The reason most online stores prefer Magneto because of its customisability. Being an open-source platform, merchants can tailor their store to their unique requirements. For example, if you wish to base your shipping charges on product weight or size, you can easily do so through the Table Rates Shipping Method.
Likewise, you can opt for a Flat Rate Shipping Method, wherein you charge a flat or fixed fee for every item. You may be wondering which shipping method is better, right? Well, there is no straightforward answer as each method has its pros and cons. Since we are focusing on the tables rate shipping method, let’s discuss its pros and cons.
Magento 2 Shipping Table Rates Method – Pros and Cons
Pros
- This method is more flexible as the shipping cost is based on various variables, including destination, weight, or size. Thus, customers that are closer to the warehouse can pay less compared to those that live far away. This approach is more equitable and preferred by customers.
- It protects merchants against losses. For instance, if a fixed fee is charged, the merchant cannot charge more despite the customer being further away. Instead, the shipping cost will eat into the merchant’s profitability.
- As your eCommerce store expands, you can easily add more variables to this shipping method. It ensures that the shipping method supports your store’s growth.
Cons
- The biggest challenge to table rates shipping method is that it can be quite complex to set up. After all, various variables must be considered, and rules defined for each. If you are facing this problem, you can contact FME Extensions. Our Magento development experts can help you in this area.
- The second downside to this shipping method is that it requires frequent updates. Naturally, carriers keep changing their rates from time to time. These rates need to be updated in your store which can prove to be a time-consuming task.
- Unless set up properly, your tables rate shipping method may not accurately calculate the shipping costs. From a merchant’s perspective, this can easily translate to losses. There is a possibility that the customers are being overcharged. In that case, their satisfaction will go down and they may even leave negative reviews.
As you can see, most of the cons are not related to the method itself but in its poor implementation. A Magento extensions company such as FME can easily help you overcome these cons and ensure that you realise all the benefits associated with Magento 2 table rates shipping method.
Since every online store sells products of different weights and sizes and are shipped to different destinations, the Flat Rate shipping method just does not work for them. Table Rates shipping method allows to create a flexible shipping strategy based on multiple conditions.
In Magento 2, you can choose between Weight vs Destination, Price vs Destination, and # of Items vs Destination as condition to calculate the shipping cost. Now, let us turn our focus towards how to configure Table Rates shipping method in Magento 2 the right way.
Step-By-Step Tutorial for Magento 2 Create Condition Based Shipping Method
Follow this step-by-step tutorial to setup Table Rates Shipping Method in Magento 2.
- In Magento 2 admin area, navigate to Stores > Settings > Configuration.
- Under Sales, select Shipping Methods.
- You will see all the available shipping methods. Expand the Table Rates to see a bunch of options.
Step 1: Configure the Default Settings
- Enabled: Choose ‘Yes’ to enable the Table Rates shipping method and be displayed in the Estimated Shipping and Tax Section of the Shopping Cart and also in the Shipping Methods section during checkout.
- Title: This is what your customers see as the name for this shipping method during checkout.
- Method Name: It is the internal name that describes the method of calculation used to produce a shipping estimate.
- Condition: Choose any of the 3 conditions as the calculation method:
- Weight vs. Destination
- Price vs. Destination
- Number of Items vs. Destination
- Include Virtual Products in Price Calculation: Set to ‘Yes’ if you want to be able to include the virtual product(s) in the calculation.
- Calculate Handling Fee: Handling fee is the fee that covers the cost of warehouse storage, packing and shipment etc. and are charged on top of the order subtotal or shipping fee. You can calculate the handling fee either by Fixed or Percentage amount using this option.
- Handling Fee: The actual amount you want to charge to cover the handling expenses. If you have chosen the Percentage option in the Calculate Handling Fee and you want to charge $5 as the handling fee, enter 0.05, not 5%. For a Fixed amount, simply enter 5.
- Displayed Error Message: Enter a custom error message that you want to display when this method is not available for some reason.
- Ship to Applicable Countries: Choose All Allowed Countries if you allow the Table Rates shipping method to all countries or select specific countries.
- Sort Order: Enter a number to display the Table Rates shipping with other shipping methods during checkout. (0 = first, 1 = second, 2 = third, and so on).
- Click Save Config.
Step 2: Prepare the Table Rate Data
To preview or update the Table Rate Data, we will have to export the Table Rate Data CSV file. To do so:
- Click Store View on the upper left corner and switch to Main Website or any other store where the configuration applies.
- You will see new Export and Import options.
- To change the Condition, clear Use Default Checkbox and select another.
- Click Export CSV to download the tablerates.csv file.
- Open the file in a spreadsheet.
- Complete the table with appropriate values for the shipping calculation condition.
- Use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard to represent all possible values in any category.
- In the Country column, provide the Alpha-3 code for every country.
- Sort the data by Region/State so the specific locations are at the top of the list, and the wildcard locations at the bottom. This will process the rules with the absolute values first, and the wildcard values later.
Step 3: Import the Table Rate Data
Once you have previewed/updated the CSV file, you can Import the File
- Now, Click Choose File next to Import field. Select your completed tablerates.csv file, and import the rates.
- Click Save Config.
Step 4: Review The Table Rates
After importing the file, you may want to verify if the data is correct. To do this, go through the payment process with several different shipping address and see if the shipping and handling fees are calculated correctly.
Magento 2 Create Condition Based Shipping Method for International Locations
If you are shipping internationally, make sure to abide by the international shipping laws. Every country has shipping restrictions for legal or financial purposes. If you want to apply shipping restrictions based on product attributes or locations, make use of our advanced Magento 2 Shipping Restrictions Extension.
This extension is an excellent solution for eCommerce business owners. It lets you create multiple shipping conditions based on catalog rules, customer’s attributes, customers groups, products, product categories, product attributes and so on. To book a live demo, click here.
Why do you need this extension? Well, the default functionality of Magento only restricts shipping methods for the whole catalog, which is not good for your business. Keeping this issue in mind, this extension allows you to put restrictions only for the products that cannot be shipped.
Conclusion
Got Questions? If you have any issue in configuring Magento 2 Shipping Table Rates, you can contact our support team by submitting a ticket here. Also have a look at our premium Magento 2 Store Pickup extension to add "Pickup at Store" option to your online store.
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