Are you thinking of charging WooCommerce additional fees on checkout?
Sometimes, store owners need to charge an extra amount for various reasons, such as packaging, handling, and COD charges.
However, WooCommerce has no features that allow you to charge an additional amount at the checkout.
Plus, it’s important to be transparent about the additional charges as otherwise, it may lead to frustrated shoppers, abandoned carts, or disputes that hurt your business reputation.
In this blog, we’ll guide you through step-by-step methods to charge WooCommerce additional fees on checkout.
Let’s begin.
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Additional fees at checkout can help you cover costs not included in the base product price.
Whether packaging, customizations, or taxes, additional fees ensure you don't lose money and protect profit margins.
Here are some common scenarios where applying checkout fees makes sense:
Shipping and handling often incur extra costs, such as special packaging, fragile item care, or delivery to remote areas. If you don’t charge your customers this extra cost, it can affect your profit margin. That’s why many store owners charge a handling charge as additional fees on the checkout page.
COD transactions involve more risk and administrative effort, such as verifying addresses and handling returns for unpaid items. Charging an extra amount encourages customers to use prepaid options and reduces their financial exposure.
Service-oriented businesses, such as event organizers or restaurants, often add service fees to cover operational expenses. For example, an online ticket booking platform might charge an extra fee per ticket to manage their booking systems and customer support.
When offering personalized options like engraving, embroidery, or gift wrapping, a customization fee ensures the business recoups its costs.
In case customers want a faster delivery than usual, you can ask for additional fees at the checkout once they choose the shipping option. This will help cover the extra costs for fast delivery and ensure your customer is happy.
Processing small orders can sometimes cost more than the revenue they generate. Adding a minimum order fee ensures you cover logistical expenses.
Eco-conscious businesses can promote sustainability by charging an environmental fee. For example, a clothing brand might add a small fee for biodegradable shipping bags, helping offset the cost of eco-friendly materials. Customers who value sustainability often support such initiatives.
Additional fees for taxes or duties might be necessary for international sales or region-specific regulations. Therefore, global businesses can charge fees for international orders to ensure compliance with local laws.
Adding fees at checkout is about covering costs, creating transparency, and maintaining trust. Move to the next section to find out the benefits.
Adding additional fees during checkout is not just a way to cover costs; it’s a strategic approach that benefits store owners in multiple ways.
Here’s how:
Every business faces extra costs beyond the product price, such as packaging, shipping, or administrative expenses. Charging additional fees ensures these costs don’t eat into your profits.
Adding fees like a minimum order fee or cash-on-delivery surcharge can help your business. For example, a $2 minimum order fee might make customers add more items to their cart. A cash-on-delivery fee could encourage them to choose prepaid options, making things easier for you.
You can increase your profit margins by charging for customizations, environmental initiatives, or handling special requests. For example, adding a $10 fee for personalized engraving on products ensures the extra time and effort are monetized.
Transparent fees build customer trust. Clearly explaining additional charges—like a $1 eco-friendly packaging fee—helps customers understand the value they’re getting while aligning with ethical business practices.
For international or region-specific sales, charging additional fees for taxes or duties ensures compliance with regulations. This avoids penalties and provides a smoother checkout experience for customers, even when cross-border complexities are involved.
Store owners who run eco-friendly businesses can charge environmental fees to support green practices, like using biodegradable packaging or funding carbon offset programs. Customers who care about sustainability are often happy to pay, helping you build a stronger, greener brand.
Charging additional fees is a smart business move that supports sustainable growth as you charge money for legitimate reasons and maintain transparency.
Let’s move on to the next section to learn how to charge additional fees at checkout in your WooCommerce store.
To charge additional fees on WooCommerce checkout, we will use the Extra Fees Plugin for WooCommerce by the Dropstore. This freemium plugin allows you to charge additional fees on the checkout page.
We're using this plugin because it allows you to charge additional fees for all orders, as well as based on various conditions like order total, shipping methods, payment methods, and more.
Here, we will show how to charge an additional handling charge for every order on your WooCommerce store. The free version is enough to add this option to your WooCommerce store.
Follow these steps to add WooCommerce additional fees on checkout :
The first step is to install and activate the Extra Fees plugin for WooCommerce. To do this, navigate to Plugins ⇒ Add New Plugin, search for the product, and install it. After successfully installing, make sure to activate the plugin.
Now, to add the additional handling charge, navigate to DotStore Plugin ⇒ WooCommerce Extra Fees and hit Add New next to product fees.
Next, configure the following:
With the free version, you can make it taxable if you want.
Now, make sure to hit the Save Fee button. Now, place a test order to check if the additional handing charge you set is being implemented at checkout.
🔔Note: This beautiful multi-step checkout shown above is built with the Shoppe template of FunnelKit Funnel Builder.
If you followed the steps properly, your checkout page should be ready to charge additional fees.
With the Extra Fees plugin for WooCommerce, you can charge additional fees on checkout based on different conditions. Here are some of the conditions you can set
Charging an extra fee for COD helps cover the additional handling costs and risks. This includes delayed payments, higher cancellation rates, and the extra logistics involved in cash transactions, ensuring your business remains efficient and protected.
With the premium version of the WooCommerce extra fee plugin, you can charge an additional fee when someone chooses COD as their payment method. For this, choose the payment method conditional matrix and set the value equal to Cash On Delivery.
🔔 Note: You can add other payment methods as well like Bank transfer, BNPL methods, etc. In addition, you can restick this additional fee to a particular country as well.
Here, we have set multiple conditions to charge additional fees for cash on delivery and direct transfer methods only for users of the United States.
You can set additional fees only for specific countries or cities. For this, set a fee as we did in the earlier section and add a condition using either the city parameter or country.
Here, we are setting a handling charge only for Canadian customers.
🔔 Note: With the premium version of the plugin, you can pay location-specific fees for specific states, zip codes, and zones.
You can only charge additional fees if customers choose to buy certain products or products from certain categories. Again, set up a fee and conditions for this.
With the free version, you can set conditions based on parameters like Cart contains product, cart contains variable products, cart contains tags product, and cart contains product quantity.
Here, we set up a fee to charge people who buy a certain item.
🔔 Note: With the premium version of this plugin, you can use another product-specific parameter like cart, which contains category product and attribute.
With the free version, you can charge a specific user using their email address.
🔔 Note: With the premium, you can charge additional fees based on the User role.
Apart from these, you can also set conditions based on purchase history, shipping method, payment gateway, etc. The process remains the same. To use the premium feature, just upgrade to the paid version.
Adding fees at checkout can help cover operational costs or encourage prepaid payment methods over COD. However, it should be done carefully to maintain customer trust and satisfaction.
Here are five best practices to get it right:
1. Be transparent about fees
Display additional fees in the checkout process and explain why they are applied. Don’t charge people without telling them why; this may lead to cart abandonment. Transparency is non-negotiable when it comes to gaining customer trust.
2. Charge for specific payment options only
You can charge additional fees for selective payment methods like Cash on Delivery (COD). Customers understand that COD involves higher risks or processing costs, making the fee feel justified.
3. Set a fair and reasonable fee
Never overcharge, as it may put the customers off guard, causing you to lose the customer. The fee is proportional to the extra cost incurred. Excessive fees can deter customers from completing their purchases, while reasonable fees are more acceptable.
4. Don’t charge high-value customers
In increasing customer loyalty to your brand, you can treat your VIP customers, especially by not charging them the additional fee as you do with average customers. This way, the high-value customers will feel valued and likely stay loyal to your brand and make repeat purchases.
5. Waive fees for orders above a certain order total
By waiving fees for orders worth a certain order total, you can encourage customers to add more items to their cart to reach that target order total, increasing sales and order value. Set a minimum order total that ensures the value of the order covers the extra costs you’re choosing not to charge the customer.
By following these practices, you can implement additional fees without harming the customer experience while ensuring your business stays profitable.
While charging extra fees at the checkout may impact sales, transparency in your strategy can make it profitable.
If an order costs you extra, you can legit charge the customer, but make sure they know why you add additional fees.
By implementing fees strategically, you can recover operational costs, manage risks, and encourage customers to choose more efficient payment options.
However, the key is balancing profitability with customer satisfaction.
For this, you need transparency about additional fees at checkout and a well-optimized checkout process.
With FunnelKit Funnel Builder, you can create a seamless, conversion-focused checkout experience that supports additional fee structures and encourages customer retention and higher order values.
So start charging additional fees and optimize your checkout page to boost conversion.
