Creating a table of shipping rates with Table Rate Shipping

Getting live rates works very well for shipping small- to medium-sized packages. It doesn't work very well when you want to ship something large such as furniture or something heavy such as sand. You'll most likely have to contract a shipping provider that doesn't have a plugin and you'll have to create your own rates. That is exactly why Table Rate Shipping exists—for such custom scenarios.

One of the things Table Rate Shipping is very good at is having different pricing rules for different geographic regions. If you deliver furniture you most likely have a rate for local delivery, another rate for delivery in the state, another rate for out-of-state purchases, and a rate for international sales. These can be very easily set up with Table Rate Shipping.

Getting ready

Make sure shipping is enabled on your site. See the Setting a minimum order amount to unlock free shipping recipe in this chapter to see how that is done. You'll need...