Advanced Flat Rate Shipping Method

What do you charge when a cart meets two rules at once?

You create a rate for your city, another for heavy orders and a free shipping one by amount. All goes well until the order that fits all three. That overlap decides what the customer pays, and it is worth settling when you set up shipping.

That is why, in WooCommerce, writing the rules is half the job and deciding which one wins is the other. Advanced Flat Rate Shipping Method, by theDotstore, creates as many flat rate methods as you need and adds master settings with four answers to that clash:

• Charge the minimum of the matching methods.
• Charge the maximum of those methods.
• Let the customer choose, with radio buttons or a drop-down.
• Force all, so the amounts are added together.

What each rule can look at

Each rule combines a parameter, an operator (=, !=, <, <=, >, >=, depending on the case) and a value. Several conditions on one method form a single rule.

• Destination: country, state, postcode and zone.
• Product: name, variation, category, tag and SKU.
• Cart: subtotal before and after discounts, quantity, weight and shipping class.
• Customer: user, role and applied coupon.
• Payment: selected payment method.
• Calendar: start and end dates, plus days or hours of the week.

Tiers, formulas and zones inside each method

Advanced price rules set a parameter, a minimum, a maximum and an amount on the same line. They work for tiers on a product, a category, a tag, the shipping class or the cart total, by quantity, weight or subtotal depending on the case.

The cost field also accepts dynamic parameters:

• [qty]: total items; with 10.00 * [qty], a cart of 5 items pays 50.
• [cost]: subtotal of the items.
• [fee]: a percentage with a limit; [fee percent=10 min_fee=20] charges at least 20, and max_fee sets the upper limit.

Custom zones group countries, states or postcode ranges and are reused across methods, so you do not repeat the list in each rule. Each method also supports:

• A tooltip description and an estimated delivery time.
• Taxability, on or off.
• An amount per additional item, with the apply per quantity option.
• A zero cost for free shipping, across the shop or limited by rules.

Rates you define, with no carrier behind them

The plugin does nothing on activation: until you create methods and rules, the shop stays the same. It applies the amounts you write; live carrier rates and label printing are not among its features. If your real cost changes, the rules have to be updated by hand.

Variations take some patience: to give each variant a different rate, you create one method per variant with its product rule. And with many rules, test several carts before going live, because a mistake here shows up as an odd price at checkout.

Your first shipping method at checkout

You need WooCommerce active. With that, the steps to begin are few:

1. Upload the plugin from Plugins, Add New, and activate it.
2. Create your zones, if you group destinations.
3. Create a method with a name, amount and status.
4. Add the shipping rules and, if needed, the advanced price rules.
5. In the master settings, choose what happens when several methods match.
6. Test real carts in the shop.

Rate tables and road distance

If you think in tables of weight, volume and dimensions, Flexible Shipping Pro configures them without code and has a debug mode that shows which rules fired. Table Rate Shipping calculates per order, item, line or class. And if you charge by the kilometer, Distance Rate Shipping uses the driving route through Google, with an API key of your own.

Specific setup cases

Can I offer free shipping in one city only?

Yes. Create a method with zero cost and a location rule. Without rules, it would be free across the shop.

Can I give wholesale customers a special rate?

Yes, with a condition by user role.

Can seasonal rates be scheduled?

Yes, with start and end dates on the method.

Can free shipping depend on the amount after a coupon?

Yes, use the subtotal after discounts.

Does it work in shops with WPML?

Yes, it is compatible with WPML.

Can I merge several methods into one option?

Yes, they can be combined into one checkout option with a title of its own.