How to combine free and paid shipping?

Running a shop and willing to offer the free shipping for some products and the paid one for the others? Wondering how to combine them when they are both in the cart? Check our guide and learn how to configure the shipping cost to be calculated properly in such case.

Putting together these two groups of products might without a doubt turn out to be essential in many scenarios no matter what kind of products you are selling. According to the latest research the shipping cost is still considered one of the most important factors if it comes to user experience. The right way to combine the free and paid shipping classes is certainly something our support team is being asked pretty often. That’s why we decided to bring it closer and provide you with the ready solution below.

Combining free and paid shipping with Flexible Shipping PRO

The configuration of the scenario where the free and paid shipping are combined should be done similarly to assigning the free shipping to the specific products I described in the previous article. It requires using the shipping classes as well and this time I will also use the…

Flexible Shipping PRO WooCommerce

Probably the only Table Rate Shipping plugin for WooCommerce you will ever need. Use the shipping classes, create many shipping methods in different shipping zones and simply define the shipping rules based on weight, order totals or item quantity.

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Last Updated: 2024-11-14

Works with WooCommerce 9.1 - 9.5.x

First, choose WooCommerce → Settings → Shipping → Shipping Classes → Add Shipping Class from the sidebar and create two new shipping classes. Let’s call them Free shipping and Paid shipping for the purpose of this guide:

If you need a quick reminder on how they work please check our guide How to use the shipping classes? →

After that, assign them properly to the products you want to be shipped for free and to which shipping the customer should be charged for. At the product edit screen scroll down to the Product Data section. In the Shipping tab choose from the dropdown list the right Shipping class using one of the two you’ve previously created (Free shipping or Paid shipping):

Repeat this step for all the products you want the free and paid shipping combined calculation rules to be applied. If you’ve already set the correct shipping classes for all the products proceed to the next step.

Remember to save the changes you’ve made every time with Update button.

Flexible Shipping PRO rules configuration

Now, when the shipping classes are already created and assigned to the products let’s move to defining the shipping cost rules. Start with creating a new shipping method handled by Flexible Shipping:

Hit the Edit link which will appear after moving the mouse over the shipping method’s title and go to the shipping method configuration screen. Make sure the Rules calculation is set to Sum:

Fill the rest of the required fields above. Next, scroll down to the Shipping Cost Calculation Rules table. Add the following rule for the products with Free shipping shipping class:

• choose When: Shipping Class,
• cart contains: Free shipping,
• enter 0 in the rule cost is field.

If set this way shipping the products with Free shipping shipping class will be always free, no matter how many of them are in the cart.

Finally, let’s define the rules for the products with Paid shipping shipping class. I will use the sample 3 weight-based rules in this case but you can modify them freely to meet your needs. Create the additional rules using the data below to create 3 weight ranges:

• choose Based on: Weight in the first column for all 3 rules,
• set the [blank] – 1 in the Min / Max fields for the first range rule, 1.001 – 5 for the second and 10.001 – [blank] for the third one,
• enter 5, 10 and 15 in the Cost per order column fields,
• select the Paid shipping in the Shipping class column for all 3 rules.

Apply the changes using the Save changes button below.

Your current shipping cost rules setup should look afterwards like this:

Free and paid shipping combined – how it works?

Setting up the shipping cost rules the way described above will result in customer not being charged for shipping the products with Free shipping shipping class. Shipping the products with Paid shipping shipping class will be calculated based on the previously defined weight ranges. What’s more, if there are products with both shipping classes in the cart their shipping cost will be summed up. In other words the cost-free shipping will be added to the weight-based and paid shipping. That in turn, will work on the same basis like if only the paid shipping was being considered.