WooCommerce Shipping

With the WooCommerce Shipping plugin you can easily and quickly create ready-to-print shipping labels for USPS & DHL directly in WooCommerce and take advantage of discounted commercial rates.

While this is super helpful, just note this plugin doesn’t provide shipping rates for you customers at checkout. To do that, consider using our own USPS extension.

USPS Shipping Method

$109.00

Get shipping rates from the USPS API which handles both domestic and international parcels.

1. Install the WooCommerce Shipping plugin.
   • Logged into your site, head to Plugins > Add New and search for WooCommerce Shipping.
   • Select Install Now and Activate when prompted to do so.
2. Connect your site to WordPress.com.
   • Follow the prompt to connect your site to your WordPress.com account. This is the same account used on WooCommerce.com.
   • You’ll then be directed back to your site, and a Setup complete banner will show.
   • You’re ready to print labels!

Let’s set your preferences under WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping > WooCommerce Shipping.

First, you can choose a paper size you’d like to print your shipping labels on. This size can either be Label (4″ x 6″) or Letter (8.5″ x 11″). If you’re not sure which size to use, or maybe you have a new printer to test, see the Test Label Printing section below.

Next, be sure to add a card to your WordPress.com account if one isn’t already. If there is one payment method already saved that will be selected for you. If you have more than one saved, choose a default payment method you want to use to pay for shipping labels.

To finish the Shipping Labels section, you have a few preferences around label receipt emails, and previous service & package selection.

• Email label purchase receipts
  • Email the label purchase receipts to your WordPress.com email address
• Remember service selection
  • Save the service selection (USPS Ground, Priority, etc…) from previous transaction.
• Remember package selection
  • Save the package selection (Custom package or Carrier package) from previous transaction.

In the next section you’re able to set your Origin addresses. That does mean you can save more than one to be used when creating shipping labels. These can be saved to help speed up label creation, so be sure to set a default address or two for where you ship from.

Once you’ve made your choices be sure to select Save changes. Let’s now move onto creating a shipping label.

To create a shipping label using WooCommerce Shipping we need to head into an order that needs shipped. Once in an order you’ll see a prompt at the top in the Shipping Label section that notifies you how many items in the order need shipped. Select the Create shipping labels button to get started.

You’ll see a new interface appear to help you progress through each step of creating a label for your shipment.

In the Items section you’ll see the products ordered, the quantity ordered, dimensions, weight, and product price. You’ll have the option here to split the shipment, if for example one product is ready to ship immediately while another needs custom made. Also be sure you answer the “Are you shipping dangerous goods or hazardous materials?” question.

If you answer yes, then reference the linked resources to confirm the mailability of your package

To Split an order into multiple shipments select the Split shipment link where you can choose what products will go into specific shipments. Select the checkbox next to the appropriate products, then the Create new shipment button to split up an order into multiple shipments and labels.

Once split, you can use different packages, and services, as needed. As mentioned earlier, this is useful if you need to ship one product now and others later. Or perhaps one product in an order must use hazardous material shipping while others don’t.

Customs

If you sell internationally and are shipping an order out of your country, you will see a Customs section next. In that section the following fields need filled in.

• Content Type
  • Choose from default options or if choosing Other describe the goods in your package.
• Restriction Type
  • Choose from default options or if choosing Other… describe the restriction your package must have.
• Internal Transaction Number (ITN)
  • Use the provided link to read more about obtaining an ITN
• Product details
  • Description
    • This is required for countries following EU Customs rules
  • HS Tariff Number
    • Read more below about HS Tariff Numbers
  • Value Per Unit
  • Weight Per Unit
  • Origin Country

Moving into the Package section of creating a shipment is where you’ll choose what your product(s) ship in. You can add and save your own custom packages, use carrier provided packages from USPS and DHL, or choose a previously saved package template

Custom packaging

When creating your custom package you can first choose the package type, is it either a Box or Envelope. Next enter the packages length, width, and height.

There is a checkbox beneath those dimenions fields where you can save this custom package as a template to re-use. Provide a name for this package and select Save so you can use this on future orders.

The package you just created can be re-used via the Saved templates section.

If there are no remaining errors or fields needing filled out, you can select Get shipping rates to receive your rates

Carrier package

This lets you use existing packages from either USPS or DHL Express. You can also star a carrier package which will show up in your Saved templates.

Once you’ve set up shipments, selected a package, and verified the total shipment weight is correct, select the Get shipping rates button to see rates you’ll pay for your shipping label.

If this button isn’t selectable, it may just be that the customer’s address needs verified, or another essential is missing from the Essential details to provide section.

Order details

The final steps take place under the Order details section in the sidebar. You’ll see here your store base address, or default Origin address you’d set earlier in the Ship from setting. If you have multiple Origin addresses saved use the dropdown to easily switch between those.

Following that in the Ship to setting will be your customers address they’d entered at checkout. This will likely show an Unverified address warning, select that text to help verify this address. You can also change the shipping address in cases where a customer may request this, etc…

Following this you’ll see the Number of items count, the total Order value, the Shipping type, and Shipping costs the customer had chosen at checkout.

Shipment costs

This shows the service you’ve chosen, aka – USPS – Priority Mail, etc… It’s cost, and the total you’ll pay for your shipping label. You’re able to then choose the paper size to print said label on, select if you want the order marked as completed after purchasing the label, and then you can select the Purchase label or Purchase shipment button to buy your label.

With a shipping label successfully purchased you’ll see a green notice that includes all the wonderful label information. You are able to choose your paper size and then print your actual shipping label to attach to your package. This will open a preview of your label in your browsers print dialogue.

You can print shipping labels via WooCommerce Shipping on any 8.5″ x 11″ paper, and then attach it directly to your package. Or if you have a thermal printer setup you can use the 4″ x 6″ labels, but just to be clear it’s not necessary for printing shipping labels with WooCommerce Shipping.

At the moment, there’s not a built in way to automatically include a return shipping label for your customer. We’d recommend requesting this as a feature and voting on this existing idea.

When purchasing a shipping label via WooCommerce Shipping it will automatically get a tracking number. When viewing a shipping label on an order, there will be a link to view the tracking page.

This tracking number will also be included in the Completed order email that is normally sent to customers. WooCommerce shipping can handle that for you if you’d selected to automatically set the order Completed when purchasing the shipping label. Otherwise, you can manually set the order status to Completed to send that email, including the tracking number, to your customer.

With this feature, you can use the appropriate form from either USPS or DHL, to check availability and costs to have your packages picked up. This can help save you time and money, especially if the pickup is free. See details below for how the pickup feature can work between each provider.

• USPS – Free for packages when scheduled at the same time your mail is delivered by your letter carrier. For scheduling a pickup at a select time and day, you can opt for USPS’s Pickup on Demand® for a fee. 
• DHL Express – Free

If you’ve purchased a label you end up not needing or using, you can request a refund for that purchase shipping label. By selecting Request refund, it will submit a request for a refund from the carrier. The carrier must approve the refund.

You can only request a refund for labels that haven’t been shipped and are still in the pre-transit (the carrier hasn’t received the package). Carriers won’t refund labels that have inducted into their network. Refunds can only be processed within 30 days of the labels being created.

Refunds will take at least 14 days to process for USPS and at least 31 days for DHL. Carriers will monitor its network for a period of time to ensure that the label didn’t end up in the mail stream.

You can find more information on USPS’s refund policy on the USPS site.

If you’re having an issue with WooCommerce Shipping, say rates aren’t appearing when expected, there are a few troubleshooting tools to use under WooCommerce > Status > WooCommerce Shipping.

In this Health section you can get a quick glance at the connection status for WooCommerce, the site’s connection to WordPress.com, and the freshness of the WooCommerce Shipping service data. This will help start

You can first check the for system status page displays issues that could cause WooCommerce Shipping stop functioning and contains helpful debug information, plus links to get further assistance.

When debug is enabled, you’ll see helpful troubleshooting messages on the Cart and Checkout:

Do you still have questions and need assistance? 

• Get in touch with a Happiness Engineer via our Help Desk. We provide support for extensions developed by and/or sold on WooCommerce.com, and Jetpack/WordPress.com customers.
• If you are not a customer, we recommend finding help on the WooCommerce Support Forum or hiring a WooExpert agency. They are trusted agencies with a proven track record of building highly customized, scalable online stores. Learn more about WooExpert agencies.