7 Best Shipping Plugins for WooCommerce in 2023

Shipping is a big deal in online shopping. For those who run online stores using WooCommerce (one of the most popular e-commerce platforms), handling all the shipping details – like figuring out costs, printing labels, and making sure things get delivered on time – can be a lot to manage. These details are important because they can make customers happy or unhappy.

The default shipping options in WooCommerce can be limited, which is why many store owners choose to install a shipping plugin. These tools make the shipping part easier. They help store owners figure out shipping costs, print out labels quickly, and keep customers updated about their orders.

With so many plugins out there, picking the right one is important. It should fit what the store needs now and also be good for the future as the store grows. This guide is here to help by pointing out the best shipping plugins for WooCommerce, making the shipping process smoother and keeping customers happy.

What are WooCommerce Shipping Plugins?

WooCommerce Shipping Plugins are essential tools integrated into the WooCommerce ecosystem to streamline and enhance the shipping process of online stores. These plugins are designed to offer a range of functionalities, from fetching real-time shipping rates from various carriers to generating and printing shipping labels. They play a pivotal role in ensuring that e-commerce store owners can efficiently import, export, and manage orders, making the shipping process more transparent and user-friendly.

Why Do You Need a WooCommerce Shipping Plugin?

Every eCommerce entrepreneur knows that while making a sale is crucial, ensuring the product reaches its destination is the real finish line. As your store flourishes, the intricacies of shipping can become a daunting task. But a good WooCommerce shipping plugin can turn the challenges into smooth processes. Here is how:

• Spot-On Shipping Rates: Customers appreciate transparency, especially when it comes to costs. A shipping plugin ensures that there are no hidden fees, providing clarity and building trust. This not only enhances the user experience but also reduces cart abandonment rates.
• Hassle-Free Label Printing: Manually creating shipping labels can be time-consuming and prone to errors. A shipping plugin automates this process, ensuring each package has the correct label. This efficiency reduces shipping errors and streamlines the dispatch process, allowing you to handle higher order volumes with ease.
• Stay in the Loop: Communication is key in eCommerce. Customers want to know the status of their orders. With automated notifications, they’re updated at every stage, from dispatch to delivery. This continuous communication enhances customer satisfaction and reduces the number of inquiries about order status.
• Track, Don’t Guess: Providing customers with real-time tracking details not only fosters trust but also empowers them to plan for their deliveries, ensuring a higher rate of successful first-time deliveries.
• Tailored Shipping Options: Every product and customer is unique. Some might prefer express delivery, while others are looking for the most cost-effective option. By offering a range of shipping methods, you cater to diverse needs, enhancing flexibility and customer satisfaction.
• Worldwide, Worry-Free: Global shipping comes with its own set of challenges, from customs documentation to varying delivery standards. A robust shipping plugin simplifies international shipping, ensuring compliance and timely deliveries, no matter the destination.
• Seamless Integrations: Partnering with established shipping services ensures reliability. Integrating with services like DHL or FedEx not only provides access to discounted rates but also guarantees that professionals with a global reach handle your packages.
• Improved Shopping Experience: The end-to-end shopping experience matters. From browsing products to receiving them, every touchpoint impacts customer perception. By ensuring accurate rates, timely updates, and diverse shipping options, you create a seamless shopping journey that encourages repeat business.

How to Choose the Right WooCommerce Shipping Plugin?

Choosing the right WooCommerce shipping plugin for your online store is not just about picking the first one you come across or going with the most popular option. It’s about understanding your store’s specific needs and ensuring the plugin can meet them. Here’s a guide to help you make an informed decision:

• Flexibility is Key: Every online store is unique, and so are its shipping needs. Whether you’re selling handcrafted jewelry or bulky furniture, your shipping requirements will differ. The ideal plugin should offer the flexibility to set custom shipping rates based on various factors like weight, size, quantity, and product type. This ensures that you’re always offering the most accurate and fair shipping rates to your customers.
• Broad Logistics Support: Your customers could be ordering from the next town or from another continent. The right plugin should cater to both scenarios. Look for plugins that support both local and international shipping. This ensures that no matter where your customer is, you can deliver to them.
• Real-time Shipment Tracking: Customers expect to know where their order is at every stage of the delivery process. A plugin that offers real-time shipment tracking can be a game-changer. Not only does it keep your customers informed, but it also builds trust and confidence in your store.
• Accurate Shipping Calculations: Nobody likes hidden costs, especially when they’re checking out. The plugin you choose should calculate shipping costs accurately and display them to the customer during the checkout process. This transparency can reduce cart abandonment rates and lead to higher sales.
• Efficient Label Printing: Time is money, and in the eCommerce business, efficiency can make all the difference. A plugin that automates the label printing process can save you a lot of time and reduce the chances of errors.
• Timely Notifications: Keeping your customers in the loop is essential. From the moment they place an order to the moment it’s delivered, they should be informed. Choose a plugin that sends out automatic notifications at every stage of the shipping process.
• Diverse Shipping Options: Different customers have different needs. Some might need their order delivered urgently, while others might be looking for the most cost-effective option. A good plugin will allow you to offer a range of shipping methods to cater to all these needs.
• Handling Shipment Issues: Even with the best planning, things can go wrong. Packages can get lost, or there can be unexpected delays. The plugin you choose should equip you with the tools to handle these issues efficiently, ensuring customer satisfaction.

Top 7 Shipping Plugins for WooCommerce

1. ELEX USPS Shipping Plugin

ELEXtensions, a leading WordPress and WooCommerce development company, developed the ELEX USPS Shipping Plugin for WooCommerce. The plugin was first released in 2017 and has since become one of the most popular USPS shipping plugins for WooCommerce.

Features

The ELEX USPS Shipping Plugin allows WooCommerce merchants to easily set up and manage USPS shipping for their online stores. It offers a wide range of features and functionality, including:

• Live USPS shipping rates: The plugin calculates live USPS shipping rates for customers based on the weight and dimensions of their order, as well as their shipping address.
• Multiple shipping methods: The plugin supports a wide range of USPS shipping methods, including Priority Mail, First Class Package Service, and Parcel Select Ground.
• Shipping insurance: The plugin allows merchants to offer their customers shipping insurance, which can protect their orders in case they are lost or damaged in transit.
• Package tracking: The plugin provides customers with tracking information for their orders so they can always know where their packages are.
• International shipping: The plugin supports international shipping, so merchants can sell their products to customers all over the world.

• Customizable shipping rules: Merchants can create custom shipping rules to control how shipping rates are calculated. For example, merchants can offer free shipping on orders over a certain amount or offer discounted shipping rates to certain customers.
• Flat rate shipping: Merchants can offer flat rate shipping for certain products or shipping destinations. This can simplify shipping calculations and make it easier for merchants to offer competitive shipping rates.
• Shipping labels: The plugin allows merchants to generate shipping labels directly from their WooCommerce dashboard. This can save merchants time and money.
• Automatic shipping updates: The plugin automatically updates shipping rates and tracking information for orders. This ensures that customers always have the most accurate information about their orders.

Pricing

The ELEX USPS Shipping Plugin is available for $79 for a single site. This fee includes 1 year of support. A 30-day money-back guarantee also backs the plugin.

2. WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping

The WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Plugin is a powerful and flexible shipping plugin for WooCommerce stores. Developed by Woo, this plugin extends WooCommerce’s default shipping options, providing highly customizable shipping rates based on various parameters such as location, price, weight, shipping class, or item count. As of September 2023, the plugin has over 20,000 active installations.

Features

The WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Plugin offers a multitude of features:

• Multiple Shipping Rates: Define multiple shipping rates based on location, price, weight, or item count.
• Flexible Calculation: Offers several types of table rate calculation: Per order, Calculated per item, Calculated per line, Calculated per class.
• Rules Based on Various Parameters: Add rules based on Weight, Number of items, Number of items by class, and Price.
• Intuitive Interface: The user interface has been designed to make the process of adding, duplicating, and removing rates as intuitive as possible.
• Other Features: The plugin offers additional features, such as setting up unlimited shipping services like Standard Shipping and Express Shipping. Shipping can be driven by Country, State, or Zip/Postal Code. Use WooCommerce built-in Shipping Classes, allowing for complex rules.

Pricing

The WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Plugin costs $9.92 per month, billed annually at $119. This includes support details and compatibility updates for a year. They also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee if you are unhappy with their products or service.

3. Table Rate for WooCommerce by Flexible Shipping

The Flexible Shipping for WooCommerce Plugin is a highly advanced shipping plugin for WooCommerce stores. Developed by Octolize, With over 100,000 active installations, it has become a popular choice among WooCommerce users. The plugin allows you to calculate shipping costs based on various parameters such as weight and/or cart total. It can be combined with the PRO version to unlock additional features, making it a comprehensive solution for all your WooCommerce shipping needs.

Features

The Flexible Shipping for WooCommerce Plugin offers a multitude of features:

• Unlimited Shipping Methods and Costs Calculation Rules: Users can create unlimited shipping methods and cost calculation rules.
• Shipping Cost Based on Cart Total and/or Weight: The plugin allows users to calculate shipping costs based on cart total and/or weight.
• Minimum and Maximum Values for Cart Total and/or Weight: Users can set minimum and maximum values for cart total and/or weight.
• Summing Up Costs: The plugin allows summing up the costs of two different rules at the same time, one based on cart total and the second based on weight.
• Free Shipping Over Amount Threshold: Users can offer free shipping over a certain amount threshold.
• Option to Display Selected Shipping Methods Only for Logged-In Users: This feature allows users to display selected shipping methods only for logged-in users.
• PRO Features: The PRO version offers additional features such as shipping class support, shipping costs based on products’ quantity and/or cart line item count, shipping costs based on the product’s length, width, height, and/or maximal dimension, shipping cost based on products (products, product categories, product tags), shipping cost based on user role, enabling/disabling the shipping method based on the Time of the Day and Day of the week, additional costs based on price, weight, dimensional weight, item quantity, cart line item, volume.

Pricing

The Table Rate for WooCommerce by Flexible Shipping offers a free version as well as a PRO version. The PRO version costs $89 per year. This includes priority e-mail support and access to all the PRO features.

4. WooCommerce Advanced Free Shipping

WooCommerce Advanced Shipping is a plugin designed for the WooCommerce platform. It allows online store owners to set up advanced free shipping conditions based on various parameters, ensuring flexibility and customization for their shipping options. The plugin was developed by Jeroen Sormani, a professional WordPress Plugin Developer based in Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands. Jeroen has a solid background in SEO and has been responsible for the development and optimization of numerous websites and webshops. As of now, the plugin has garnered over 50,000+ active installations, indicating its popularity and reliability within the WooCommerce community.

Features

• Advanced Shipping Conditions: Store owners can set up multiple conditions to determine when free shipping is available. This can be based on factors like product weight, cart total, user role, and more.
• Multiple Shipping Methods: Allows the creation of multiple free shipping methods, each with its own set of conditions.
• User-friendly Interface: Designed with a good user experience in mind, making it easy for store owners to configure their shipping settings.
• Compatibility: Works seamlessly with the WooCommerce platform and is compatible with other WooCommerce extensions.

Pricing

The WooCommerce Advanced Free Shipping plugin is available for free on the WordPress plugin repository. However, for those looking for additional features and premium support, there is a Pro version available. The Pro version offers extended functionality, including more advanced conditions and integration options.

5. AfterShip Tracking

AfterShip is a popular order-tracking plugin for WooCommerce. It’s developed by AfterShip and is available on the WordPress plugin repository. The plugin provides an all-in-one solution for WooCommerce order tracking, aiming to enhance the shipping experience and drive customer loyalty and additional sales.

AfterShip allows you to automatically add Tracking Number and Courier fields to your admin panel. Once a shipping order is fulfilled, you can simply add the tracking number and select a shipping provider at WooCommerce. The AfterShip admin portal is available in multiple languages, including German, French, Italian, and Spanish.

Features

AfterShip offers a comprehensive set of features to streamline your order-tracking process:

• All-in-One Order Tracking: Automatically import your tracking numbers to AfterShip, allowing you to get current tracking info for all your shipments from various shipping providers at your WooCommerce store in one place.
• Smart Dashboard: Filter shipments by dates, statuses, carriers, shipping providers, and destination. Sort shipments by various parameters such as “Order Title,” “Last Event,” “Created,” “Order Date,” and “Pickup Date.”
• Automated Email & SMS Notifications: Embed the AfterShip Track Button to allow effortless order tracking for your WooCommerce store. Send shipping & delivery notifications to customers through Email & SMS.
• Branded Order Tracking Page: Automatically generate a tracking page at WooCommerce for each shipment and customize the look & feel.

Pricing

AfterShip offers flexible pricing plans that grow with your business. They have a free plan which includes all basic features. For more advanced features, they offer several paid plans:

• Essentials Plan: Priced at $11 per month for 100 shipments per month. Each extra shipment costs $0.08.
• Pro Plan: Priced at $119 per month for 2,000 shipments per month. Each extra shipment costs $0.08.
• Premium Plan: Priced at $239 per month for 2,000 shipments per month.
• Enterprise Plan: A custom plan built to scale for 25,000+ shipments per month.

6. ELEX EasyPost Shipping plugin

ELEX EasyPost Shipping Plugin for WooCommerce is a WordPress/WooCommerce extension developed by ELEX. This plugin helps to completely automate WooCommerce UPS, WooCommerce USPS, WooCommerce FedEx, and WooCommerce Canada Post shipping using EasyPost APIs. It streamlines the EasyPost shipping integration by providing real-time shipping rates. Once installed and configured with the necessary information, your WordPress/WooCommerce Shop will be ready to ship using USPS, UPS & FedEx using EasyPost API.

Features

ELEX EasyPost Shipping Method Plugin for WooCommerce offers a range of features:

• Live Shipping Rate: Based on the product weight, box dimensions, shipping destination, etc., this plugin fetches USPS, FedEx, UPS, UPS DAP, UPS SurePost & Canada Post postage rates from your EasyPost account for both domestic and international shipping services.
• Print Shipping Labels: You can print shipping labels from within the WooCommerce order admin page.
• Fallback Rate: If the shipping carriers (FedEx, UPS, or USPS) API fails to return any rates, the fallback rate will be applied.
• Residential or Commercial Rates: Choose a real-time rate type as either Residential or Commercial.
• Choose Desired Services: You can enable or disable various FedEx, UPS, and USPS services.

Pricing

The ELEX EasyPost Shipping Method Plugin for WooCommerce is priced at $79.00 for a single site license. Each installation of the plugin will require a license key. The license entitles 1 year of support & updates.

7. Advanced Shipment Tracking for WooCommerce

Advanced Shipment Tracking (AST) is a powerful WooCommerce plugin developed by Zorem. It provides all you need to manage and automate the WooCommerce fulfillment workflow. With AST, you can easily add tracking information and fulfill orders, keep your customers informed, reduce time spent on post-shipping inquiries, and increase overall customer satisfaction.

Features

AST offers a comprehensive set of features to streamline your order-tracking process:

• Optimize the Fulfillment Workflow: AST allows you to rename the label of the WooCommerce “Completed” Order Status to “Shipped” and to enable a custom order status “Partially Shipped” for orders that you ship in separate packages or at different times.
• Tracking Info Widget: Send customers their shipping information and a way to track their orders with a fully customizable responsive widget. The tracking info widget will display in the order status emails and on the View Order page (my account).
• Add Tracking Information to Orders: Easily add tracking information to WooCommerce orders when editing an order or when viewing the orders list on the orders page.
• Add Multiple Tracking Numbers to the Same Order: You can add multiple tracking numbers to the same order.
• Fulfill Orders When Adding Tracking Numbers: AST allows you to fulfill the order and send the shipment information to your customers when adding the tracking information.
• 300+ Shipping Providers with a Predefined Tracking Link: Select your preferred shipping providers from a list of 300+ shipping providers. The tracking link will direct your customers to track their shipments on the shipping provider’s website.
• Shipment Tracking API: Use the Shipment Tracking API endpoint to update the tracking numbers generated by 3rd party services and fulfill orders from external systems.
• Import Tracking Info from CSV Files: In case your warehouse or drop shipper provides tracking information in CSV files, AST provides a quick and easy interface to import multiple tracking numbers to orders in bulk from a CSV so you can avoid the repetitive work of copy & paste tracking numbers into orders.

Pricing

The Advanced Shipment Tracking Pro is priced at $129.00 per year for a single site license. Each installation of the plugin will require a license key. The license entitles 1 year of support & updates.

Sum Up

Choosing the right WooCommerce shipping plugin is essential for any successful online store. The best plugin for you will depend on your specific needs, but the plugins listed above are a great place to start.

If you are looking for a simple and easy-to-use plugin, then WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping is a good option. It allows you to create custom shipping rates based on a variety of factors, such as weight, destination, and product category.

If you need a plugin with more advanced features, then WooCommerce UPS Shipping or WooCommerce USPS Shipping are good options. These plugins allow you to calculate shipping rates directly from UPS or USPS, and they also offer features such as shipping insurance and tracking.

No matter which plugin you choose, make sure to test it thoroughly before launching your store. This will help you to ensure that your customers are able to checkout and receive their products without any problems.

FAQs