How to enable a handling fee for shipped items

Hi @srd75,

Is there a way to add a handling fee for shipped items that doesn’t involve paying US$150/year for a commercial plugin?

From what I understand, you’re looking to add a handling fee to your shipped items and would prefer a solution that doesn’t require a commercial plugin.

To better assist you, could you please provide some additional details? Specifically, I’d like to know if this handling fee is meant to be in addition to the shipping cost or if it’s intended to replace the shipping cost. Additionally, could you please clarify how you would like to set up the handling fee? Are you looking to apply this fee per product or per order?

A screenshot of your current shipping settings would also be very helpful in understanding your current setup and how best to implement the handling fee. You can use https://snipboard.io to share screenshots. Just follow the instructions on the page and paste the URL in your reply.

Looking forward to your response and assisting you further.

Hi @bisratlearn,

Thank you for such an excellent response.

The handling fee is meant to be in addition to the shipping cost on a per order basis.

We are using a shipping plugin called Australia Post WooCommerce Extension. This plugin calculates the rates correctly compared to the rates that the Australia Post website public shipping calculator reports. The problem is that when the store owner takes her packages to the post office, they charge her higher rates than the prices quoted by the Australia Post website public shipping calculator or the shipping plugin, which is a bit baffling.

In the interim, before she takes this up with Australia Post, we’d like to add the handling fee.

Here are our current shipping options:

Any help appreciated, thank you.

Hello @srd75,

Just to confirm, you’d like to add a surcharge to orders that aren’t based on the total or shipping values, correct?

I think you can achieve this with Woo Conditional Product Fees for Checkout

Please note this plugin isn’t developed or supported by our team. If you need help configuring it, kindly contact the author directly through this link: Support for Woo Conditional Product Fees for Checkout

If you’re looking for a premium option, consider exploring the Extra Fees for WooCommerce extension.

All extensions purchased on WooCommerce.com come with a 30-day refund policy and email support. If the product doesn’t meet your needs or you believe another product might work better, we’re more than happy to provide a full refund. :?)

Hope this helps!

Thanks @woo-hc

The Extra Fees Plugin for WooCommerce plugin requires the premium version to ensure the surcharge only applies to products that are being shipped, otherwise, with the free version, the surcharge applies to both products being shipped, and services that aren’t shipped, which isn’t what the client wants.

Hi @srd75

The Extra Fees Plugin for WooCommerce plugin requires the premium version to ensure the surcharge only applies to products that are being shipped, otherwise, with the free version, the surcharge applies to both products being shipped, and services that aren’t shipped, which isn’t what the client wants.

Thank you for providing those additional details.

Based on your description, you want to add a handling fee to the orders that are being shipped, and this fee should not apply to services that aren’t shipped. I understand that the Extra Fees extension requires a premium version to achieve this, which isn’t ideal for your situation.

Here’s a workaround that you might consider. You can use the built-in WooCommerce shipping classes and cost options to add a handling fee to your shipped items. Here are the steps to do that:

1. Go to your WooCommerce settings and click on ‘Shipping’.
2. Click on ‘Shipping Classes’, then ‘Add Shipping Class’.
3. Name this class something like ‘Handling Fee’, then save it.
4. Go to your products and assign this new shipping class to all items that require a handling fee.
5. Next, return to ‘Shipping’ in WooCommerce settings and click ‘Shipping Zones’.
6. Click on the shipping method where you want to add the handling fee.
7. You’ll see an option for ‘Shipping Class Costs’. Here you can add a flat rate for your ‘Handling Fee’ class.

This method will add the handling fee only to the items with the ‘Handling Fee’ shipping class assigned, which should be the items being shipped. Services that aren’t shipped won’t have this class, so they won’t have the fee.

Alternatively, you can use a custom-coded solution if this workaround does not work for you. We recommend that you seek help from the following free and paid channels:

• WooCommerce Slack Community: https://woocommerce.com/community-slack/
• WooCommerce Community on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/advanced.woocommerce/
• Certified WooCommerce Experts: https://partners.woo.com/English/marketplace/

I hope this helps! If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Cheers.