Set up Quantity-based Flat Rate Shipping on WooCommerce

WooCommerce stores help online businesses sell their goods efficiently. With the user-friendliness of the WordPress-based platform and the feature-richness of the WooCommerce-related plugins, you can always attract a good number of buyers, and retain them. One such feature is the one that lets you add quantity-based flat-rate Shipping methods for your online business.

Obviously, this capability is of extreme importance. So, in this article, we will tell you:

• Which business model needs this efficiency for their WooCommerce Store?
• Is it essential, or good for your business?
• How to enable it for your Shop?
• Examples of setting up quality-based flat rate shipping on WooCommerce

Note: This guide is dedicated to applying a quantity-based flat rate shipping fee for WooCommerce. In case you want to charge a quantity-based extra fee instead of a shipping fee, read this article.

Which Business Model(s) require Quantity-based Flat Rate Shipping on WooCommerce?

Whenever a business ships products by bundling (which is the case with most businesses), the business owner wants the shipping charges to be set as per the quantity of that bundle. For example, you may want to sell products as per the following scenarios:

• The shipping charge for 1 t-shirt is $2, while for 10 t-shirts – it is zero i.e. free shipping.
• The shipping charge for one piece of a cell phone is $10 all over the US, and for every extra handset, you need to pay $5 extra.
• Shipping costs for a dozen coffee mugs are $6, 2 dozen coffee mugs are $10, and 3+ dozen coffee mugs are $15.
• Buy two products of the same type and get one item free. And for that item, the shipping cost is also zero.

While reading these cases, you must have thought that your eCommerce business also needs to implement similar conditions to attract buyers. If not yet done, you might be thinking it could help you gain more customers. Isn’t it?

So, the crux of the whole discussion is – Be it any business model if you are selling goods and have bulk-buyers (or if you want bulk-buyers), then your shop must have quantity-based flat rate shipping methods to woo customers. This, in turn, makes a perfect marketing strategy and helps businesses improve their sales stats.

Is it Essential or Good for My Business?

As we’d said in the previous section, deploying quantity-based flat-rate shipping are big-time help in attracting buyers. At the same time, it could prove a perfect amplifier by boosting the number of products being purchased by shoppers.

Customers love discounts, and in order to save some bucks, they may always increase their budget and buy extra. Therefore, giving quantity-based discounts enhances your chances of selling the products/items in more quantity. So, what should we call it – good or essential? Well, you decide on your own.

How to Configure WooCommerce Flat Rate Shipping Based on Quantity?

It is not advised to go for custom WooCommerce development and build a solution from scratch because:

• It is costly
• Time-consuming
• The outcome may or may not be very promising
• The newly-developed feature won’t be a comprehensive flat-rate shipping solution
• There are pre-built plugins already available

Hope, we have given you enough reasons. Now is the time to introduce you to the perfect solution for your problem.

We are talking about the Advanced Flat Rate Shipping Plugin for WooCommerce.

This plugin lets WooCommerce shop owners add all types of quantity-based flat-rate shipping methods to their stores. Starting from setting prices for product bundles that have different numbers of items to creating location-wise product quantity-based flat rate shipping rules – there is nothing you cannot do while the Advanced Flat Rate Shipping Plugin is by your side.

Not just that, this WooCommerce extension also allows adding a fixed shipping fee to each next item, in order to permit the sellers to apply more realistic automated shipping fees for their stores.

In fact, the Advanced Flat Rate Shipping Plugin has dozens of capabilities other than creating quantity-based flat rate shipping methods, but it is out of scope to discuss that all. However, you can visit the product page or go to the live demo if you want to explore its full potential.

Configuring this plugin for your WooCommerce store is very easy. Let us tell you the process step-by-step:

1. In Dot Store, find the advanced flat rate shipping for the WooCommerce Pro plugin. Alternatively, you may also look for the link to this plugin in the previous paragraph.
2. After opening the plugin page, select the subscription type and license type as per your requirement.
3. Click on ‘buy now’ and follow the instructions given.
4. After completing the purchase of this premium WooCommerce plugin, you will be able to download it from your DotStore account dashboard, or from the link emailed to you.
5. Now, open your eCommerce shop’s admin dashboard and navigate to Plugin > New Plugin.
6. Upload the downloaded zip file to your WooCommerce store.
7. In the place for the activation key, enter the key’s value as provided to you after purchase.
8. Once it’s saved successfully, you will be able to add a quantity-based flat rate shipping fee to your store.

Congrats! You have successfully configured the needed WooCommerce plugin. If not, you may look for detailed instructions on the given link.

Using Quantity-based Flat Rate Shipping Methods for your eCommerce Store – Explained through Examples

Now that you understand when it is essential to add quantity-based flat rate shipping methods for WooCommerce and what the prerequisites of configuring it for your store are, it is time to move ahead. In this section, we will be practically creating some quantity-based flat-rate shipping fees that your WooCommerce shop might need.

Note: We are going to configure the needed settings in each case through the plugin we’d picked for this guide i.e. Advanced Flat Rate Shipping Plugin. If you’ve installed the plugin with your WooCommerce store already, you may follow the steps with us. Otherwise, you can go to the plugin demo from the product page or the above link. There, you can try your hands on this powerful extension.

Case 1 – Fixing Cart Quantity-based Shipping Fee for a Country

Let us consider that you are selling in a new territory – Algeria. For shipping the products to this country, you want your buyers to pay $50 whenever they buy 50+ items. Your crockery shop needs to implement this change as soon as possible, in order to approve the operations related to this scenario.

Here’s how to do it:

• Go to the plugin dashboard by clicking on ‘Advanced Flat Rate Shipping for WooCommerce Pro’. This option must be available in the left-sidebar of your website’s admin dashboard.
• Click on ‘Add Shipping Method’ and give your shipping method a memorable title. Alongside this, add an understandable name for the public to improve transparency regarding why they are paying the fee applied. Thereafter, specify the shipping fee, which is $50 for this case.

• Now, specify the delivery-related information and other details if applicable.
• Remember, you still have to apply the conditions related to the feel applied. For this, scroll down and find ‘Shipping method Rules’ section.
• So first, we will apply a country-related condition and specify that this rule is for ‘Algeria’. Next, specify the cart quantity to be greater than or equals to 50. The rules will appear as under –

• Save settings and exit.

Case 2 – Fixing Product Quantity-based Shipping Fee for the Whole Shop

There are many times when your giant multi-product eCommerce shop sells to just one location and has some products with similar properties. In this case, you do not require having different shipping rates for different products (of the same type). However, you may want to fix the price of shipping operation as per the number of products purchased.

Here’s how to do it:

• Go to the plugin dashboard by clicking on ‘Advanced Flat Rate Shipping for WooCommerce Pro’. This option must be available in the left-sidebar of your website’s admin dashboard.
• Click on ‘Add Shipping Method’ and give your shipping method a memorizable title. Alongside this, add an understandable name for the public to improve transparency regarding why they are paying the fee applied.
• Add the shipping fee (let’s say $20).
• Now, let’s create a few rules, such as — the product name is a t-shirt or hoodie and the quantity is more than 30.

Similarly, you may create more such shipping methods and method rules to specify other conditions and save each method.

Case 3 – Increasing the Shipping Fee by a fixed/ amount as per the cart/product quantity

If you own an online clothing shop and the shipping fee for one t-shirt is $1, will it be justifiable if your customer has to pay $20 to buy 20 t-shirts?

Obviously, not.

The advanced option lets you add two values to end this issue:

• One – the shipping price for one item on the cart.
• Two – the increment value that has to be added for each extra item.

So, if you want to charge $1 for the shipping of one t-shirt, $1.1 for the shipping of 2 t-shirts (increment per item by $0.1), $2 for the shipping of 11 t-shirts, and so on, then it is possible.

Here’s how to do it:

• Go to the plugin dashboard by clicking on ‘Advanced Flat Rate Shipping for WooCommerce Pro’. This option must be available in the left-sidebar of your website’s admin dashboard.
• Click on ‘Add Shipping Method’ and give your shipping method a memorable title. Alongside this, add an understandable name for the public to improve transparency regarding why they are paying the fee applied.
• Add shipping fee as $1 (base value). Now, tick the box with the value ‘Apply per Quality’. Because the price has to be applied for a product (t-shirt), select ‘product-based’ and the ‘fee per additional quantity’ in this case will be $0.1.

• In the end, create the required rules for product and quantity and save settings.

Case 4 – Applying Quantity-based Free Shipping for the Customer’s Cart

To promote bulk-buying, giving a free shipping facility is the best way. For example – you can run a campaign saying to buy 10 tables and pay no money for their shipping. The customers, willing to buy 8 or 9 times this product type, will probably end up buying 10 items, increasing the order value for you. And why not? Everyone loves saving money.

Here’s how to do it:

• Go to the plugin dashboard by clicking on ‘Advanced Flat Rate Shipping for WooCommerce Pro’. This option must be available in the left-sidebar of your website’s admin dashboard.
• Click on ‘Add Shipping Method’ and give your shipping method a memorable title. Alongside this, add an understandable name for the public to improve transparency regarding why they are paying the fee applied.
• In the shipping charge field, enter the value as 0 (zero).

• In the end, create all the shipping method rules that you want to apply in this case, such as one for the product name, and one for the quantity.
• Save settings and check whether the new setting is working with your cart or not.

Case 5 – Creating Table-rate Quantity-based Shipping Fee for Your Shop

Do you know how table-rate shipping works? If not, go through this detailed blog.

In simple words, table-rate shipping is all about creating a table of shipping rates, applicable for the ranges mentioned in the table. For instance, you can apply $10 as the shipping fee for 0 to 10 mixers, $15 as the shipping fee for 11 to 20 mixers, and $22 as the shipping fee for 21+ mixers being sold.

The advanced flat rate plugin has an ‘Advanced Rules’ option for making this kind of scenario work.

Here’s how to do it:

• Go to the plugin dashboard by clicking on ‘Advanced Flat Rate Shipping for WooCommerce Pro’. This option must be available in the left-sidebar of your website’s admin dashboard.
• Click on ‘Add Shipping Method’ and give your shipping method a memorable title. Alongside this, add an understandable name for the public to improve transparency regarding why they are paying the fee applied.
• Now, specify any value of shipping fee for this method, as this value won’t be applied, or will be applied for the conditions not specified in the table.
• Creating the needed shipping method rules (is applicable).
• Enable ‘Advanced Rules’. It will render a new table in front of you. Through this section, you can create table-rate shipping methods related to the costs of products, product subtotal, cart subtotal, category, product weight, cart weight, shipping class subtotal, and cart quantity.
• In the end, create the rule as enlisted –

• Save settings.

Using the Advanced Flat Rate Shipping plugin for WooCommerce, you can create as many shipping methods as per your shop’s needs. In each shipping method, WooCommerce store owners can add any number of shipping method rules and advanced rules. In short, this plugin lets you add any type of condition to your shop when it is related to the flat rate shipping.

For the small requirements related to flat rate shipping methods, you can also utilize the free version of this plugin. However, for the quantity-based advanced rules and other complex implementations related to flat-rate shipping, you will still need its premium version.

Final Words!

Modern eCommerce stores cannot run while picking age-old marketing tactics. They need dozens of ways to lure buyers. Giving discounts on the shipping fee as per the product or cart quantity is one such way.

This WooCommerce feature makes a perfect wooing weapon for your online shop, increasing the sales for you. So, whenever applicable, try deploying a quantity-based flat rate shipping method. The simplest possible path for doing so, i.e. Advanced Flat Rate Shipping Plugin, is talked about in this article.

Got queries? Ask DotStore representatives by commenting below, or send us direct queries through email or contact form.

FAQs

How do I change shipping based on quantity in WooCommerce?

To change the shipping cost based on the quantity of items, you can use the Advanced Flat Rate Shipping Plugin by DotStore. This plugin allows you to easily set up quantity-based shipping rules, such as charging a different shipping rate when a certain quantity threshold in the cart is reached.

How do I set up flat-rate shipping in WooCommerce?

Flat rate shipping can be configured in WooCommerce by default using Shipping Zones. However, if you require advanced control over flat rate shipping conditions such as creating location-specific or product quantity-based rules, using an advanced plugin like the Flat Rate Shipping Plugin by DotStore becomes necessary.

What are the different types of shipping in WooCommerce?

WooCommerce supports four basic types of shipping methods: Flat Rate, Free Shipping, Local Pickup, and Shipping Class or shipping zone. 

Is WooCommerce shipping based on weight and size?

By default, WooCommerce does not directly provide settings for shipping based on weight and size. However, you can integrate with shipping carriers who can calculate rates based on these factors.