Want to enable shipping addresses on your WooCommerce store?
Enabling and personalizing shipping and billing addresses can make a world of difference in both customer satisfaction and conversions.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll take you through how to enable shipping and billing addresses in WooCommerce, how to personalize it to your customer’s needs, and how to improve the WooCommerce order fulfillment process with the help of BizPrint, an all-in-one automatic printing solution, ensuring your e-commerce store provides the ultimate user experience while staying ahead of the curve in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
So buckle up and get ready to elevate your WooCommerce store to new heights!
Why should you enable personalizable shipping addresses?
- Customizing WooCommerce shipping information – in addition to other checkout functions – allows for a smoother checkout, which decreases cart abandonment (according to Splitit, 87% of online shoppers will abandon their carts if the checkout process is complex)
- WooCommerce assumes that the billing and shipping addresses are the same, which is a problem for customers who want to order products to a location other than their billing address. Allowing for personalizable shipping addresses solves this problem
- Customizing your WooCommerce billing and shipping options also allows you to provide different shipping methods, so that customers that want faster or cheaper shipping will be able to select the option that works for them
Your checkout fields can be as unique as your eCommerce store. When you know how to work with the base shipping settings in WooCommerce, you’ll be able to customize your WooCommerce shipping information and add more options to broaden your store’s appeal to a wider audience.
4 easy steps to enable the shipping address in WooCommerce
You can set up a billing and shipping section in your checkout by following a few easy steps. This tutorial outlines how you can do just that with WooCommerce’s native functionality.
- From your WordPress dashboard, navigate to WooCommerce > Settings, and click on the Shipping tab.
- Then click the ‘Add shipping zone’ button. This will take you to a page where you can set up your shipping zone information. Then, fill in the fields, including Zone name and Zone region, depending on where your customers are based.
- Once your zones have been set, click the ‘Add shipping method button’. This will bring up a box that lets you choose between shipping options, including flat rate, free shipping, or local pickup. If required, you can set up multiple shipping methods for customers. To do this, simply click the ‘Add shipping method button’ again once you’ve set up your initial shipping option.
- Finally, save your changes and click the shipping tab once more, where you’ll see the shipping options you just set up.
After completing these steps, when your customers add a shipping address, the shipping setting you created based on their zone will be applied. For example, if you set up flat rate shipping for South Asia-based customers, flat rate shipping will be applied automatically.
6 reasons why shipping addresses might not show
There are a number of reasons why your address may not be showing up on the checkout page.
Luckily, it’s a quick and simple fix in most cases. Here are the possible reasons and resolutions:
- Shipping method and zones not set up: To display the customer’s shipping address, you must first set up shipping zones and methods. You can do this by following the steps highlighted above.
- Products saved as virtual or downloadable: Check that your shippable products are not saved as virtual or downloadable. To do this, head to each of your product pages, scroll down to the product data section and ensure that the box next to Virtual is not checked.
- Wrong default shipping address: Check the default shipping address isn’t saved as the customer’s billing address. To do this, go to WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping > Shipping options. In the options next to Shipping destination (which controls which shipping address is used by default), check that you’ve selected Default to customer shipping address. Save any changes.
- Theme or plugin compatibility: If you’ve checked all the above and your customer shipping addresses still aren’t showing up, it could be a compatibility issue with your theme or plugins. To check this, deactivate all of your plugins apart from WooCommerce. If the address shows up, reactivate your plugins one by one to find the culprit. If the address still doesn’t show up, try switching to a default theme to see if this solves the issue.
- Shipping restrictions in certain areas: When a customer provides an address from a region where shipping is not permitted, the shipping address might not be visible during the checkout process.
- Incorrect address: In cases where a customer inputs an invalid address, the shipping address might not appear.
Once you’ve set up your shipping address correctly, it’s time to customize.
How do you customize WooCommerce shipping information?
You can customize billing and shipping information to ship to different addresses directly from your WordPress dashboard. Say you want to enter prices inclusive of tax or have additional tax classes. You have to make changes in your WooCommerce settings under ‘Tax options’.
You can also set up shipping options to meet the needs of your business. Here are the steps to follow:
1. Navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping.
2. From here, you can add and customize new shipping zones. You need to have at least one shipping zone active for your customers to be able to add a dedicated shipping address when they place their order, rather than just using their provided billing address. For each shipping zone, you can:
- Add regions included within the zone. This can be as broad as the entire world, or restricted to specific countries, states, or ZIP/postcodes.
- Add shipping methods available in that zone. Choose between a flat rate (a set cost for that particular shipping method), free shipping, or local pickup.
- If you want to offer takeout, delivery, curbside pickup, or pick up at your store (e.g., click and collect), you can use Pickup Delivery Scheduler (which, like BizPrint, is developed by BizSwoop) to add these extra checkout fulfillment features, as well as shipping options by time slots. If you’re a retailer of physical goods or you run a restaurant, customizing your WooCommerce shipping information in this way will serve you well.
3. Add and customize your shipping methods:
- Add requirements to your ‘Free shipping’ option. For example, a coupon code or a minimum order requirement.
- Add costs or enable/disable tax on your ‘Local pickup’ option.
- Customize your flat rate costs for different shipping methods. You can set percentage-based flat-rate shipping, and base the cost on the quantity of items or the value of the order. For example, a flat rate fee for a shipping service that costs 10% of the order value, or a $0.50 shipping charge for every item in the cart.
- You can edit the titles of your shipping methods based on how you want them to show up on your store’s front end. Use familiar phrases to avoid confusing buyers.
4. Add and customize shipping classes. From WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping, navigate to ‘Shipping classes’. From here, you can add a shipping class, based on which flat-rate shipping rules can be determined.
For example, you could a class of ‘fragile’ that adds $2.00 to the shipping cost to account for the extra time spent packing the order. This WooCommerce shipping information will appear on the checkout page and can be included on the delivery receipt you enclose in the order package.
5. Adjust your shipping options. Navigate back to WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping. Then click ‘Shipping options’. From here, you can set various options for how shipping costs are displayed, which address will be used as default, and more.
6. See how everything looks on the front end of your store.
Check that your minimum order value for free shipping is working as it should. Check also whether your percentage-based shipping fees are being calculated properly, fees based on shipping class have been applied, and each of your shipping options is clearly named. The screenshot below shows the application of a 10% shipping cost for using a carrier (FedEx), with a $2.00 fragile fee added to the order for a total of $131.80 ($118.00 + $11.80 + $2.00 = $131.80).
Troubleshooting for shipping addresses not showing on the front-end
It may be the case that your personalized shipping addresses aren’t showing on the front-end of your site. If this is the case, there are a few steps you can take to identify the source of the issue and tackle the problem:
- Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Shipment > Shipping Zones and make sure both your shipping zone and shipping method are set
- Go to Go to WooCommerce > Settings > General and ensure that the “Sell to specific countries” option is set appropriately
- Disable the option to force shipping to the customer billing address since this removes shipping fields entirely
- Switch to a default WordPress theme (such as Twenty Twenty-One or Twenty Twenty-Two) to check if the issue is related to your theme
- Temporarily deactivate all plugins except for WooCommerce. If the shipping addresses show up, reactivate plugins one by one to identify the conflicting plugin
How to improve your WooCommerce shipping experience using BizPrint
Setting up a variety of different shipping options to meet the needs of your customers and make your store more flexible is a great way to improve your customer experience. But you need to be able to manage all of these different shipping options efficiently. For this, you should ensure that your WooCommerce order fulfillment is up to scratch.
There are solutions designed to streamline your order fulfillment process, saving you time and money, and improving the customer experience. Among them, BizPrint is a must-have plugin for faster and smoother fulfillment. The all-in-one auto-printing plugin allows you to print shipping labels, custom picklists, packing slips, and a wide variety of other documents essential to WooCommerce order fulfillment.
Here are just some of the reasons to use BizPrint to optimize your order processing and shipping:
Auto-printing functionality
BizPrint enables you to automatically print orders in near real-time as soon as a customer completes the checkout process. You can print a wide range of documents, from printing order receipts in WooCommerce to printing address labels and even issuing proforma invoices and generating delivery notes, directly to your warehouse or fulfillment center as soon as the order is placed, or at any other pre-defined order status. If you pair BizPrint with Flow Notify, another plugin from the BizSwoop suite, you can even set up custom order statuses to give you more control over when your documents are printed in the order fulfillment process. With BizPrint, you avoid the need for manual processing of orders, thus making the process more efficient and less prone to errors.
Product, category, and location mapping
Using BizPrint’s dedicated mapping add-ons, you can trigger automatic printing to set locations based on a specific product, category, shipping zone, or shipping method. This is a game-changer if you fulfill orders from multiple locations. Say you store different products in different warehouses. You can print packing slips for just those products to their respective warehouses. You can also always ensure that you fulfill orders from the location closest to the customer, helping to bring down shipping costs and delivery times.
Customizable templates
BizPrint comes with a range of customizable templates that allow you to adjust the WooCommerce shipping information you include on your order fulfillment documents. This is particularly valuable when it comes to shipping labels – you can add order tracking information, such as a tracking number or barcode. The shipment tracking information is scanned at various stages along the delivery route so that your customers can receive notifications on the status of their orders.
You can also adjust the templates to add company branding or promotions. And if you’re providing VAT invoices with your deliveries, you can even customize these templates to include your or the customer’s VAT number.
Create a great WooCommerce checkout experience
The checkout experience plays a big role in conversions. Your checkout form shouldn’t give buyers any reason to leave. To simplify purchases on your WooCommerce store, make the checkout faster, more transparent by mentioning taxes and fees, and friendlier by allowing the entry of separate billing and shipping addresses.
For further customization, you’ll need plugins. If you offer in-store pick-up, delivery, or curbside pickup, use Pickup Delivery Scheduler to give customers the flexibility to receive/collect their order during a time slot of their choosing. While you’re improving your store’s checkout, consider making your order fulfillment smoother to continue providing customers with a great experience buying from you. BizPrint is the best WooCommerce plugin for it!
Order processing involves a fair bit of paperwork. Manually printing pick lists, order receipts, shipping labels, and delivery notes is time-consuming. Automatic printing of order fulfillment documents is a huge time saver. BizPrint’s auto-printing functionality adds hours back to your week while still allowing you full control over when your documents are printed (especially when paired with Flow Notify). As the details to create fulfillment documents are pulled straight from your WooCommerce orders, the chances of errors are minimized.
Use the plugin’s customizable templates to collect the WooCommerce shipping information you need to fulfill orders and make returns easy for customers. Create on-brand receipts by adding your company logo, returns policy, and promotional message.
Fulfill orders for different product categories at different stores or warehouses? Map orders to their relevant fulfillment centers and generate pick lists and shipping documents as and when orders are placed. If your fulfillment centers are close to your customers’ locations, you’ll have the necessary documents instantly for expeditious delivery.
BizPrint has flexible pricing plans designed to work for any size and shape of business. Best of all, with pricing based on the number of prints you require, you can scale your BizPrint plan as your business grows or you enter busy seasons. Why not try it out with 50 free prints?
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