Even with Variable Shipping Costs
Why Offer “Free Delivery” in WooCommerce?
Free delivery is one of the most powerful conversion boosters in eCommerce. Studies consistently show that customers are far more likely to complete their purchase if delivery is included in the price.
However, for many store owners — especially those who sell internationally or ship oversized or fragile products — shipping costs are highly variable. This makes it tricky to confidently offer “free” shipping without losing money.
With the Pigee Shipping & Payments plugin for WooCommerce, you can integrate smart shipping logic that calculates your real costs in the background while presenting customers with the magic words: Free Delivery.
The Problem: Variable Shipping Costs
Different customers have different delivery realities:
- Domestic vs. International: Shipping a mug across your own city is vastly different in cost from sending it halfway across the world.
- Product Weight & Size: Small jewellery may cost a few pounds to post, while large framed art could cost £50+.
- Destination Country Rules: Taxes, duties, and customs paperwork can make certain deliveries more expensive.
If you simply set a fixed “free shipping” rule in WooCommerce without factoring these variations into your product pricing, you risk losing profit on certain orders.
The Solution: Concealing Shipping Costs
The secret to offering free delivery — even with variable costs — is to build the shipping cost into your product price and remove shipping as a visible line item during checkout.
This works perfectly with Pigee Shipping & Payments because:
- Pigee automatically calculates your cheapest available shipping rate from multiple carriers.
- You can use this data to set your product prices strategically.
- Pigee handles customs and tax predictions, so there are no surprise losses.
Step-by-Step: How to Show “Free Delivery” While Covering Your Costs
Step 1: Calculate Your Average Shipping Cost
Before you change anything in WooCommerce, you need to know your typical shipping costs.
With Pigee, you can generate shipping quotes for your most common destinations and product sizes. Create an average based on:
- Most frequent destination countries
- Average parcel weight and dimensions
- Historical orders (if available)
Example:
If 70% of your orders are domestic at £4 shipping, and 30% are international at £12, your average cost might be:
(0.7 x £4) + (0.3 x £12) = £2.80 + £3.60 = £6.40
Step 2: Add the Average Cost to Your Product Prices
Adjust your WooCommerce product prices to include that average shipping cost.
Example:
If you currently sell a product for £40 and your average shipping cost is £6.40:
- New price = £46.40 (shown as Free Delivery).
For high-ticket products, the customer won’t notice a small price increase, but they will notice Free Delivery.
Step 3: Set Up “Free Shipping” in WooCommerce
Now that your prices cover the cost, set WooCommerce to only display “Free Delivery” at checkout.
- Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Shipping → Shipping Zones.
- Select your zone (or create one if you haven’t).
- Remove paid shipping methods (e.g., Flat Rate).
- Add a Free Shipping method.
- Set the condition to “Minimum order amount” and make it £0 so it applies to all orders.
Step 4: Hide the Shipping Line from Checkout (Optional)
Even with free shipping set, WooCommerce often still shows “Shipping: Free” in the cart and checkout pages.
If you want a cleaner look — so customers just see the total price — you can hide the shipping row completely.
Option A – Code Snippet
Add this to your functions.php file:
phpCopyEditadd_filter( 'woocommerce_cart_ready_to_calc_shipping', '__return_false', 99 );
Option B – CSS
Go to Appearance → Customise → Additional CSS and paste:
cssCopyEdit.woocommerce-shipping-totals {
display: none !important;
}
Step 5: Use Pigee for Real-Time Shipping Management
Once orders come in, use Pigee to:
- Get the cheapest carrier rates for the actual order.
- Automatically generate labels.
- Handle customs documents.
- Track deliveries.
Even though the customer sees “Free Delivery,” you still get real shipping intelligence in the background.
Example Scenarios for Pigee Users
Tourist-Focused Retailers
Imagine a craft store in Marrakech selling fragile lanterns to tourists. With Pigee integrated into WooCommerce:
- The customer sees “Free Delivery” online.
- The store price already includes the average international shipping cost.
- Pigee picks the cheapest safe carrier — DHL for Europe, FedEx for the USA — behind the scenes.
Hotels Acting as Shipping Agents
A hotel in London helps guests ship forgotten items home. The hotel’s WooCommerce-based service shows “Free Delivery” for all bookings. In reality, the item price includes a flat shipping allowance, and Pigee handles the actual carrier selection.
Personal Shoppers
A Paris-based fashion buyer sources items for international clients. The WooCommerce store lists all products with “Free Delivery,” but Pigee ensures that the built-in shipping cost covers real delivery to clients in the USA, Asia, or Africa.
Benefits of Concealing Shipping Costs
- Higher Conversion Rates: Customers are more likely to buy when they see “Free Delivery.”
- Simplified Checkout: No surprise fees popping up at the last stage.
- Predictable Pricing: You control margins without chasing customers for extra payment.
- Professional Branding: Your store looks premium and customer-focused.
Important Compliance Notes
In some countries, advertising “Free Delivery” while adding the cost into the product price is regulated. For example:
- In the UK, the ASA requires that “free” means no additional cost beyond the product price.
- Always make sure your pricing strategy is honest and legally compliant.
Quick Checklist for WooCommerce “Free Delivery” with Pigee
- ✅ Calculate your average shipping cost using Pigee’s rates.
- ✅ Add that cost into your product prices.
- ✅ Enable “Free Shipping” in WooCommerce.
- ✅ Hide the shipping totals from checkout (optional).
- ✅ Use Pigee to process, track, and optimise shipping in the background.
Conclusion
With the Pigee Shipping & Payments plugin, WooCommerce store owners can offer the magic of “Free Delivery” without risking profit loss — even when real-world shipping costs vary wildly.
By strategically building shipping costs into your product prices and letting Pigee handle the carrier logic in the background, you create a seamless, customer-friendly shopping experience that boosts sales while keeping your business sustainable.
Internal Linking Suggestions for Yoast SEO:
- Link to your own Pigee Plugin Setup Guide article.
- Link to Pigee Batch Shipping CSV Upload guide.
- Link to Pigee for Hotels article.
External Linking Suggestions:
- Link to WooCommerce’s official Free Shipping Docs: https://woocommerce.com/document/free-shipping/