Learn how to hide WooCommerce shipping methods based on certain conditions in your WooCommerce store with this complete guide. In this article, you will find the most popular examples with ready-made solutions. Thanks to that, you can easily apply them in your store.
Managing the available shipping methods is a crucial part of running a WooCommerce store. For more complex stores, or those that offer a variety of products, the ability to hide shipping methods based on certain conditions can be crucial. It decreases order handling and dissatisfied customers. WooCommerce by itself does not have such extensive functionality to have full control over shipping to always display the right shipping methods. Therefore, it is necessary to use an external tool to hide specific methods. In this article, I’ll use the Flexible Shipping PRO plugin.
It’s a WooCommerce shipping plugin that allows you to conditionally hide shipping methods in WooCommerce. But, to be honest, it’s only a small part of the plugin capabilities. Its main functionality is to set the shipping cost based on numerous conditions, making it a one of the most powerful shipping tools for WooCommerce.
It allows you to hide shipping methods based on various conditions like:
The best Table Rate Shipping for WooCommerce. Period. Create shipping rules based on weight, order totals or item count.
View Details or Add to cartHiding shipping methods using the Flexible Shipping PRO plugin is quite similar, regardless of the conditions on which you want to hide the methods. That’s why I’ll first try to demonstrate the entire process of configuring the plugin and the full range of its capabilities. Based on this tutorial, you will be able to conditionally manage shipping methods in your WooCommerce store like a pro!
Having the Flexible Shipping PRO plugin installed and activated, go to WooCommerce → Settings → Shipping → Shipping Zones, and choose the Shipping Zone where you want to disable shipping method for certain products. Then, hit 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 Flexible Shipping from the dropdown list and confirm with Add shipping method button:
Thereafter, you have your own Flexible Shipping method in the shipping zone:
Now, it’s time to configure shipping method.
In the configuration page, you can enter Method Title, Method Description and use all features of the Flexible Shipping plugin. The most important element, however, is the Shipping Cost Calculation Rules table. You’ll find it on the bottom of the configuration page:
There, you can set the cost for your shipping method. You can use different conditions to determine shipping cost, but if you want to set flat rate, just use Always. For example, if you intend to charge $10 for shipping, set it like that:
Having your shipping cost set and calculated, add a new rule with Add rule button and select the condition to hide that shipping method.
You have several options to choose from:
As you can see for yourself, the list is impressive. For each of them, the implementation method is the same. Regardless of the condition, to hide the shipping method you need to change the Special action to Hide.
This works in such a way that if a certain condition is met, the shipping method will not show up in the shopping cart and on the order page. In this example, if there will be a Sunglasses in the client’s cart, that shipping method won’t be displayed.
It will show you the exact configurations of the most popular cases in WooCommerce.
Another of the popular uses of shipping method hiding, is the use of shipping classes. This allows you to hide certain shipping methods for the relevant products. This could be, for example, hiding the shipping method with pickup points for oversized items. The same goes for products that cannot be shipped and the only available shipping method in the store should be Local Pickup. To hide shipping methods based on WooCommerce shipping classes, just select the Shipping class condition. Then, search the shipping class that you want to use by entering its name. You can add multiple shipping classes at the same rule.
For large stores, using shipping classes can be quite difficult. In some cases it will be better to specify instead which products or product categories the WooCommerce shipping method should be hidden. In Flexible Shipping PRO you can choose product category, product tag or even individual products. Their configuration looks exactly the same as for shipping classes. Just select the appropriate option and enter all the required products.
To hide shipping methods based on products, just add a new condition and use the Product option. Then, search the product that you want to use by entering its name. You can add multiple products in the same rule.
To hide shipping methods based on products categories, just add a new condition and use the Product category option. Then, search the product category that you want to use by entering its name. You can add multiple product categories in the same rule.
To hide shipping methods based on products tags, just add a new condition and use the Product tag option. Then, search the product tag that you want to use by entering it’s name. You can add multiple product tags in the same rule.
It’s a great solution for same-day shipping or any similar fast delivery options. Their display should often be time limited to avoid dissatisfaction and overpaying your customers.
You can also hide methods based on the value of the order. Flexible Shipping plugin works based on the total price in the shop’s default currency selected in the WooCommerce settings. This allows you to disable more expensive shipping methods above a certain amount. Simply select the appropriate price range for which you want your selected Special action to perform.
Alternative to WooCommerce weight based shipping or shipping heavy items. You can disable the shipping method when the total cart weight exceeds the certain weight. Just set the proper weight range in your rules.
In this example, the shipping method will be disabled when total weight of all orders in the client’s cart exceed 20 kg.
This article showed you how to hide WooCommerce Shipping Method based on various parameters including WooCommerce shipping classes, time, cart subtotal, and product type using the Flexible Shipping PRO plugin. I hope it will be useful for you and help you develop your WooCommerce store.
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