Not Happy with WooCommerce Shipping & Tax (WooCommerce Services)? Better Alternatives

WooCommerce Shipping & Tax, previously known as WooCommerce Services, helps to easily set up a WooCommerce store by taking care of tax calculation, payment processing setup, and shipping label printing. Setting up a store will be quickly done with just one single plugin i.e. the WooCommerce Shipping and Tax (WooCommerce Services).

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WooCommerce Shipping & Tax

Using WooCommerce Shipping & Tax plugin, you can set up the store online quickly. It helps to take care of the payment processing setup, the tax payments and setup, and the label printing for shipping processes. The plugin helps to

Accept PayPal express checkout payments by providing just your email address.
You can create automated tax options to ease the checkout process.
Offer lower rates for shipping.
Print shipping labels for DHL and USPS at a discount rate.

You can find more about setting the plugin on the product page.

How to Set up Shipping Labels on your WooCommerce store with the WooCommerce Shipping & Tax plugin?

To set up the shipping labels is easier with the WooCommerce Shipping & Tax plugin. After installing the plugin go to WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping > WooCommerce Shipping & Tax > Shipping Labels.

Here you can set the paper size from the drop-down as per your choice.

The next thing you need to set is the payment options. You must add any one payment option for getting the labels printed.

You can choose the existing card if you have already used it or even opt to add another one.

You need to enable the email receipts options to allow the labels to be mailed to the merchant.

Set up WooCommerce Packages

The plugin allows you to select shipping carrier’s boxes, or define custom boxes, envelopes, and other packaging that are used for shipping.

Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping > WooCommerce Shipping & Tax > Packages.

You can click Add Package. Upon doing so, you can add the type of package, its name, dimensions, and weight, and then add the package.

You also have options to choose the carrier provided packaging options.

Here as you can see, the list of boxes provided by the shipping carriers are listed.

If you choose Flat rate packaging, then by default the flat rate services will be listed.

How to get your shipping labels printed?

WooCommerce Shipping supports printing USPS and DHL Express Worldwide labels. To print the shipping labels you need to go to WooCommerce > Orders and choose the order to fulfill. On the order screen you can find a meta box at the top as shown in the image below:

Upon clicking the Create Shipping label button, you need to enter the full address of both origin and destination.

Click Verify Address. And confirm the package details by choosing from the drop-down.

Here once the package is chosen, click Use these packages.

Once done, you need to choose the shipping rate and also whether an adult signature is required or not.

Once done, you can go for purchasing the shipping label, or sometimes, it might ask for adding the credit card (if you have not entered earlier). If you choose to buy the shipping labels. You can move ahead and make the purchase. If you see Add Credit Card, you need to add the credit card details to proceed.

Once the shipping label is purchased, you can immediately see the shipping label, which you can print.

Printing label for International Shipments

If you are using the plugin for international shipments, then after you’ve selected the package size, you need to enter relevant information like the HS Tariff number for the items you are shipping.

Also, you need to ensure that you have the required customs documents for other shipping carriers like USPS and DHL.

Get Tracking numbers for the packages

To get the tracking number, you need to click the Track Package button in the Shipping Label meta box.

Are you not Happy with WooCommerce Shipping & Tax (WooCommerce Services)?

If you are not happy with WooCommerce Shipping & Tax and find the above-mentioned processes quite time-consuming and tedious, then you can always look for simple and convenient options. Several plugins help to automate the entire process and help you make use of a wide range of shipping services like FedEx, USPS, DHL, UPS, and Canada Post, etc. Let’s see how these plugins can make the process look easy.

The plugins will help you fetch real-time shipping rates for all the shipping services.
Print shipping labels right from the WooCommerce admin where the details can be fetched automatically. With the plugin, you need not manually enter the details for printing shipping labels.
You can also display the estimated delivery date on the Checkout page.
Tracking information can be obtained from the order details themselves.
Configure handling fees for each shipping service, in terms of amount or a percentage value.
Based on the weights and dimensions of the products in the shopping cart, the shipping rate will be calculated and applied to the final price of the order.
If you have multiple packages, you can also choose separate services for each package.
The plugin will automatically choose the Flat Rate box for the package for USPS shipping.
Scheduling pickup is also quick using the ideal add-on plugins.
Also, the plugins help to print the documents for shipping. Like with DHL, you can get the commercial invoice printed for customs clearance purposes.
With international shipping, you need not worry about the additional details like the HS Tariff number to be filled separately. You can provide these details in the individual product settings in the store. Then your shipping will be customized based on the chosen products and the details you entered.

There are several plugins you can find that will help you achieve these features. Here we are listing some popular WooCommerce plugins that are handy in terms of the features mentioned above.

Each plugin has their individual features, that makes it an ideal option to use for your WooCommerce store. These plugins can quickly automate the processes related to entering the details, eliminate adding the payment options for the label printing, and also tax calculations for each order.

To Conclude

Even though WooCommerce Shipping & Tax looks like a plugin that is quite handy, you need to do many things manually like entering addresses for labels, the payment process for label generation, the packaging data, etc. With the ELEX shipping plugins, you can eliminate several tedious processes for shipping in your WooCommerce store. Moreover, these plugins help to streamline several processes for making the store run successfully.

Further Reading:

Sreepriya

Content Writer Writing on Various ELEX WooCommerce Plugins.

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