If you need to ship orders to different addresses with WooCommerce, there are various ways to accomplish this goal. One option would be using plugins while the second would involve changing in-built settings directly.
Optimizing the checkout page and increasing conversion rates requires two key steps: (1) Enabling Shipping Address from WooCommerce settings
1. Enable the shipping address from the WooCommerce settings
By default, WooCommerce allows shoppers to enter only their billing address during the checkout process. This assumes that this person will also receive their order, though that might not always be true – for instance some may need it delivered directly to work or as a present for someone else.
If you sell physical or downloadable digital goods through WooCommerce, enabling shipping to multiple addresses can greatly enhance customer experience and conversion rates. In this article, we’ll show two simple methods of activating this feature; both offer quick and simple setup time with more control over checkout pages than ever before, such as the ability to add custom fields and shipping zones.
2. Use the Checkout Manager plugin
Many WooCommerce users have been looking for an easy and effective way to enable shipping to multiple addresses from their checkout page, in order to enhance customer experiences and boost conversions.
To do this, there are numerous checkout management plugins on the market designed to reduce cart abandonment and provide customers with a world-class checkout experience. Some payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal and Apple Pay may even be integrated.
Checkout Manager is one of the most sought-after solutions, as its plugin enables you to quickly add or remove checkout fields based on various conditions, user roles, product or category – helping maximize conversions by only showing relevant fields. Furthermore, with over 80,000 active installations of its free version installed globally and featuring additional features that optimize checkout process like copy address from previous products (this plugin also offers this).
3. Create a new shipping zone
WooCommerce shipping zones provide you with a way to organize geographical areas and offer customers various shipping options. To add one, click the Add Shipping Zone button located within your WordPress dashboard’s Shipping Settings area.
Once you’ve created a shipping zone, it is crucial that you tailor its methods and rates specifically to your needs. One way is through creating a Shipping Class and setting flat rate pricing across each zone.
Once you’ve added a shipping method to a specific zone, it will appear during checkout for customers using that shipping option. If someone enters their address into a zone without any shipping options available to them, WooCommerce will display a message saying the store cannot ship there and remove Checkout Address fields from checkout pages – an ideal solution if you want to keep customers from leaving before completing their purchases.
4. Add a new shipping method
If you sell physical products online, enabling shipping at checkout can improve customer experience and boost conversions. There are multiple methods of doing this – whether using plugins or WooCommerce built-in options.
Step one in creating a shipping zone is creating a new zone. A shipping zone refers to any area you plan on shipping to – countries, regions, states or zip codes can all qualify. After creating the shipping zone you can add methods and select rates accordingly; customers will only see those matching their address or zone.
Now that you have created a new zone and shipping method, it is time to test their functionality. Log into your WordPress website as an admin user and go to Appearance > Themes before clicking the Theme Editor button. In here you can hide “Ship to Different Address” checkboxes while adding custom headers; as well as change text to say something like “Enter Billing and Shipping Address”, forcing customers to provide full addresses.