Handling fees

A handling fee is an amount charged to a customer on top of the order subtotal and shipping cost to cover any additional expenses related to order fulfillment.

 

1. How to set up handling fee
2. Notes to take when setting up a handling fee
3. FAQ
   1. Which orders does the handling fee apply to?
   2. When the handling fee is not applied to orders?

The handling fee is fixed and is charged once per order. You can use it to cover your expenses for packing and preparing an order before shipping. It doesn’t depend on the shipping rate and may include:

• shipping materials
• gift wrapping
• parcel insurance
• additional services such as delivery and/or signature confirmation

The handling fee with description are displayed to customers during checkout. Here is how the handling fee looks on the store page:

           

How to set up handling fee

1. Open Shipping page of control panel, proceed to Handling fee tab and click "Change" button
2. Set the name of the fee
3. Set the handling fee value. By default the handling fee is set as $0 and therefore it doesn’t show up on the shopping cart page.
4. Add a short description to inform your customers of what is included in the cost.

            

In order to disable handling fee in your store you should change the rate to $0.

Notes to take when setting up a handling fee

We recommend to provide a clear outline of what the charge includes and how you will be handling the order before shipping. It will inform customers of what they are paying for.

Keeping your handling fees low will help reduce cart abandonment. In case you need to increase shipping rates in the background, please consider shipping markup for carrier-calculated shipping methods or user-defined shipping methods.

FAQ

Which orders does the handling fee apply to?

Handling fee is applied to each order, that requires shipping. The rate is static and will stay the same no matter the order subtotal, weight or number of items being purchased.

Handling fee is applied to each shipping method that is configured in your Control panel → System settings → Shipping page, including free shipping methods. Thus, in case you offer free self pickup shipping option to your customers, you are still able to charge them for packaging.

When the handling fee is not applied to orders?

Handling fee is cleared and doesn’t show up on the shopping cart page in three cases:

1. All of the products added to the bag have free delivery. The free shipping for certain product is set up in Control panel → Catalog → Products → a product page → Tax and Shipping tab.
2. Customer used the free-shipping discount coupon.
3. E-goods. The digital products do not require shipping. Hence, the handling fee is not applied to the order cost as well.

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