Surely but slowly online shopping is replacing in-store shopping. It is much easier to order wanted items and wait for them to come to your doorstep than to actually go and purchase them yourself.

If you are thinking of launching an online store of your own, it could quickly start being a little bit overwhelming considering how many eCommerce platforms are available. That is why, to ease the strain at least a little bit, in this article, I would like to present to you WooComerce and its top 5 shipping plugins.

What exactly is WooCommerce

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a free plugin that allows you to build an eCommerce store using WordPress. It easily takes your already existing WordPress site and turns it into a full-functioning eCommerce store, without any hard work. No matter the size of your shop or your budget, it is open-source and freely available, and that is one of the main reasons why it is so popular.

There are no rules on what you can sell on WooCommerce, but the most popular are physical products like T-Shirts, jewelry, etc. But selling digital products, charging for appointments, reservations, and so on, is also possible with WooCommerce.

You could even go as far as to display customized social proof notifications for purchases, registrations, etc., using something like the Evidence platform. This will allow you to capitalize off of FOMO, or in other words, boost your sales!

Evidence

Now, you are probably wondering why is WooCommerce so popular compared to other plugins. The first and the biggest reason is: IT IS FREE, and the WordPress software is also free. But even though it is free you still have to buy a domain and pay for hosting services.

The second reason why it is so popular is that WooCommerce is a regular user-friendly plugin, which means you do not have to be a professional developer to know your way around WooCommerce. And also, one of its many advantages being that it works on all devices, which is important considering the number of mobile device users you will have.

These represent some of the main reasons, why WooCommerce is the most popular way of creating eCommerce sites worldwide. Now, I would like to talk about WooCommerce plugins, what they are used for, and present you the top 5 WooCommerce shipping plugins. But firstly, let’s talk about what plugins even are.

What are shipping plugins

Plugins represent an additional functionality to an already existing website. Using plugins it is possible to do anything on your WordPress site. Even if the feature is not available by default in WordPress, there is a plugin to use that will enable the wanted feature. And there are more than 48.000 free plugins available in the WordPress directory.

In a way, plugins are small pieces of software, which run on top of the WordPress software, making every single one of your wishes possible. Shipping plugins, to be exact, allow you to create different shipping options for your online store, making the shipping easier and smoother, international shipping possible, and also linking your WooCommerce store with many popular shipping services like DHL.

Now, let’s list some of the most popular WooCommerce shipping plugins.

DHL for WooCommerce

DHL for WooCommerce

Want to incorporate DHL shipping services into your WooCommerce store? This is the right plugin for that. It offers flexible and powerful features and is specially optimized for product delivery processes.

It allows store owners to easily access DHL shipping rates, print out DHL shipping labels, and provides tracking information. It also helps store owners in handling international shipping, in whichever country DHL services are available.

Some of its features include fast and easy creation of labels, automatic receiving of tracking codes, and printing out return labels so that a customer can easily return the shipment if not satisfied. The plugin also supports DHL eCommerce and DHL Paket service making every type of shipping available, and you can choose the required service based on your location.

WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping

WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping

It is believed that WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping is the easiest table rate shipping plugin. It extends WooCommerce’s default shipping options giving it highly customizable shipping options, and defining multiple shipping rates based on location, price, weight, and item count.

The table rates can be calculated using different methods such as per order, item, or shipping class. You will be able to create multiple table rates for each of your shipping zones, and you can apply shipping rates differently based on your changing store strategies.

Also, the plugin offers an intuitive interface to help you configure complicated shipping rules effectively.

ELEX Hide WooCommerce Shipping Methods

ELEX Hide WooCommerce Shipping Methods

This free plugin allows you to hide certain shipping methods using filters. You can hide WooCommerce default shipping methods and also third-party shipping services like DHL, USPS, FedEx, etc.

Some of its features include hiding shipping methods based on shipping classes, order weight, or other shipping methods. For example, hiding other shipping methods when free shipping is available.

WooCommerce Weight Based Shipping

WooCommerce Weight Based Shipping

This plugin is the most ideal and preferred way of calculating the shipping costs of a physical product, which is very useful if you have more products that vary significantly by weight.

To accurately calculate shipping costs, measuring the products based on their weight, dimensions, and other factors is required, which will eventually affect the final costs. And beyond a defined range, it is possible to define the shipping rate per weight unit. Also, there is no limit on the shipping rules you can configure with this plugin.

Order Delivery Date for WooCommerce

Order Delivery Date for WooCommerce

An important aspect of the shipping experience for customers includes knowing when exactly their package will be with them, but this also helps store owners not to miss an order. This plugin allows customers to choose a delivery date on the checkout page, which reduces cart abandonment by 50%.

This plugin also lets you configure the minimum time required for delivery and display the days you will not be delivering (these days could be set as holidays). On top of that, delivery can be disabled for virtual or featured products.

Conclusion

In this article, we presented you with the top 5 WooCommerce shipping plugins. Depending on your business, you may not need all the plugins mentioned, but there is no harm in downloading them and giving them a try since they are all free!

Also, we hope this article helped you understand what shipping plugins are, and how they affect shipping management.