked often. But it is a critical little thing that needs to be optimized very carefully!
Moreover, the most important part is that you are unable to create (and manage) shipping price that suits your business style.
Although there are plenty of great choices out there, our newest solution WowShipping is more than enough to expand the usability of the ‘bare minimum’ that’s being offered currently by WooCommerce. It adds an extensive layer of functionality to WooCommerce. This video might help understand everything:
The Power of WooCommerce Shipping [What can it do?]
A lot, actually – some might argue that it’s mostly enough for most cases. And that’s true.
So, what exactly can WooCommerce do?
Defining the Shipping Zones
It’s one of the core features of the default WooCommerce shipping. With it, you can:
- Create location-wise shipping areas
- Apply specific charges based on specific shipping areas
- Prioritize shipping locations based on the user’s current location
You can also disable shipping for unmatched areas as well – a neat little feature not everyone can appreciate.
Applying Core Shipping Methods
These are the ‘pioneering’ methods for shipping in WooCommerce – they are what defined core shipping methods in WooCommerce.
Flat Rate Shipping Fees:
- Charge a fixed amount either per order, per item, or per shipping class.
- Customize the rates with simple formulas (e.g., $10 + $2 per item).
Offering Free Shipping:
Offer free shipping for every order. You can use conditions like the following:
- Minimum order amount (e.g., free shipping over $500).
- Specific buyer locations within a specific shipping zone.
*** You need to enable the free shipping method in the zone settings.
Allow Local Pickup:
With WooCommerce, you can allow customers to pick up orders at a designated location (e.g., store or warehouse). You can also add a handling fee for the pickup.
Now, the next question is: Is it enough?
The short answer is, it’s not – especially when you’re dealing with a wide variety (and volume) of products in your WooCommerce store. You need a plugin like WowShipping to be able to offer accurate shipping rates to customers.
Why WooCommerce Needs Empowerment?
There are a couple of great reasons why WooCommerce needs empowerment (it’s why we built WowShipping, of course):
An Old-school Dashboard: Let’s face it, the WooCommerce dashboard is a bit old-school. Although there have been some updates recently, it’s still ‘less-than-functional’.
There’s no general flow to it (not very intuitive) – something you need in today’s day and age. Although it’s not the end of the world, modern users demand a more generalized flow, especially those who have deep pockets.
Limited Shipping Method Options: Although flat rate shipping and free shipping are the core functionalities (and they work for many people), there’s no way to be flexible:
You can’t create advanced conditions for these shipping methods in WooCommerce.
Is that a bad thing? No, it’s not the end of the world – especially if you’re a beginner.
However, if you’re an E-commerce chain, that’s a whole different ball game.
You’ll need to set up shipping prices on the basis of a wide range of criteria – cart total, product weight, product quantity, and product volume are just a few examples.
Furthermore, chaining multiple conditions together isn’t at all possible with regular WooCommerce.
Also, offering the delivery time is something you need to consider as well – another thing WooCommerce cannot do right now, unfortunately.
Rule Visibility and Tax Status: You could do these things with WooCommerce (at least the tax status settings – the available settings, again, are enough for beginners).
However, both these options are kind of limited for advanced use.
Handling Fees: You can handle location-based shipping with WooCommerce in a limited manner.
However, there needs to be a solution for advanced users who can create custom handling fees with a wide array of options. It’s where WooCommerce lacks!
In summary, WooCommerce lacks:
- A general flow for efficient shipping rate manipulation
- Advanced rule management for shipping methods
- Shipping rule visibility
- Advanced setup criteria for handling fees
Any Plugin that Offers Advanced Shipping Management?
Although WooCommerce handles a lot of dependencies for shipping, unfortunately, it lacks scale.
It’s why you need a plugin like WowShipping. The WowShipping plugin doesn’t just ‘mildly’ complement WooCommerce shipping – it helps WooCommerce scale by enhancing its capabilities.
WowShipping handles 90% of the tasks you can do with the WooCommerce shipping – it’s the extra ‘10%’ that makes it scalable.
Here’s how that extra 10% helps WooCommerce scale:
Creating a ‘Flow’ for Creating Shipping Rates (Dedicated Builder)
WowShipping features a dedicated shipping rules builder – it’s what ensures that you ‘flow’ through the system and create shipping rates effectively.
When you’re using it for the first time, you’ll see that the system is set in such a way that it creates a step-by-step approach.
We’ve laid out a system that takes you through each step for creating highly custom shipping rules. It’s the design that makes it a simple experience.
Stack Shipping Rules and Expand Methods
You can create highly customizable shipping rules by stacking them one by one.
Now it’s probably a good time to share extensive use cases of WowShipping. With WooCommerce, you can create ‘general’ shipping rules – the rates apply based on those rules. In some cases, you may need to use specific ‘codes’ to create volume-based shipping.
But, with WowShipping, it’s as simple as selecting the rule. With WowShipping, you can create:
- Cart-based shipping rates (set rules based on the total amount, quantity, width, height, volume, etc.)
- User-role-based shipping (create rules based on user criteria)
- Product-wise shipping (based on product tags, classes, products (s) in cart, and more).
- Attribute and location-based shipping
Here’s a quick snapshot (appearance may change) :
It’s all done using the dynamic And/Or functionality – based on your rules selection, you can improve the ‘usage’ of these rules further using the And/or system in WowShipping.
You can simply keep one shipping rule group or stack multiple shipping rule groups on top of each other. Based on the And/Or functionality, the shipping rules apply!
Many of you familiar with shipping may have a question:
Can you create table rate shipping with it?
Yes, you can. It’s very simple:
- Create the shipping zones and classes first
- Go to the shipping rate section
- Choose the criteria for shipping costs
- Set the minimum and maximum value
- Add multiple rates based on your requirements
This is just a simple example – you can go crazy and be ‘super custom’ with your shipping rates
Advanced Shipping Method Adjustments
WooCommerce has flat and free shipping methods available, on a limited scale.
However, if you need to create flexible shipping rates (as well as flat and free shipping rates for different products), you definitely need WowShipping.
If you have different criteria for different types of products (you can create multiple shipping methods). Although it may be an unlikely scenario, you can definitely do that.
Here’s a quick snapshot (appearance may change) :
Support for Carriers
3rd party carrier integrations is available for both WooCommerce and WowShipping.
However, with WowShipping, the process of integration is simpler. You can do it directly from the dynamic shipping rules builder!
Dedicated Analytics Dashboard
It’s one of the many features that’s ‘unique’ to WowShipping. From the analytics dashboard, you can learn about the following things:
- Your average shipping cost to date
- Frequency-based shipping cost
Using these metrics, you can easily determine what type of shipping rates are ‘really’ working on your WooCommerce store.
A Lot More in Stock…
When it comes to scaling, WowShipping combined with WooCommerce is a powerhouse.
Handling fees, rule visibility, etc., are available with this plugin for WooCommerce. And you can go ‘deeper’ with WowShipping as well.
Who Should Use WowShipping?
Let’s start from the top of the food chain.
If you have hundreds of products and variations, you need something that scales better.
And WowShipping does that for you – from creating your shipping zones to connecting to a third-party shipping carrier, you can do everything with it.
So the idea hear is, WooCommerce gets you started – WowShipping helps you scale!
But, how about the newbies?
WowShipping has a more ‘intuitive’ user flow than WooCommerce. So, if you’re just starting out with WooCommerce, learning it will be ‘harder’.
And WowShipping does 90% of the stuff already – with a more intuitive interface.
The short answer is – it’s 100% suitable. Combined with WooCommerce, it’s going to help you scale a lot better.
Don’t agree with me? Sound off in the comments below:
