Enabling free shipping proves one of the most effective ways to generate more sales for eCommerce stores, including Shopify.
Setting up Shopify free shipping rates is simple. However, how to utilize it to increase your bottom line is totally a different story.
The topic for discussion today centers on Shopify free shipping, why you should offer it in your store, how to create it, as well as helpful tips to use it efficiently.
- Why Free Shipping?
- How to Add Free Shipping to Your Shopify Store
- 5 Shopify Free Shipping Tips to Boost Sales
Why Free Shipping?
Free shipping comes as a common marketing practice of online businesses that incentivize customers to shop right away. Consumers always get attempted by the idea of getting something free, don’t they?
On the surface, some people may think that store owners will lose their shipping fee to free. However, they’re setting a sprat to catch a mackerel.
The statistics below will show you why your business should offer free shipping:
- Baymard Institute points out that high shipping fees are the number-one cause of cart abandonment, which accounted for 49%.
- 61% of buyers would abandon their carts if there were an extra cost including shipping fees.
- In North American, 50% of customers will leave their carts on the spot if they run into some shipping cost.
- A report from Deloitte showed that 20% of online shoppers admit that “free shipping” plays the top reason for them to shop at certain stores.
- Invesp also states in their research that 61% of consumers are about to cancel their purchase if free shipping is not included. Meanwhile, available free shipping options will encourage 93% of online shoppers to buy more products.
On top of that, customers find free shipping even “twice as compelling as “percent off” offers.”
Aware of how people are addicted to free shipping, 30 biggest eCommerce merchants did ship over 50% of their orders for free. (Invesp)
As you can see, to consumers, free delivery is of paramount importance. It’s almost a basic and legitimate expectation when they shop online.
To business owners, free shipping not only encourages customers to buy more and increase order values but also lets you build a good relationship with them. This helps you win the edge over your competitors easily.
If you haven’t enabled free delivery on your Shopify store, you should do it now by taking our following guide on how to set up Shopify free shipping.
How to Create Free Shipping Rates to Your Shopify Store
Shopify allows you to add free shipping rates to your stores based on shipping zones, orders, products, weights, and customers. Among them, setting free shipping zones frees customers from paying shipping fees at checkout.
- Log into your Shopify admin dashboard, head to Settings > Shipping and delivery
- Navigate to the shipping profile that you want to set a free shipping rate and choose Manage rates
- In the zones where you plan to add a free shipping rate, click Add rate, then fill in the name for the rate
- Change the price value to 0
- Click Done > Save
Notes: You can adjust your settings for other free shipping rates with specific conditions after step 4.
- Free shipping over a certain value: Click Add conditions > Based on order price, then input a minimum price.
- Free shipping over a certain weight: Click Add conditions > Based on item weight then fill in minimum weight.
- Free shipping for specific products: Set weight-based or value-based conditions by:
- Select Add conditions
- Decide whether to set the condition based on order weight or value
- Enter the minimum and maximum values for the condition
In general, creating Shopify free shipping is just a breeze. However, not everyone knows how to make use of it to boost their sales.
In the next section, we’ll shed light on 5 useful tips on using Shopify free shipping effectively to notch up your sales.
5 Shopify Free Shipping Tips to Boost Sales
#1. Limit Shopify Free Shipping Zones
Though the main idea is providing free delivery on your Shopify store, it’s not necessary to set free shipping rates to all countries and locations.
The tip here refers to defining different Shopify free shipping conditions to different countries. Plus, each region or certain area in a country can have multiple free shipping rates.
This is because the buying habit of each destination is not the same. What’s more, some areas are in such remote distances that don’t make free shipping any sense to your business.
For instance, people in North America seem really serious about free shipping while consumers in the south pay more attention to payment options rather than freeship. As such, you can choose to set 100% freeship to the north zone, while narrowing that percentage down to 50-30% for the south.
In addition, shipping internationally takes a long time, extra fees, and involves a complex process. So you can depend on specific regions to set some limitations on shipping promo.
#2. Enable Free Shipping to Certain Items, Customers, or Specific Price Points
In a nutshell, customers can win free delivery if their purchase reaches or passes a certain value, such as set weights or billings.
Of course, it isn’t worth much if you offer free delivery for something that costs just only $20. So how about raising the cost up to $50 or $100? Store owners often make use of this strategy by releasing vouchers saying “Buy $30 more to reach free shipping standards” or “Get one more product to unlock your freeship voucher.”
Plus, not all items can you provide freeship. If you sell digital products on Shopify, how can you charge or uncharge for shipping?
Besides, electronic devices or extra-large, unique-shaped home furniture usually require many rules for shipment, not to mention extra fees and special delivery services.
For these items, it’s highly recommended to utilize this method: offering 30% off on shipments for the first purchase, then 35% or 40% off if they return to your store. On top of that, you can give them 50% off on delivery to celebrate their “milestone” of spending a “silver” amount of money on your store.
#3. Free vs Express Shipping
Free shipping doesn’t need to be blazing fast. If your customers want to get their products as soon as possible, they can choose express shipping instead.
So the tip here is to include at least 2 preferable shipping options for your online shoppers to choose from. The first one is free but time-consuming. The other one costs a little bit but they can get their favorite items real fast.
By doing so, you let your customers decide which carries more weight to them, low cost or fast shipping. If the answer falls on the latter, they don’t mind paying extra bucks to have their goods showed up on their front door within 2 days.
And as a store owner, you’re so thoughtful and generous enough to set up Shopify free shipping, while letting them make the choice. Bear in mind that express delivery always comes with delivery date accuracy.
#4. Offer Holiday and Event-Based Promotions
Holiday and events such as Valentine’s, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Father/Mother’s day will be great occasions for shopping and boosting sales.
The thing is, not you but all your competitor realize that fact. They try to offer hot deals and free shipping as much as possible. So how can you make your shop stand out from the crowd with free delivery?
The way out lies in how to personalize your event and guarantee to deliver your products on time.
- Offer free shipping and products discounts on customer’s or your store’s birthday
- Create giveaways, display free delivery popup messages on your homepage
- Send email marketing to promote free shipping
- Buy one get one and free shipping rates
#5. Shopify Free Shipping with Membership
Free shipping was the main reason urged over 78% of Amazon Prime Customers in the US registered for its Prime Loyalty Program. By offering one free-shipping day in that membership, Amazon gained an impressive $24 billion in revenue, making it on top of the eCommerce game.
Shopify free shipping which combines with membership not only boosts customer loyalty but also drives more sales and brings better revenues.
The membership fees can make up for the free shipments, plus give members the right to enjoy all its benefits and exclusive privileges. If you put effort to well maintain your membership this year, chances are your purchasers keep signing up for the next years.
Make Use of Shopify Free Shipping Now!
This article has walked you through the benefit that free shipping brings to online businesses. Not only does it incentivize customers to buy more, but it also set up a strong relationship with them.
While Shopify allows you to add free shipping to your store with ease, we show you how to leverage it to notch up your sales. You can set up free shipping rates based on zones, certain items, customers, or price points.
Along with that, offering free and fast shipping or free shipping with membership is also highly recommended. Still, the challenges lie in how to make sure to deliver on time and take care of your loyalty program.
If you have any cool ideas on making the most of Shopify free shipping, feel free to put them forward in the comment below!