Settings › Shipping
Shipping Rates
The rate table behind your shipping method: what each option costs, where it applies, and when shipping is free. 4 parts.
Quick links
Where to find it:WP Admin › EasyCart › Settings › Shipping › Shipping Rates
The table in use
Method and rates
Which table is active, and the systems available for working out a price.
The active method
Which system is charging, and switching between them
no stored settingsThis page edits rate tables, and only one table is ever in use: the one belonging to your active shipping method. The Active method card at the top names it and offers a row of buttons to switch, which saves the same setting that lives on the Shipping settings panel. The tables for the other methods sit below, collapsed and marked Not in use; Show opens one.
That single fact explains most shipping confusion. Rates entered under a method you are not using are not combined with the active ones and not partially applied; they are ignored entirely. A store quoting nothing at checkout, or quoting something unexpected, is usually looking at the wrong table.
Switching method does not delete anything, so you can move between systems while working out which fits, and the tables you built are still there when you come back.
⚠️ Careful: Only the active method’s table is used. If checkout is quoting nothing, or quoting something you do not recognise, check which method is active before editing any rates.
The rate tables
Five ways of deciding what shipping costs
no stored settingsFlat rates are named methods with fixed prices, such as standard and express. Simple, predictable, and the right starting point for most stores.
By cart total picks one rate based on what the shopper is spending, which is how free shipping over a threshold is built.
By weight picks one rate from the order’s total weight, and is the closest of the manual systems to what shipping actually costs you. It depends entirely on your products carrying weights.
By quantity picks one rate from how many items are in the cart.
Percentage of total charges shipping as a share of the cart. Easy to set up and increasingly wrong as order values spread, since shipping cost does not scale with price.
Every table is a list of rows. Edit on a row, or Add method / Add rate under the list, opens a drawer at the side. A flat rate takes a Method name shoppers see, its Rate, an optional Free shipping at amount, a Position and a Zone, and every flat method listed is offered, in that order. Rows can also be dragged into order.
The other tables are tiers. Each row says where it applies from, a cart total, a weight or a number of items, and what it charges, and the row with the highest starting point at or below the order applies. Start the first row at 0, or a small order gets no rate at all.
For a step by step walkthrough, see Set Up Shipping That Does Not Lose Money.
💡 Note: Weight-based rates need every product to carry a weight, set under Inventory & Shipping. A product without one will not price correctly.
Refining it
Destinations and carriers
Charging by where it goes, giving shipping away above a threshold, and quoting real carrier prices.
Destinations and free shipping
Charging differently by where it goes, and giving it away above a threshold
no stored settingsEvery row applies either to any destination or to a zone you have defined, picked in the drawer’s Zone list, which links to Manage zones. Zones are built on the Shipping settings panel and are what let one table charge one price domestically and another internationally without a row for every country.
A flat method or a live carrier service can carry a Free shipping at amount, so it becomes free once the cart total reaches it. This is the most reliable lever in the shipping table for raising order value, and it works considerably better when the storefront tells shoppers how close they are, which is a progress message configured on the offer rather than here.
Rates validate as you enter them: a number is required, and it cannot be negative. Deleting a rate, from the bin on its row or the drawer, removes it from what shoppers are offered and cannot be undone.
💡 Note: Zones are defined under Settings › Shipping › Shipping settings. A free shipping threshold works much harder when the cart shows progress towards it, which is configured on an offer in Offers.
Live carrier rates
Real prices from the carrier, and the services you offer
no stored settingsWhen the method is live carrier rates, the table becomes a list of carrier services rather than prices you set: Priority Mail, FedEx 2Day and so on. A strip across the top shows which carriers are Connected, and a carrier that is not links to its account on Shipping settings. Each row is one service shoppers can pick, in the order they see them; drag rows to change it.
Edit or Add service opens the drawer: the Carrier, the Service it quotes, the name it is Shown to shoppers as, an optional Fixed price, an optional Free shipping at amount, and a Zone.
Offering every service a carrier returns is a mistake. A shopper presented with eleven options with similar names will pick the cheapest or abandon, and neither is what you wanted. Three or four, clearly different in speed and price, converts better.
Without a fixed price the shopper pays what the carrier quotes. A fixed price is how you absorb part of the cost or round a rate to something friendlier. Whether a fixed-price service still shows when the carrier returns nothing for an address is a setting on the Shipping settings panel.
Rate services from extensions. Shipping extensions that quote their own rates, such as Shippo, ShipStation or OptimalShip, are listed under the services as Also quoted, from your extensions. Those rows are read only: their services and prices are set in the extension, and Settings on the row opens it.
Live rates are included with PRO and Premium licences, and they need product weights and your carrier accounts complete before they can quote anything.
💡 Note: Carrier accounts and how live rates are quoted are set under Settings › Shipping › Shipping settings. Live rates need a PRO or Premium licence.
Keep going
Related panels
The method, zones, carrier accounts and packing slip.
Product weight and dimensions.
Countries and regions zones are built from.
Free shipping offers and cart progress messaging.
The cart shipping estimator shoppers see.
Fulfillment, carriers and tracking.
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