Free Shipping: 8 Strategies To Boost Sales in 2026

Free shipping is an incentive that ecommerce websites offer to customers by removing delivery charges at checkout. The business can absorb the cost of shipping or account for it elsewhere, such as factoring the cost into the product price. 

Free shipping influences shopping behavior. In “50 Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics 2026,” Baymard Institute found that 40% of US online shoppers who abandoned a cart for reasons other than “just browsing” cited extra costs, including shipping fees, as one of the main reasons. Digital Commerce 360 also found that, over 71% of North America’s top 1,000 retailers offered free shipping in 2024.

This guide covers the types of free shipping, how to set a profitable threshold, ways to control shipping costs, and how to set up free shipping on Shopify.

What is free shipping?

Free shipping is an incentive ecommerce brands use to encourage online shoppers to place an order. They cover the cost of shipping, either site-wide for every order, exclusively for orders over a certain amount (a free-shipping threshold), or for particular customer segments.

With free shipping, customers don’t pay a separate delivery fee at checkout.

Why offer free shipping?

Research and merchant examples show how free shipping can affect purchasing behavior:

Free shipping can support sales

The vast majority (94%) of online shoppers say free shipping influences their purchase decision, according to an AlixPartners 2026 study, and 7 in 10 say it has a “great impact.”

Free shipping can increase average order value (AOV)

A minimum purchase threshold gives customers an incentive to increase their cart value to avoid shipping costs. ONE Championship added a free shipping bar alongside automated cart upsell recommendations and recorded larger cart sizes from their customer base. 

Free shipping can address a major cause of cart abandonment

In the same 2026 report, Baymard found 40% of online shoppers cite extra costs, which include shipping costs, as the reason they abandon their carts. AlixPartners’ study corroborates this: 2 in 3 shoppers abandon their cart when shipping fees exceed $10.

Types of free shipping

There are a few ways to offer free shipping to your customers:

Site-wide free shipping

A site-wide approach gives every customer free shipping, whether they're placing a small first order or returning to buy more. 

Conditional free shipping

Conditional free shipping gives free delivery to customers who meet a specific threshold. Minimum orders are an example. A minimum-order threshold can influence shoppers to spend more to avoid shipping costs. 

Other conditions include people within a certain radius of your store, or for certain customer segments, such as first-time customers or paid membership customers only.

Free shipping for loyalty program members

Free shipping can also work as a loyalty program perk. A 2026 survey from Attentive of 600 US consumers found that 65% wanted free or faster shipping. 

How to create your free-shipping policy

A free-shipping policy is a framework that tells customers how, when, and under what conditions they can expect to pay nothing for delivery. 

Your shipping policy should be easy to scan before buying, but detailed enough to answer any shipping questions they might have. A 2025 study by Bringg found 71% of shoppers consider delivery before checkout. 

Answering common shipping and return questions before checkout can help shoppers understand what to expect from an order. Felix Thea, former host of the Shopify Masters podcast, says: “I think the more questions you can answer right off the bat, the less chances the customer has to make objections on buying.”

He continues, “Things like, ‘Can we get free shipping?’ ‘Is it going to be easy to return something? I’m worried that I might not like it, or it might not fit.’ I think those are very common questions that if you can answer right off the bat, it highly reduces the likelihood that they find a reason not to buy.”

Key elements of an effective shipping policy

Cover these essentials when drafting a free shipping policy:

• Eligibility rules: Be up front about what qualifies for free shipping. For example, it might only be applied to orders over $50 or those in the US.
• Geographic coverage: Make it clear where free shipping applies. Do you limit it to domestic orders or offer different thresholds in overseas regions? Gymshark, for example, offers free UK shipping on orders over GB£50. Customers in the US need to spend US$75 to qualify.
• Delivery times: Set clear timelines for when customers should expect their orders to arrive. Under the FTC’s Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule, sellers must have a reasonable basis for any advertised shipping timeframe. And if you don’t state a shipping time, you generally must have a reasonable basis for believing you can ship within 30 days. FTC rules also govern when you need to notify the customer and offer the option to cancel if there’s a delay. Separately, AlixPartners found customers are willing to wait an average of just 2.7 days for free shipping, down from more than 3.5 days in 2025.
• Exclusions: Make a note up front if bulky items, heavy goods, or international deliveries don't qualify. 
• Returns and exchanges: Let shoppers know if your return process ties into your shipping offer (e.g., whether returns are free or if shipping is deducted from a refund). UPS found 81% of shoppers read these policies before buying.

Shipping policy examples from successful stores

Plenty of Shopify stores use free shipping strategically, whether that's flat rate shipping or free shipping on orders over a certain amount.

Here are a few standouts you can take inspiration from:

Death Wish Coffee

Death Wish Coffee offers conditional free shipping for coffee subscription members on orders in the continental US. Subscribers also get 30% off their first shipment and exclusive access to merch.

Ouai

Luxury hair care brand Ouai offers free shipping on orders over $50. The announcement bar on their website automatically adjusts to tell the visitor how much more they need to spend, based on the value of products in their cart:

Package Free

Package Free offers free shipping on orders over $35. Their shipping policy page explains how the incentive isn’t available on international orders.

How to cover the cost of free shipping

Free shipping across the board might not work for your business. Here are eight ways that can help control the cost:

1. Calculate profit margins

Almost two-thirds of brands surveyed by AlixPartners said home delivery wasn’t profitable for them. One way to account for shipping costs is to include some or all of them in the price of your product. 

Free shipping thresholds can also increase the share of orders for which the business pays delivery costs. Peter Dering, founder and CEO of Peak Design, says most of their ecommerce customs qualify for free shipping.

“It has much much higher last-mile delivery [costs], which we're frequently paying for. Most people are over the free-shipping threshold, so it costs more money,” Peter says in a Shopify Masters interview.

Use a free profit margin calculator to ensure free shipping won't cut into your profits. Include the cost of goods sold (COGS) and additional operating expenses like running your online store, warehouse costs, marketing, and other necessary costs to keep your business moving. 

For example, if an item costs $20 to produce and you charge $30 for it, your markup is 50%. That leaves $10 in gross profit before shipping and operating expenses, with a gross product margin of 33.33%. If you offer free shipping, that cost reduces profit on the order. 

2. Set a minimum order value

A free shipping threshold locks free shipping behind a certain order value. AlixPartners found 56% of retailers take this approach and require a minimum order value for free shipping. Skims, for example, offers free domestic shipping on orders over $75 on their website.

To calculate your free shipping threshold:

1. Calculate your average order value (AOV) without shipping costs (for example, $40).
2. Determine your average shipping costs (for example, $8).
3. Calculate your gross profit margin. Subtract your cost of producing product from the total sales and divide that number by your total sales (for example, if your total sales add up $100,000 and your cost is 60,000,thentheformulawouldbe(100,000 - $60,000) / $100,000 = 40% gross profit margin).
4. Propose a minimum cart value (for example, $45).

Next, put your proposed minimum cart value to the test:

1. Determine the difference between the minimum cart value and the AOV ($45 - $40 = $5).
2. Multiply the difference by the gross profit margin ($5.00 x .4 = $2).
3. Subtract the result from the average shipping cost ($8 - $2 = $6).

In this example, raising the order from $40 to $45 generates an estimated $2 in additional gross profit, leaving $6 of the $8 average shipping cost uncovered. The merchant could test a higher threshold or absorb the remaining cost if the economics still work.

Claudia Snoh, cofounder of Kloo, took a similar approach but required a minimum order quantity instead of value. 

“We got rid of the shipping fee and instead we upped our minimum quantity to two bottles per order, so we were able to really satisfy our customers’ needs by reducing the price and eliminating shipping fee, but it also actually made us more profitable on the unit economic side,” Claudia says in a Shopify Masters interview.

3. Limit free shipping to select products

Large or heavy products cost more to ship, so at some point, offering free shipping won't make financial sense. However, if you sell a mixture of products, you might be able to swing free shipping on some of the smaller ones.

Blume Organics takes this approach. They offer free shipping on clothing, jewelry, and accessory orders over $100. Orders containing home products, gifts, and shoes are excluded from free shipping.

4. Limit free shipping by location

If shipping to faraway places gets too expensive, consider offering free shipping only in certain states, provinces, territories, or countries. Thermos, for example, excludes Hawaii and Alaska from their free shipping offer.

You could also reserve free shipping for local delivery orders if you fulfill from a retail store, like Sweet-E’s Bake Shop. They offer free local shipping for customers within a 20-mile radius of their Los Angeles store on orders over $175.

5. Negotiate discounts with shipping carriers

Shipping carriers like USPS, DHL, and UPS ultimately determine your shipping costs. You can connect your account to use your own rates, or let Shopify handle it for you. 

Shopify's shipping offers discounts of up to 88% on shipping labels through exclusive carrier partnerships. “I used to open a tab for every order and print labels one by one,” says Bonny Riddle, founder of Sierra Madre Golf. “My tip: Check off all the orders and create shipping labels in bulk.”

Use carriers' shipping rates calculators

Plug in the package dimensions, weight, and destination into a shipping calculator to get an estimate of what it will actually cost to ship.

A shipping rate estimate lets you set realistic free shipping minimums. If you know it costs you $8 on average to ship an order, setting a free shipping threshold at $50 makes a lot more sense than blindly choosing $30.

Calculators also show how costs vary by zone, size, and weight. That helps you decide whether to exclude bulky or international orders from your free shipping offer.

These major carriers offer shipping calculators:

• USPS price calculator
• UPS calculate cost
• FedEx rate finder
• DHL get a quote

6. Reward specific actions with free shipping

Businesses can also use free shipping as an incentive for other actions, such as:

• Creating an account
• Opting into your loyalty and rewards program
• Signing up for your email newsletter
• Following your social media accounts
• Referring your business to a friend

Partners Coffee takes this approach with their subscription program. Subscribers get free shipping on all orders included in their monthly fee.

7. Launch a free shipping promotion

Consider creating a free shipping promotion for seasonal events and holidays like Christmas, Mother's Day, Father's Day, or Memorial Day. Light Your Home took this approach during Black Friday with an Instagram Reel that offered 20% off plus free shipping. 

You could also offer free shipping coupon codes for people who sign up for your email newsletter. Use Shopify Forms to create an email pop-up form that offers free shipping in exchange for their email address. This allows you to retarget that customer after they leave your site and encourage them to buy.

8. Offer free local pickup

Use retail stores as mini fulfillment centers as an alternative to free shipping. Among customers who used a buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS) option in 2025, 71% did so to avoid shipping costs, up 8% from 2024.

For example, Parachute uses Shopify to manage their BOPIS orders, which average 3,500 annually. Online shoppers see free pickup options at checkout. 

Fast vs. free shipping: What's more important?

Free shipping is a priority for many shoppers. An August 2025 survey of 1000 US adults found that 45% expected free shipping on every order; among those shoppers, 16% said they wouldn’t make a purchase if they had to pay for shipping. 

“In this day and age in the consumer psyche, you are battling against Amazon and how they’ve shifted consumers to think you should have a product at your door in two days,” says Marcus Milione, founder of Minted New York, in a Shopify Masters interview.

However, speed and cost aren’t the only factors shoppers consider. Bringg’s 2025 study found consumers value reliable, flexible delivery over free shipping. Loyalty is on the line for brands who fail to meet these expectations: 55% of shoppers said they would stop buying from a brand after just one negative delivery experience. And even if the reason is outside of your control, 15% of consumers blame the retailer.

Customer expectations around free shipping

Free shipping is now part of what customers expect when they shop online:

What customers really want from free shipping offers

Aside from free delivery, shoppers also consider other aspects, including:

• Shipping speed: A DHL report found that 92% of shoppers want free and fast delivery. Businesses that need additional fulfillment capacity can work with a third-party logistics (3PL) partner through the Shopify Fulfillment Network. 3PL partners like Flexport, ShipBob, and Shipfusion have the infrastructure to fulfill orders quickly, often passing on discounted rates from shipping carriers.
• Convenience: Some 17% of consumers say that convenience is the most important delivery feature when shopping online. Offer a variety of delivery options, such as curbside or in-store pickup, delivery to a parcel locker, or the ability to choose a delivery time slot.
• Sustainable shipping options: Seven in 10 shoppers opt for sustainable products or delivery options when shopping online. Cater to these shoppers with sustainable shipping practices like using eco-friendly packaging, removing packaging to avoid waste, and working with carriers that use electric delivery vehicles.
• Package tracking: Baymard found order-tracking is the most important UX t feature for customers. Shop, for example, has a native parcel tracker that sends pop-up notifications to app users at key points during the delivery process.

How free shipping affects brand loyalty

According to Attentive’s 2026 State of Loyalty report, 38% of shoppers say free and fast shipping options are most likely to bring them back to shop again with a new brand. It beats fair pricing, great customer service, and exclusive loyalty offers.

The same applies to return shipping. Free returns are a major draw for shoppers; 82% cite them as a major consideration when making a purchase. Some 71% say they’re less likely to shop with a retailer again after a poor returns experience.

How to communicate free shipping offers effectively

To spread the word about your free shipping offers:

• Site banners and headers: Add an announcement bar or use the Free Shipping Bar app to highlight your free shipping policy on every page. 
• Pop-ups and slide-ins: Use Shopify Forms to create exit-intent or cart reminders that tell shoppers about your free-shipping incentive.
• Product detail pages: Add a note under the price or in the shipping section. In Salsify’s 2026 consumer research report, 54% of shoppers said free shipping or returns was a factor that made them consider a product high quality and high value. 
• Checkout page nudges: If you offer a threshold, you can include a dynamic progress bar or message, like Ouai’s cart notification.
• Email marketing and SMS: Use Shopify Messaging to call out your shipping policy in your welcome sequence, weave it into promotional campaigns, and highlight it during key shopping periods like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
• Social media: Use Instagram Stories, pinned posts, or TikTok captions to highlight your shipping perks. Heatonist, for example, tell Instagram followers about the free-shipping incentive that comes as part of their loyalty program.

Setting up free shipping on Shopify

Shopify merchants can offer free shipping through shipping rates or discounts. Here’s how to offer free shipping on your Shopify website:

Create a free-shipping rate

The free-shipping rate method allows you to automatically offer free shipping when a customer's order meets price or weight conditions. 

To do this in Shopify:

1. Find the Settings tab.
2. Go to Shipping and delivery.
3. Locate the shipping profile you want to edit.
4. Click Add shipping option.
5. Give it a name, set the Rate type as “Flat”, and set the value of the Price field to 0.
6. Click Done and press Save.

You can also use this method to define which orders don't qualify for free shipping if that's something you offer as standard. 

For example, you could reserve free shipping for orders that are cheap to ship, such as lightweight packages that weigh less than five pounds. This method automatically removes the shipping discount if the products in a customer's cart weigh more than this amount.

Use free-shipping discount codes

A free-shipping discount code removes the price of shipping when an online shopper enters the discount code at checkout.

Here's how to create a free shipping discount code from your Shopify admin:

1. Head to the Discounts tab in Shopify.
2. Click Create discount.
3. Choose Free shipping from the Select discount type menu.
4. In the "Method" section, choose Discount code.
5. Create the code manually or using the Generate random code tool.
6. Review the details and click Save.

If you’re reserving free shipping for certain customer segments, use the Eligibility tab to define them. If it’s exclusive to first-time customers, for example, choose the “Customers who haven’t purchased” segment. 

Create an automatic free-shipping discount

A conditional free shipping discount applies automatically at checkout when an order meets the conditions you set and doesn’t require the customer to enter a code. It's useful when you want to apply custom rules beyond just price or weight.

To do this:

1. Sign into Shopify and go to Discounts.
2. Choose Create discount.
3. Go to Select discount type and press Free shipping.
4. Choose Automatic discount.
5. Create the free shipping code. Set any eligibility, minimum purchase, destination, or usage conditions.
6. Review the details and click Save.

Automatic free shipping removes the need for customers to enter a code manually at checkout. 

You can also use cart subtotals to automatically apply free shipping discounts. For example, with a $50 threshold, the discount automatically applies to eligible orders once the cart subtotal reaches $50. Customers don’t need to enter a discount code.

Free-shipping conditions you can set

If you've decided that conditional free shipping is the best strategy for your online store, Shopify lets you manage discount eligibility from the Discount tab.

For example, you could:

• Set a minimum purchase or quantity threshold
• Make the free-shipping discount exclusive to a particular segment, such as VIP or first-time customers
• Apply a free-shipping discount to specific transactions (e.g.., only one-time purchases and not subscriptions)
• Set a usage limit that only lets a certain amount of customers redeem the free-shipping code
• Exclude specific countries or regions for free shipping
• Configure start and end dates for a time-sensitive free-shipping promotion

Sidekick is on hand to help if you get stuck. The AI assistant can conduct Shopify admin tasks, including creating discount codes. on your behalf. For example, you could say: “Create a free shipping discount code for loyalty program members on orders over $50.”

Should you offer free shipping?

Free shipping can influence purchase decisions, but offering it on every order isn’t the only approach.

Experiment with different types of free shipping—like minimum order thresholds, product limitations, or geographical restrictions—to compare the effect on conversion, average order value, and profit margin.