How to Set Up Free Shipping Over a Threshold in Shopify

Shoppers hate paying for shipping, and many stores lose them on the checkout page when an unexpected fee shows up. A free shipping threshold, such as “free shipping on orders over $60”, fixes two problems at once. It takes the fee away for bigger orders and gives customers a reason to add one more item. Shopify can do this without any app, but the settings are spread across shipping profiles, zones and discounts, so it is easy to set it up in a way that charges the wrong customers or stops checkout altogether.

This guide walks through the native ways to set up free shipping over a minimum order amount in Shopify, how to pick a threshold that makes sense for your margins, how to tell customers about it on your storefront, and how to test the setup before a real order goes wrong.

How Shopify decides which shipping rate a customer sees

Before changing anything, it helps to know how the parts fit together. In the Shopify admin, shipping is built from three layers:

• Shipping profiles decide which products share the same rates. Most small stores only have the general profile, which covers every product.
• Shipping zones sit inside each profile and group countries or regions that pay the same rates, for example “Domestic” and “Rest of world”.
• Shipping options (rates) sit inside each zone. A rate can be flat, based on the order amount, based on weight, or calculated by a carrier or app.

At checkout, customers see no rates until they enter a delivery address. Shopify then shows only the rates that apply to that address and that order, and it selects the cheapest one by default. If the customer changes the order at checkout, the rates are calculated again. That last point matters for free shipping: when an order crosses your threshold, the free rate appears and becomes the default choice because it is the cheapest.

One more thing to check first: Shopify is gradually rolling out a newer setup called shipping options by market, which moves shipping settings into Markets in the admin. It is only available to some stores in early access. If your admin still shows shipping profiles under Settings > Shipping and delivery, the steps below are the ones that apply to you.

Choose your threshold before you touch the settings

A threshold that is too low gives away shipping on orders that would have happened anyway. A threshold that is too high is ignored, because nobody wants to double their basket to save a few dollars. A practical way to pick a number:

1. Find your average order value. Open Analytics in the Shopify admin and look at the average order value for the last few months. This is your starting point.
2. Set the threshold a little above it. The goal is to nudge a typical customer into adding one more product, not to change how they shop. If your average order is $48 and your cheapest add-on product costs $15, a threshold of around $60 puts free shipping one small item away.
3. Check the margin. Take your real shipping cost for an average parcel and subtract it from the profit on an order at the threshold. If the order is still profitable, the threshold works. If not, raise it or limit free shipping to your domestic zone.
4. Keep one number everywhere. The same amount has to appear in your shipping settings, your announcement bar, your product pages and any discount. Changing it later means updating all of them.

If you are unsure, start slightly higher than you think you need. Lowering a threshold later feels like a gift to customers; raising it feels like a price increase.

Method 1: Add free shipping to an existing shipping option

This is the fastest method if you already charge a flat rate, for example $6.95 standard shipping, and you simply want that same option to become free above a certain amount. According to Shopify’s shipping rates guide, the steps are:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
2. In the Shipping profiles section, click the profile you want to edit (usually the general profile).
3. In the Shipping zones section, find the shipping option, open its menu (the horizontal dots) and click Edit shipping option.
4. Select Offer free shipping and enter the minimum order amount that qualifies.
5. Click Done, then click Save.

Repeat this for every zone where you want the offer. If you only want free shipping at home, edit the domestic zone and leave international zones as they are. Customers below the threshold keep seeing the normal price; customers above it see the same option at no charge.

Method 2: Build order amount tiers

Tiers give you more control. Instead of one rate that turns free, you set a price for each order range. A common pattern for a small store looks like this:

Order amount	Shipping price	Why
$0 to $29.99	$7.95	Covers the parcel cost on small orders
$30 to $59.99	$4.95	A softer step that rewards a mid-size basket
$60 and up (no maximum)	Free	The threshold you advertise

To set it up:

1. Go to Settings > Shipping and delivery and open the shipping profile.
2. In the zone you want, click Add shipping option and enter a name customers will see at checkout, such as “Standard shipping”.
3. From the Rate type drop-down menu, select Order amount.
4. For the first range, enter a Minimum, a Maximum and a Price. Click the plus icon to add the next range.
5. For the top range, enter your threshold as the minimum, leave the Maximum empty and leave the price empty or enter 0 so it is free.
6. Click Done, then Save.

The empty maximum on the top tier is the most important detail on this page. Shopify’s documentation warns that if an order is bigger than your highest tier’s maximum, no rate applies and the customer gets a shipping error. In other words, your best customers would be the ones who cannot check out.

If you want to keep a paid express option next to free standard shipping, add a second shipping option in the same zone, for example a flat “Express” rate. Customers over the threshold then see free standard shipping selected by default and can still choose to pay for faster delivery.

Method 3: Use a free shipping discount instead

The shipping settings apply to everyone in a zone. When you need more control, a free shipping discount is the better tool. Shopify’s free shipping discount guide covers both versions:

1. Go to Discounts > Create discount and choose Free shipping.
2. Under Method, choose Discount code (customers type a code) or Automatic discount (applied by itself, with a title customers see in the cart and at checkout).
3. In the minimum requirements section, choose Minimum purchase amount and enter your threshold.
4. In Countries, keep all countries or select the ones that qualify. You can also tick Exclude shipping rates over a certain amount so the discount never covers an expensive express rate.
5. Set the Combinations and active dates, then save.

A discount is the right choice for a limited-time promotion (“free shipping this weekend”), for a code you only give to email subscribers or customer segments, or when you want free shipping to cover only cheaper rates. Shopify notes that only product prices count toward the minimum purchase amount and taxes never count.

Watch the combinations. If the free shipping discount is allowed to combine with a product discount, the product discount lowers the subtotal first, so a customer with a 20% code may drop below your minimum. If the discounts cannot combine, the customer only gets one of them. Decide which outcome you want before you launch a sale.

Free shipping for specific products only

Sometimes the threshold should not apply to everything. Bulky furniture, heavy equipment or fragile items can cost more to ship than any small order earns. The native fix is a custom shipping profile:

1. In Settings > Shipping and delivery, create a new custom shipping profile and add the products that need their own rules.
2. Add zones and rates to that profile, for example a flat rate that is never free.
3. Keep your free shipping threshold in the general profile, which now covers everything else.

The reverse also works: put a few small, light products in their own profile with a free flat rate if you want those items to always ship free. Be aware that when one order contains products from several profiles, Shopify combines the rates from each profile, so test a mixed basket to see what the customer will actually pay.

Tell customers about the threshold

A threshold only raises order values if shoppers know about it before checkout. You do not need an app for the basics. Most Online Store 2.0 themes, including Shopify’s free themes, can show the offer with built-in sections:

• Announcement bar: go to Online Store > Themes > Customize, select the announcement bar in the header area and enter a short message such as “Free US shipping on orders over $60”. Link it to your shipping policy page.
• Product page: add a text block near the price or the buy button on the product template with the same message. If you use custom product templates for different product types, which we covered in how to create a custom product template in Shopify, add the block to each template.
• Cart: a short line in the cart that repeats the threshold reminds customers who are just under it. Some themes include a free shipping progress bar in the cart drawer; check your theme’s settings before installing anything.
• Shipping policy: update the policy under Settings > Policies so the threshold, the zones it covers and any excluded products are written down.

If you want a progress bar or more advanced cart messages, our round-up of Shopify shipping apps lists options. Make sure any app or theme bar uses exactly the same amount as your shipping settings, or customers will see one number in the cart and a different result at checkout.

Design helps here too. A store built on a page-builder template already has space for promotional strips and trust badges. Fashionify, a T-shirt template built with PageFly, suits stores selling lower-priced items where a threshold is what turns one shirt into two, and Coatify, a coats and jackets template, has product layouts where a “free shipping over $X” line sits naturally under the price.

Test before customers do

Shipping rules fail quietly. Nothing warns you in the admin; a customer simply sees the wrong price or an error. After every change, run through checkout yourself:

1. Add products worth just under your threshold to the cart, go to checkout and enter an address in the zone. You should see the paid rate.
2. Add one more item so the cart is just over the threshold. The free rate should appear and be selected.
3. Test a very large order to confirm there is no shipping error from a missing top tier.
4. Test an address in a zone that should not get free shipping.
5. Apply one of your active discount codes to an order just above the threshold and check whether free shipping is still offered.

You do not need to complete payment to see the rates; they show at the shipping step. Shopify’s troubleshooting and testing guide covers more cases if something still looks wrong.

Common mistakes

• A maximum on the top tier. Orders above it get no rate at all. Leave the last maximum empty.
• Forgetting other zones. Free shipping in the domestic zone does nothing for a customer in another zone, which is fine if intended but confusing if your banner says “free shipping” with no country.
• Threshold mismatch. The banner says $50, the shipping rate says $60. Customers notice and contact support, or leave.
• Discounts pushing orders under the line. A sale can drop a $65 basket to $52. Decide whether that customer should still get free shipping, then set up combinations or rates to match.
• Missing product weights. If you mix weight-based rates with free shipping, products without accurate weights can calculate wrong. Check weights on each product.
• Countries not in an active market. A zone only works for countries that are in an active market, so customers outside your markets cannot order no matter what your rates say.

Wrap-up: your next step

Start simple. Pull your average order value from Analytics, choose a threshold one small product above it, and add it with Offer free shipping on your domestic standard rate. Put the same number in your announcement bar and on your product pages, then test an order just under and just over the line. After a few weeks, compare your average order value with the period before. If it went up and margins held, keep the threshold; if not, adjust it or move to order amount tiers.

Once the threshold is live, the next lever is giving customers easy things to add. Product bundles and add-ons work well for this, and our list of Shopify product bundle apps is a good place to look for options that fit your store.