How to Add Handling Extra Fees for Free Shipping in WooCommerce

Free shipping attracts customers, but it often leaves store owners covering hidden fulfillment costs. This use case shows how to add a small handling fee to free shipping orders to keep operations sustainable.

Overview

By applying a flat handling fee when customers choose free shipping, you can recover costs like packaging materials, fulfillment time, and labor, without removing the appeal of free delivery. (Plugin Feature: Free Shipping Threshold Fees)

Business Impact Example: Charging even a small $2 handling fee on free shipping orders can recoup packaging and labor costs, especially when order volume is high. Over time, this small adjustment helps protect your profit margins.

Preconditions

  • Extra Fees plugin is installed and activated.
  • Free shipping method is already configured in WooCommerce

Steps (Basic Flow)

  1. Go to Dashboard > Extra Fees
  2. Click Add New Fee
  3. Name the fee: Free Shipping Handling Fee
  4. Set Fee Type to: Fixed
  5. Set Amount to: $9

  6. Under Conditions, choose Shipping Method, then select Free Shipping

  7. Click Save Fees

  8. At checkout, the fee will be automatically added when free shipping is selected

Alternate Flow

  • If the customer chooses a paid shipping method, no handling fee will be applied.

Expected Outcome

  • Helps you recover fulfillment costs while still offering the benefit of free shipping to customers
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