Free Canada Post WooCommerce plugin is another WooCommerce solution created by Octolize. In this article, you will learn how to configure WooCommerce Canada Post shipping method with live cost calculations using the free WooCommerce plugin.
Canada Post Corporation, trading as Canada Post, is the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada, rebranded to the “Canada Post” name in the late 1960s. Canada Post provides service to more than 16 million addresses and delivered nearly 8.4 billion items in 2016 and consolidated revenue from operations reached $7.88 billion. Canada Post delivers to a larger area than the postal service of any other nation. This is due to 25,000 letter carriers, through a 13,000 vehicle fleet, and more than 6,200 post offices across the country.
All this points out that if you want to ship packages from your ecommerce store in Canada, Canada Post is the obvious choice. It is the country’s largest courier company that is reputable and trusted by millions of Canadians. All of this means that Canada Post shipping can become a huge advantage for any store offering shipping in Canada. Of course, it has a lot of competition in the form of UPS and FedEx, but it’s still a tried and reliable brand that numerous potential customers are willing to choose.
Canada Post WooCommerce is a new WooCommerce services plugin from Octolize. That WooCommerce extension allows you to display automatically calculated Canada Post shipping cost for each order. Display the available Canada Post services automatically in the cart and checkout based on the customer’s shipping address and cart weight.
Most of all, it’s completely free, and you can download it now from the official WordPress repository. You can do it even faster, using the button below.
Get Free Canada Post WooCommerce Plugin →
This free WooCommerce Canada Post shipping plugin lets you offer a full range of shipping options. Integrating the plugin is very fast, it takes only 5 minutes, and I’ll show you how to do it in the next section of this article.
This plugin is based on the same foundation as the very popular and well-received free WooCommerce UPS shipping plugin that’s have more than 9,000 active installations.
Let me walk you through the configuration of the plugin. After completing all the steps presented, you will be able to display Live Canada Post Shipping Rates in your WooCommerce store.
First, install and activate free Canada Post WooCommerce plugin in your store. You can reach the plugin settings by choosing the WooCommerce → Settings → Shipping → Canada Post Live Rates from the sidebar.
To offer your customers the available Canada Post shipping services, you need to own a Canada post account and your credentials (Username, Password and Customer Number) acquired during the registration process.
Once you enter the login credentials, click on Save changes button. The API Connection Status should change to OK and turn green. If for some reason, the plugin is not able to establish the connection with the Canada Post API, you will see the error message coming from the API with the detailed information on the cause of the problem.
If you have successfully connected to the Canada Post API, you can proceed to the next step, which is to add and configure the Canada Post shipping method.
Add the Canada Post shipping method
Adding the Canada Post Live Rates shipping method uses the same mechanism as the WooCommerce default shipping methods, and the Canada Post Live Rates can be easily added the same way.
To create a new Canada Post Live Rates shipping method, just go to WooCommerce → Settings → Shipping:
Click the shipping zone name you want to add the Canada Post Live Rates method within. In most cases, it will be a zone containing Canada in it. It can be a separate zone for Canada or even a bigger zone.
Once you are in your Shipping Zone, click on the Add shipping method button. You’ll find it at the bottom of the Shipping methods table:
In the window that will appear, choose the Canada Post Live Rates from the dropdown list and confirm with Add shipping method button once again:
Thereafter, you have your Canada Post Live Rates shipping method.
Now, it’s time to configure the Canada Post shipping method.
You can set the Method Title that will be displayed in the checkout page for your customers. The plugin also allows enabling the Fallback. It’s basically the flat rate cost for shipping if the Canada Post API, for some reason, returns no matching rates. Another, very useful option that also allows you to increase conversions in your store is to set Free Shipping over the amount. To enable it, just tick the Enable the free shipping over amount checkbox and enter the free shipping threshold.
One of the crucial shipping method settings is the option to select available Canada Post services. By default, all the services are available, but when you want to limit them, just check the Services checkbox.
Please mind that the availability of services in the Services Table is affected by the Zone regions settings in your shipping zone, in which the Canada Post Live Rates shipping method was added. Our Canada Live Rates plugin supports both Domestic, USA and International Services. Code in the Services Table indicates the Canada Post service type:
Last available shipping options are Quote Type and Insurance. You can choose between Commercial or Counter rates, depending on your contract with the carrier. The insurance will be included only for services which it is available for.
If you are all done with the configuration, click on Save changes button. Now, the shipping method should be available for all the customers matching that shipping zone. In the same way, you can add more shipping methods for each shipping zone that you want to use.
If you need more advanced shipping options for Canada Post, you can use the PRO version of the Canada Post Live Rates WooCommerce plugin. The plugin is currently in production, but will be available soon. You can sign up now for the plugin and get your 20% discount when it’s released! Just use the form in the plugin page:
Main features of the PRO plugin:
