How to set up free shipping on Shopify To Generate More Sales

Offering free standard shipping is one of the best ways to generate more buyers on Shopify. After all, 79% of American consumers are more likely to buy from an online store that offers free shipping on orders.

If you want to offer free shipping and take hold of the many benefits, then here are some useful tips on How to set up free shipping on Shopify.

Why Offer Free Shipping?

If you want to offer free shipping, make sure to know why it’s a good idea for your online Shopify store.

Here are the many exciting benefits that come with this offer:

Increase Sales

Clients are more likely to buy in an online store that offers free shipping on orders online..

Here are some statistics that will surely make you activate the free shipping bar on your shipping profile:

  • Shopify stores that offer a free shipping rate can increase revenue by as much as 10%.
  • Offering free shipping rate can increase the conversion rate to about 50%.
  • Free shipping on orders online increases orders by 90%.
  • You can get as much as 48% more new customers with the lure of a free shipping rate and shipping discount.

Increases Average Order Value

Free shipping offers so much enticement that clients will spend more and more to reach the minimum and maximum free shipping rate. 52% of shoppers will add more items to avail of free shipping.

Reduce Cart Abandonment

According to a report, 58% of buyers abandon their carts because the shipping rates make everything seem costly. Yes, the cost of shipping is one of the critical factors why potential buyers left their items on a cart instead of buying them. 

Free shipping rates will convince the clients to complete the purchase process, something any owner wants for its Shopify website.

Tip: If you can't provide free shipping entirely, sending such an offer to those with abandoned carts may prod them to make the purchase once and for all.

Promote Customer Loyalty

It's not enough to get new customers – you'd want the existing ones to make purchases again and again. You can do so easily by providing free shipping.

Apart from shipping discount, offering an excellent shipping service will keep your buyers coming back.

Better Marketing Techniques

Instead of paying $5 for every paid advertisement, why not invest it in shipping rates instead? Just think of free shipping rates as one of your operational costs.

To wit, you don't levy your website hosting or SEO costs to your clients – you treat them as necessary expenses for store operations. If you factor in shipping the way you do others, you can offer it for free without losing much revenue.

How to Cover Free Shipping Rates

By selling products commonly available in the marketplace, you have tough competition. To generate sales, you need to sell at lower prices than the competitor that barely makes profits.

You don't need to think twice about free shipping rates. You can always cover and control the shipping rates by doing the following:

Calculate Shipping Rates Into Product Pricing

Before listing your product on your Shopify app, you should consider the shipping rates and the related charges. After all, it can be affected by a variety of factors, such as:

  • Package dimension
  • Product weight
  • Destination/shipping zone
  • Insurance value
  • Delivery time (standard or express)
  • Customs and duties (for international deliveries)

Optimize Packaging

Most shipping companies base the cost of shipping on the weight based on the product, product size, and volume. With that being said, the best way to save on shipping rates is to optimize packaging.

It’s essential to have various packaging options available, mainly if you sell items that differ in size. You don’t want to pack your cosmetics in a more oversized parcel as you will end up paying higher shipping rates.

Different Service Providers

Sticking with one courier company may earn you a shipping discount. However, you can get more shipping discounts if you sign up with different courier providers.

Think about this: USPS regional services offer cheaper services for nearby areas, while FedEx and UPS are better for cross-country deliveries.

Remember, competition keeps the market healthy. When one company knows that you’re dealing with another company, the chances are high that they will offer a lower shipping rate to keep you in. 

Utilize Fulfilment Services

You can send your products into warehouses that specialize in fulfilling orders.

While you need to pay a fee for the services, it’s still cheaper in the long run. Shipping rates are reduced as well due to the proximity of the warehouse to your customers.

Limited Offers

Even if your Shopify website has limited resources, you can still offer free shipping rates. You just need to create a limited-time offer.

For example, if your warehouse is in Texas, you could offer free shipping rates within the states. You could levy lower costs for nearby states and higher ones for farther areas.

How to Set Up Free Shipping Discount in Shopify

Now that you know why it’s vital to offer free shipping on Shopify, it’s time to start setting up your free shipping discounts!

Here are the steps on how to set up free shipping on Shopify:

  1. Go to your Shopify admin page.
  2. Click Shipping Settings > Shipping and Delivery.
  3. Go to the Shipping Profile where you want to add a Free Shipping rate. Next to the shipping profile where you want to add a free shipping rate, Click the option “Manage Shipping Rates.”
  4. Select the shipping zones where you would like to create Free Shipping rates. Click Add Rate and enter the name of the shipping rate.
  5. Ensure that the price based is set to 0.
  6. Click on “Done” then “Save” to confirm the free Shopify shipping offer.

Tip: You can set shipping rules according to weight based or value. After step 5, Click Add Conditions and add weight base. Depending on the weight based or value, you can go ahead and enter the minimum and maximum value for your free shipping rate on a specific shipping zone and click done.

shopify free shipping

Shipping Rate Options

It’s understandable if you can’t always offer free shipping rate. However, you can still take advantage of the perks by offering free shipping promo from time to time. Here are some free shipping rate options that won’t hurt your budget:

Here are some free shipping rate options that won’t hurt your budget:

Shipping Rate For Limited Time Offers

How about offering free shipping rate for a particular day on different shipping zone? This will lead to more sales, which could help offset the costs of the promo.

Tip: Set this during payday, so your customers have enough funds to buy products from your Shopify store.

Free Shipping Rate With Specific Price Point

Offering a free shipping rate for a collection of low-priced items is not feasible.

You need to offer a free shipping rate with a particular purchase. It will help you generate more sales and increase the average order value as well!

Selected Locations Free Shipping Rate

Shipping price based depends on the shipping destination. If you’re based shipping is in California, you can expect to pay a higher shipping fee for a Honolulu shipment than a Los Angeles purchase.

With that being said, you can try and propose a free shipping rate for shipping zones that come with a cheaper shipping rate. While it may hamper your acquisition of new customers, the revenue you make with this offer can help you finance more shipments in the future.

Free shipping rate on specific products

Are there items that don't sell as well as the others? This can be frustrating, especially if the product is a high-priced one.

If you want to clear this product off your shelf, you should create a free shipping rate. Not only will this help you get more profits, but it will also give you space to stock more items.

Cheap flat-rate shipping rate

If you can’t shoulder the entire shipping rate, you could always relegate some amount to the customer.

What’s good about cheap, flat-rate shipping is the transparent cost. This helps build trust, as customers don’t have to keep guessing about the shipping rate that they need to pay.

Tip: Offer the price according to most of your item’s dimensions. If you sell small trinkets or cosmetics, a $5 fee may be okay. But for more oversized items, you may need to increase the shipping rate a little bit. If you offer both, consider the average shipping costs as it will help you determine the most sustainable amount for your store.

Membership program

Everybody wants to be part of a clique. The same thing applies to retail membership programs.

Not only will this boost customer loyalty, but it can also help you make more sales and generate better revenues.

This is one of the things that make Amazon a leader in the industry. Yes, 78% of its Amazon Prime members signed up for the program because of the free shipping rate.

Just think of this: the membership fees that come with such a program can help you offset the shipping discounts that you offer. And when your clients get accustomed to such perks, there's a tendency for them to sign up for the program again next year.

Offering Shopify free shipping is one of the best ways to attract more customers. It’s pretty easy, too, as you can do it in six easy steps.

While it entails sacrificing some revenue initially, offering free shipping has benefits that will eventually pay off.