Set Up Your WooCommerce Shipping Rates

Learn how to match your WooCommerce shipping options and rates with Inkthreadable's

Updated over a week ago

Follow this step-by-step guide to configure your WooCommerce store to sell Inkthreadable products to anyone, anywhere in the world.


How do WooCommerce shipping profiles work?

WooCommerce offers multiple methods for handling shipping costs for your customers. We'll use weight-based rules because they allow you to mimic our shipping costs and ensure that customers always cover the postage cost.

If you're feeling creative, nothing is stopping you from setting up your WooCommerce shipping rates to match ours and then adding a few fun touches of your own. For example, you could offer free shipping to the UK for orders over £50 – but we won't cover that in this guide since it wouldn't match our shipping costs.

Shipping costs vary by parcel weight and destination, so you'll be setting up a profile in WooCommerce to match Inkthreadable's pricing structure – easy peasy!

If this all sounds a bit overwhelming, don't panic – by the end of this guide, it'll all make perfect sense, and you won't ever have to do this again.

Let's get to it and set you up with shipping rates for worldwide fulfilment.


Step 1: Install a weight-based shipping plugin

Before you get started, you'll need to install a plugin that allows weight-based shipping.

There are a few options, but the one we recommend is WooCommerce Weight Based Shipping. The basic version is free to use and includes all the necessary features.

The easiest way to install the plug-in is through WordPress. Log in and click Add New under the Plugins heading.

In the search bar, type 'WooCommerce Weight Based Shipping' (or copy/paste) and hit return. The first result should be the one shown above. Click Install.


Step 2: Change your default unit of weight

Next, we will set the weight units of your products to kg/kilogrammes (since this is used for the weight of Inkthreadable products).

Head to your WooCommerce dashboard, and click WooCommerce > Settings to open your store settings.

Under the Products tab, you can change the weight unit. Select kg (for kilogrammes) from the drop-down menu and click the Save Changes button.

Changing these settings changes the default weights for calculating shipping.


Step 3: Assign a weight to WooCommerce products

Since we're using weight-based shipping, you'll also need to make sure your products have weight values assigned to them.

If you're just getting started and don't yet have any products listed in your WooCommerce store, you can skip this step.

Any products exported from Inkthreadable to WooCommerce will automatically have the correct weight values assigned to them, so if you've imported products, you can also skip this step.

We recommend syncing products from Inkthreadable to your store for this reason, and you can always edit the finer details afterwards.

But if you already have some products that you created manually in your WooCommerce store, follow the process in the drop-down below to ensure your shipping is calculated correctly:

Adding product weights.

Editing each product individually would be pretty time-consuming, but WooCommerce has a handy tool to help with that - the Bulk Editor.

To use this tool, navigate to your dashboard and click Products. Then, click the checkbox next to any (or all) of your products, select Edit from the drop-down, and click the Apply button to open the editing menu.

(If you have a lot of products, you should filter down to product types first and then select all of those to edit their weights in bulk. For example, select a category such as t-shirts and then click Edit.)

Any changes you make on this page will be applied to all of the products that you selected.

Under the Weight heading, click the option 'Change to:'.

Then, enter the weight that you'd like to change all of those products to.

The weight of a t-shirt is 100g or 0.1kg, so this is the value we've assigned the t-shirts in the example.

Then, click Apply.

Most products are either 100g (0.1kg) or 200g (0.2kg), but there are some exceptions:

Each product has a weight value assigned to it, and for each parcel shipped, these weights are combined to calculate the accurate shipping cost for any combination of products.

Working this way, you'll never pay too much or too little for shipping, and you can match the rates with Inkthreadable's to keep shipping costs for your customers as low as possible.

Use WooCommerce's bulk editor to assign the appropriate weight value in the table above to each product before moving on to the next step.


Step 4: Creating your WooCommerce shipping rates

Once you've installed the weight-based shipping plugin and assigned weights to each product, we can set your shipping rates.

Before we get started, it's worth mentioning that your shipping rates don't need to match ours. We pass on the cost of shipping to you, and to keep this cost as low as possible, we don't make any profit ourselves from shipping your parcels.

You can charge your customers less to offer them cheaper shipping, more to increase your profit, or nothing if you want to offer free shipping. In each case, we'll still charge you the rates listed on our site.

Please note: the prices in this guide were last updated in March 2023. We always aim to keep this guide updated, but we recommend following the rates from the shipping costs page if you view this in the future.

Add rates for the UK 🇬🇧

Head to WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping.

We must set up shipping zones to enable shipping to all countries before adding the weight-based rates. Click Shipping Zones.

Select Add shipping zone and enter the following details:

  • Zone name: UK Weight Based Shipping

  • Zone regions: United Kingdom (UK)

Then, hit save changes.

Next, click Add shipping method, and select 'Weight based shipping' from the drop-down.

Your zone should look like this:

Then click Edit on the new shipping method you've created to start adding the shipping rules.

On this page, we'll create a rule for each weight bracket available with each shipping method in the UK, starting with Royal Mail 48 Tracked.

Add Royal Mail 48 Tracked Shipping

  • Within your new shipping method, click Add new.

  • Taxable: Yes (if you're charging taxes, or if you're not, set this to No).

  • Label: Royal Mail 48 Tracked

  • Title: Royal Mail 48 Tracked (the keyword in the title is '48 Tracked' and determines the shipping method that your Inkthreadable orders are received on).

  • Destination: All allowed.

  • Order Weight: Above 0, below 0.1kg.

  • Tick "or equal" for both weight values.

  • Scroll to Charges, leaving the Order Subtotal fields blank.

  • Base cost: £2.12

  • Leave the remaining fields blank.

  • Click Close and then Save changes.

Now, you'll need to repeat those steps for several more rates following the table below:

Rate Name

Price

Minimum weight

Maximum weight

Royal Mail 48 Tracked

£3.33

0.101kg

0.699kg

Royal Mail 24 Tracked

£2.76

0kg

0.1kg

Royal Mail 24 Tracked

£4.35

0.101kg

0.699kg

DPD Courier

£11.99

Optional: 0.7kg

6kg

DPD Courier*

£23.98

6.01kg

12kg

*This rate above 6kg+ will rarely be used but may be worth adding if you expect large orders. It covers orders between 61 - 120 x t-shirts or 31 - 60 x hoodies.

You can change the rate names if you wish - however, the words "48" / "24" and "Courier" are keywords and must be included for the order to be received on the correct method via the integration. Learn more about keywords.

Once you're done, it'll look something like this:

Remember to click 'Save changes'. You've now set up your rates for the UK!

Add Europe shipping rates 🇪🇺

Now, return to the Shipping Zones page and click Add shipping zone.

Add zone name Europe Weight Based Shipping.

Click into the Zone regions box. You'll now need to enter each country manually. The list of all European countries is below and, unfortunately, you can't copy/paste this list since you can only enter one country at a time.

Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vatican City.

Click Save changes.

Now, let's add the rates to this zone by clicking Add shipping method. The steps are the same as previous rates, following the table below:

Rate Name

Price

Minimum weight

Maximum weight

Europe Tracked

£5.82

0kg

0.1kg

Europe Tracked

£8.77

0.101kg

0.399kg

Europe Tracked

£12.65

0.4kg

0.699kg

DPD Courier

£23.89

Optional: 0.7kg

6kg

Once you're done, you'll have 4 rates within your Europe zone. Click Save Changes.

Add rates for the USA 🇺🇸

Next, we're going to create a zone for the USA. Return to the Shipping Zones page.

Click Add Shipping Zone. Add zone name USA Weight Based Shipping, and then add the United States under Zone regions.

Then, add the rates to this zone to match the following table.

Rate Name

Price

Minimum weight

Maximum weight

USPS

£7.08

0kg

0.1kg

USPS

£11.64

0.101kg

0.149kg

USPS

£14.89

0.15kg

0.15kg

USPS

£11.64

0.151kg

0.199g

USPS

£16.14

0.2kg

0.399kg

USPS

£18.97

0.4kg

0.499kg

USPS

£23.45

0.5kg

0.599kg

USPS

£23.94

0.6kg

0.699kg

DPD Courier

£37.80

0.7kg

6kg

And you're almost there! Click Save to apply the changes so far.

Don't worry if you notice the rate for 0.15kg is slightly higher than other weight brackets; it's not a mistake! We've ensured these prices are as cost-effective as possible, based on parcel size and weight. This bracket will only apply to single mugs, which cost us more to ship to the USA, than 2 x t-shirts at 200g.

Add rates for Australia 🇦🇺

Next up, we have our dedicated shipping method for Australia.

Click Add Shipping Zone. Add zone name Australia Weight Based Shipping, and then add Australia under Zone regions.

Then, add all rates in line with this table:

Rate Name

Price

Minimum weight

Maximum weight

Australia Tracked

£9.67

0kg

0.1kg

Australia Tracked

£16.75

0.101kg

0.299kg

Australia Tracked

£19.08

0.3kg

0.399kg

Australia Tracked

£23.83

0.4kg

0.699kg

DPD Courier

£37.80

0.7kg

6kg

Add shipping rates for Canada 🇨🇦

Click Add Shipping Zone, enter the zone name Canada Weight Based Shipping and select the Canada region to include all 13 provinces.

Then, follow the process to add rates using the details of this table:

Rate Name

Price

Minimum weight

Maximum weight

Canada Tracked

£7.92

0kg

0.1kg

Canada Tracked

£11.52

0.101kg

0.399kg

Canada Tracked

£12.96

0.4kg

0.699kg

DPD Courier

£37.80

0.7kg

6kg

All we need to do now is update your rates for the rest of the world!

Add shipping rates for the rest of the world 🌍

All remaining countries will be covered under one zone.

Instead of clicking Add shipping zone, this time, we'll click Locations not covered by your other zones.

This zone will automatically be used for any country that isn't in a zone already, aka the rest of the world!

Once you've opened this zone, click the Add shipping method button and follow the rates in this table:

Rate Name

Price

Minimum weight

Maximum weight

Royal Mail Regular

£6.67

0kg

0.1kg

Royal Mail Regular

£13.20

0.101kg

0.399kg

Royal Mail Regular

£17.66

0.4kg

0.699kg

Royal Mail Tracked

£14.90

0kg

0.1kg

Royal Mail Tracked

£20.14

0.101kg

0.399kg

Royal Mail Tracked

£23.34

0.4kg

0.699kg

DPD Courier

£37.80

0.7kg

6kg

Don't forget to hit Save changes to apply the changes.

And that's it. You've now created rates for all services shipping to all destinations!


Double-check your shipping rates 🤓

We recommend reviewing your shipping profile to double-check your condition columns and prices. It's so easy to accidentally type an extra 0 or forget to add a minimum weight, which could cause checkout errors for your customers.

We've provided tables to make it easy for you to check your profiles. Do it now!

WOOHOO! 🎉 Your store is now ready to start shipping worldwide. So, next time you get the message "do you ship to Brazil? 🥹" you can say, "YES, I ship everywhere!". That's pretty amazing, and we can't wait to send your orders.

Want to test out your shipping methods?

At this stage, it's a good idea to add some products to your basket to see the shipping rates in action. Test different product combinations and shipping destinations to ensure your store calculates the prices correctly.

Did this answer your question?