In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, we discussed a curious and increasingly common WooCommerce request: adding a percentage fee to specific products due to external tariffs.
One client labeled it “Trump Tariff Fee,” while another simply needed to reflect an import surcharge applied to a portion of their inventory.
The naming aside, this sort of request opens up a broader conversation around conditional fees, pricing transparency, and how WooCommerce can adapt to real-world logistics and policy shifts.
Here’s how to handle it from a technical and usability standpoint.
Why Conditional Fees Are Becoming Common
As global supply chains evolve, store owners may encounter region-specific costs—tariffs, environmental fees, or supplier surcharges—that they want to pass on to the buyer.
Rather than hiding these in the product price, some merchants prefer to show them as a separate fee at checkout.
This allows for better transparency, especially when the surcharge only applies to certain items.
How to Implement a Product-Based Fee
WooCommerce doesn’t support per-product checkout fees out of the box, so custom code or a plugin is required. The logic typically checks if products in the cart match a specific category, tag, or product ID, and then applies a fee accordingly.
For example, in one of my upcoming WooCommerce mini plugins, there will be an option to apply a fixed or percentage-based fee only when qualifying products are in the cart. It even lets you customize the label shown at checkout.
How to Communicate the Fee Clearly
It’s important to avoid confusing or alarming customers. If you’re adding a separate fee, label it something neutral like “Import Surcharge” or “Additional Handling Fee.”
Add messaging to the product page or cart to explain the reason for the extra charge.
This keeps the experience transparent and avoids unnecessary support tickets.
Consideration for Tax and Shipping
Depending on your local laws, you might need to determine whether the fee is taxable. Also, make sure the fee doesn’t interfere with shipping logic or coupon calculations.
Testing the full checkout flow—especially with different combinations of affected and unaffected products—is essential.
Final Thoughts
While the phrase “25% Trump Tariff Fee” might raise eyebrows, the underlying request is simple: WooCommerce store owners need flexibility to handle real-world pricing scenarios.
Whether it’s a tariff, recycling deposit, or international shipping adjustment, WooCommerce can be customized to support these cases.
The key is to implement such fees in a technically sound and customer-friendly way.
