DHL is one of the leading global logistics companies known for offering a wide range of shipping services including express delivery, freight, and supply chain solutions.
Integrating DHL services into WooCommerce is a great way to easily and efficiently manage all the shipping for your WordPress site.
So in this article, we will talk about the ELEX WooCommerce DHL Express / eCommerce / Paket Shipping Plugin with Print Label and
ReachShip Multi-Carrier & Conditional WooCommerce Shipping Plugin and what makes them the best free WooCommerce DHL shipping plugin.
WooCommerce Shipping Challenges
WooCommerce is perhaps one of the best WordPress plugins available. It has a suite of tools and settings that help configure WordPress as an e-commerce site. This also includes shipping. While WordPress provides configurable Shipping Zones and classes, by which you can set up shipping for orders, it falls short. For starters, there is no support for International Shipping Carrier methods like DHL Express. You cannot assign these methods to the Shipping Zones or Shipping Classes as well.
The DHL plugin helps alleviate these issues by providing a seamless integration of DHL services like Express, Paket, and E-commerce.
Why Use DHL for WooCommerce?
Global Reach: DHL has an extensive network that allows businesses to ship worldwide.
Reliable delivery: DHL has express services with this they ensure the timely and secure delivery of packages.
Tracking Services: DHL provides real-time tracking for the shipper as well as the customer.
Customs handling: DHL handles international shipping issues such as customs clearance and duties.
Sustainability: DHL is committed to eco-friendly shipping practices.
Advantages of WooCommerce DHL Shipping
Compared to other shipping carriers like FedEx and UPS, DHL has the definitive advantage. DHL helps simplify shipping greatly by providing a single point of contact for all your WooCommerce shipping. Moreover, DHL has an experienced International Help Desk for round-the-clock shipping support.
DHL also has more international hubs than its competition and can quite quote a shipment using only the package weight, country name, and dimensions.
ELEX WooCommerce DHL Express / eCommerce / Paket Shipping Plugin with Print Label
The ELEX WooCommerce DHL Express / eCommerce / Paket Shipping Plugin with Print Label helps to seamlessly integrate DHL Express, DHL Paket, and DHL E-commerce shipping services and products into WooCommerce.
It is very easy to integrate the ELEX WooCommerce DHL Shipping plugin with your WooCommerce site.
Using this plugin you can:
- Access real-time rates from DHL Express, DHL Paket, and DHL Ecommerce.
- Print shipping as well as return labels.
- Print Archive Air Waybill and Commercial Invoice.
- Track shipments.
- Pack items into custom boxes.
- Offer discounts or add a markup on shipping rates, with Price adjustments.
- Ensure packages with insurance amount.
- Generate bulk shipments and much more!
What’s more, the three DHL Services can be separately configured. You can access the settings from your WordPress Dashboard > Plugins > Installed Plugins > ELEX DHL Shipping Plugin> DHL Express/DHL Paket/DHL eCommerce.
1. Display Live Shipping Rates from DHL
The plugin lets you choose to enable or disable the displaying of DHL Live Shipping rates on the cart page. Depending on the weight(automatically pulled from WooCommerce), the destination country, and the sender country, the plugin sends an API request to DHL. The return live rates are then shown to the customer.
This lets the customer choose which service they want based on the shipping cost.
2. Enable WooCommerce DHL Shipping Insurance
DHL has an unrivaled network of customs brokerage offices across the globe. Moreover, its efficient brokerage, clearance, and compliance service is geared toward making the customs process simple. DHL not only moves your goods seamlessly across international borders but also ensures complete security and provides insurance against unforeseen events.
What’s more, you can even select the countries that you wish to enable shipping insurance for.
3. Shipping Labels
This plugin lets you enable or disable Shipping Labels. Using this feature you can generate Shipping Labels from the order Admin page. Disabling it, will hide the label creation option.
What’s more, the plugin also comes with a slew of options to further customize shipping label generation. You can choose between 3 formats for the shipping labels: PDF Output, ZPL2 Output, and EPL2 Output.
The plugin also provides us with over 10 options for the printing size of shipping labels.
4. Show/Hide DHL Services
ELEX WooCommerce DHL Express / eCommerce / Paket Shipping Plugin with Print Label lets you choose to hide or show DHL services to customers.
The plugin lets us enable and configure estimated delivery times for each WooCommerce DHL shipping service available. You will have to choose the working days for your store for the delivery date calculation to work though.
You can also choose to enable or disable DHL account rates, display a breakdown of the charges, or show only the Cheapest Rates to customers.
5. Shipping Services and Price Adjustments
The plugin lets owners select and configure the shipping rates from DHL Express, DHL Paket, and DHL e-commerce as well.
From DHL Express you can pick from over 20 shipping services to enable your store. Additionally, you can easily also fully configure the price of the service as well. The plugin allows for either increasing or decreasing the rates by a flat amount or by a percentage.
This lets you account for surges in currency value, handling, and packaging costs as well as set up discounted prices for promotional sales. Moreover, shipping services from DHL E-commerce can be enabled and configured for WooCommerce in the same way.
6. Shipment Tracking
Shipment tracking is an extremely nice feature to have if you’re an online retail store. Your customers can track their packages by themselves. The plugin also lets you enable or disable DHL shipment tracking.
The tracking number returned from DHL while generating the label will be added to the order notes and will be sent as part of the order completion email. A visual representation of tracking status can be seen in the Order edit page by Admin and in the Order’s section of the customer’s My-Account page. The tracking information shows the current status of the shipment in transit.
7. Parcel Packaging
ELEX DHL plugin even lets you configure how your parcels are packaged. It comes with three options for this:
- Pack items individually: This is the default method. Pack every item in the order into an individual box. Moreover, you can pick the type of DHL box used to pack the item. Standard DHL Boxes, DHL flyers, and Your pack are available.
- Pack into boxes with weights and dimensions: This packages all items in an order based on the item weights and dimensions. You need to provide the dimensions of the box including the outer and inner height, length, and width. What’s more, you can give the maximum weight of the box and set the package type as well.
- Weight-based: Using this option you can set heavier items to be packaged first, lighter items to be packaged first, or packs purely divided by weight. This requires the Maximum Packing weight of the box to be entered.
8. Pickup Request
The plugin allows you to place a parcel pickup request to DHL while creating shipments. You can specify the desired pickup day, time, and contact details. After successfully placing the pickup request, the store owner will get a unique booking number. This greatly simplifies the shipping process and is one of the major benefits of WooCommerce DHL shipping.
The DHL personnel will visit your store location, help you with the packaging if it’s needed, and will ship it. Of course, WooCommerce stores that ship in large volumes stand to benefit the most.
9. Bulk Printing Shipping Labels
Using the add-on you can simplify the process of generation shipping labels in bulk. The plugin uses the iLovePDF API to generate consolidated PDFs that contain multiple shipping labels. You can choose orders you wish to be included in the consolidated PDF, by selecting the order IDs.
You can also generate a consolidated Shipping label PDF for a date range that you can set.
10. Auto Generate Email Notifications
The DHL Express Auto-generate and Email labels Add-On automatically creates shipments, generates shipping labels, and sends email notifications with the shipping label, for you and your customers. This saves you time on manually generating shipping labels.
11. Return Labels
The plugin allows store owners to easily create and manage return shipping labels, providing a seamless return process for customers.
The plugin supports the creation of return shipping labels, which can be printed and sent to customers to return their packages. Merchants can generate return labels directly from their WooCommerce admin panel, simplifying the return process.
You can configure the plugin to automatically generate a return label whenever a shipment label is created.
If you wish to return a package, you should click on ‘Process Return Shipment’.
Then click on the checkbox next to the product you wish to return and click on ‘Generate Return Packages’.
Navigate to ‘Create Return Shipment’ and click on it.
Your return label will then be generated, you have to click on ‘Return Label’ to download it.
ReachShip Multi-Carrier & Conditional WooCommerce Shipping Plugin
The ReachShip plugin is a comprehensive shipping solution designed to integrate with WooCommerce, allowing businesses to streamline their shipping processes. It offers real-time shipping rates, label generation, and tracking information from major carriers like UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL and Australia Post.
Here are some key features of the ReachShip plugin:
1. Real-Time Shipping Rates
The plugin fetches real-time shipping rates from various carriers based on the package weight, dimensions, and destination. This helps customers see accurate shipping costs at checkout.
2. Shipping Label Generation
With ReachShip, businesses can automatically generate shipping labels for the supported carriers, saving time and ensuring accurate shipping details.
3. Shipment Tracking
The plugin offers integrated shipment tracking, allowing customers to track their orders directly from the WooCommerce store. Tracking information is automatically updated, providing transparency to both the seller and the buyer.
4. Conditional Shipping
The plugin offers conditional shipping to configure shipping rates based on specific conditions. These conditions includes product weight, destination, cart value, shipping class etc.
5. Multi-Carrier Support
ReachShip supports multiple shipping carriers like UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL and Australia Post, allowing businesses to choose the most cost-effective or fastest shipping option for each order. This flexibility enhances the shipping process for businesses dealing with both local and international shipping.
6. Customizable Shipping Options
The plugin allows store owners to customize shipping methods and options, enabling them to offer free shipping, flat rates, or custom rates based on specific conditions like product weight or order value.
7. Automation Features
It includes automation tools like bulk label printing and automatic order fulfillment, helping businesses save time and reduce manual errors in shipping management.
8. International Shipping Support
The plugin simplifies international shipping by calculating duties, taxes, and import fees. This helps businesses and customers avoid unexpected costs and ensures smoother cross-border transactions.
9. Integration with WooCommerce
As a WooCommerce extension, it integrates seamlessly with the platform, allowing store owners to manage their entire shipping process directly from their WooCommerce dashboard.
The Last Shot
We have gone over the benefits of integrating DHL into WooCommerce and the features of plugins like ELEX WooCommerce DHL Express / eCommerce / Paket Shipping Plugin with Print Label and ReachShip Multi-Carrier & Conditional WooCommerce Shipping Plugin best free WooCommerce DHL Shipping plugins. You get features like real-time rates from DHL Express service, DHL Estimated Delivery Times, Breakdown charges for customers on the checkout page, option to show only DHL Account Rates and more.
FAQs
- Do I need a DHL account to use a WooCommerce DHL Shipping Plugin?
Yes, most plugins require you to have a DHL account to integrate DHL shipping services into your store. The plugin will typically ask for your account credentials during setup. - Can I use a free WooCommerce DHL Shipping plugin for international shipping?
Yes, most free DHL shipping plugins support both domestic and international shipping, depending on the services provided by DHL in your region. However, some advanced features for international shipping may require upgrading to a premium version. - What are the limitations of free WooCommerce DHL Shipping plugins?
Free versions often have limited features such as restricted access to advanced tracking, multi-shipping options, and custom shipping rules. For full functionality, upgrading to the premium version is usually required. - Can I print shipping labels using a free DHL shipping plugin?
Yes, many free DHL shipping plugins allow you to print shipping labels directly from your WooCommerce dashboard, although the number of features related to label customization may vary. - Do free plugins offer customer support?
Free plugins often have limited customer support. You might rely on documentation or community forums. Premium versions generally offer dedicated customer support.
Further Reading
-
7 Best DHL Shipping Plugins for Rates & Label Printing (Free & Premium)
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DHL Locations & Services: How to find DHL locations near you?