Question
You would like to ship your DoJiggy store items via the United States Postal Service (USPS). How do you know what to charge your donors for shipping? Can you provide shipping options for donors?
Answer
DoJiggy's online stores offer the option to ship items using USPS's current rates. Depending on your organization's needs, this function can be configured in several ways.
Basic Requirements
In order to use this shipping option:
- Your store must use USD as its currency
- The base country must be the United States, Puerto Rico, or US Virgin Islands
- The global shipping option must be enabled
Configuration
You can configure those parameters here: WooCommerce -> Settings -> General tab as follows:
- In Store Address section, select the correct Country/State
- In Currency options section, select US dollar as the currency
- In General options, select selling and shipping locations (For shipping locations you can choose option "Ship to all countries you sell to").
After that, you will need to enable the USPS shipping option.
- Go to WooCommerce -> Settings -> Shipping tab
- Click on Add shipping zone button
- Here you need to add Zone name, select state regions (or the entire US) and add shipping method by clicking to Add shipping method button.
- From the dialog box choose USPS option.
- After you have added the USPS shipping option for the US zone, click on the USPS link to edit the configuration.
- On the edit screen there are several options you need to configure based on your preferences. There is one mandatory option - Origin Postcode. This is the zip code from where you will mail items. You must enter this value in order to use the USPS shipping option.
- If you want to fetch the standard rates from USPS directly, you can select the option: Retrieve Standard Service rates from the USPS API.
Using USPS Flat Rate Shipping
If you wish to use USPS Flat rate shipping, you don't need to use the option in WooCommerce -> Settings -> Shipping tab. If you want to use USPS Flat rate shipping, add the dimensions for the flat-rate box as listed below (using the decimal equivalent) that you will use to each product upon setup.
- Priority Mail Large Flat Rate Box - USPS-Produced Box: 23.687 x 11.75 x 3 or 12 x 12 x 5.5
- Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate Box - USPS-Produced Box: 13.625 x 11.875 x 3.375 or 11 x 8.5 x 5.5
- Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box - USPS-Produced Box: 8.625 x 5.375 x 1.625
Also, add the product's approximate weight. The USPS API will then return the proper shipping price. You can edit a product’s weight and dimensions by selecting the Shipping tab on the Product Page.
Letter sizes are as follows.
- Length 5 inch min. - 11.5 inch max
- Height 3.5 inch min. - 6.125 inch max
- Max thickness: 0.25 inch
- Max weight: 1 oz. (0.0625 lbs)
Free Shipping
If no dimensions are set, USPS returns the small package price ($8.30). Therefore, there are two options for providing free shipping:
- Set the product up as a virtual product on the edit product page (we recommend this)
- Set dimensions above the UPS allowed dimensions (ie 50x50x50)
If you would like to learn more about how to use the USPS plug-in, please visit the WooCommerce FAQ - USPS Shipping Method.