Why is offering free shipping on Shopify so crucial? You may ask.
Then, picture this: you're scrolling through your favorite online store, and you find the perfect item.
But as you get ready to check out, you see a shipping fee that's almost as much as the item itself.
Sound familiar?
That's why offering free shipping is such a powerful incentive for online shoppers. And as a Shopify store owner, it's a great way to stand out from the competition.
In this blog post, we'll show you how to offer free shipping on your Shopify store, and we'll also explore how you can use popups to announce discount codes and keep your customers coming back for more.
Let's start with the basics: what is free shipping?
Simply put, free shipping means that customers don't have to pay any additional fees to have their order shipped to them.
This can be a major draw for customers, as it makes the purchasing process more transparent and eliminates any surprises at checkout.
But why is free shipping so important? For starters,
Increases conversion rates: It encourages customers to complete their purchase, leading to higher conversion rates and more sales.
Attracts new customers: It’s a powerful marketing tool that can help attract new customers to your store.
Improves customer satisfaction: Customers often appreciate free shipping and may have a more positive shopping experience when they receive it, leading to better customer satisfaction and potentially repeat business.
Helps compete with other businesses: It helps you stay competitive with other businesses that may already be offering it.
Can increase average order value: In some cases, offering free shipping may encourage customers to add more items to their cart to qualify for the promotion, which can increase the average order value for your store.
Builds customer loyalty: It helps build trust and loyalty with your customers, potentially leading to more repeat business and positive word-of-mouth recommendations.
Of course, there are some downsides to consider too. For one,
Offering free shipping can be expensive for store owners. Shipping fees can add up quickly, especially if you're shipping large or heavy items.
Additionally, if you offer free shipping too often, customers may come to expect it and be less likely to make a purchase if they don't see it.
So how do you balance the benefits of free shipping with the potential downsides?
One way is to set a minimum order amount for free shipping. This can encourage customers to add more items to their cart to qualify for free shipping, which can help increase your average order value.
Another tactic is to use popups to announce discount codes and special promotions.
By offering occasional discounts instead of free shipping all the time, you can keep your customers engaged and excited about your store.
To simplify your shipping setup, Shopify comes with a default general shipping profile that applies uniform shipping rates to all your products.
Any new or existing products will be automatically added to this profile, and any products or variants that don't have a custom profile will use the general shipping rates by default.
If the default general shipping profile isn't suitable for your business and you need to set different shipping rates for various products, Shopify lets you create *up to 99 custom shipping profiles.
If you want to set free shipping as the default shipping rate,
That’s it! You set free shipping as your store’s default shipping rate successfully.
In order to provide free shipping on orders that exceed a particular amount, you must include a condition based on the price of your free shipping rate.
For this,
Voila! Now orders over the amount you set will automatically be set to free shipping!
Tip: Following the same steps and choosing “Based on item weight” at the last step, you can set up free shipping on orders over a specific weight.
Shopify also allows you to set up free shipping for certain products if that’s what serves your business goals. For this,
Tip: You can also set up conditions for this shipping profile as well.
There you have it! Now only the products in this shipping profile will be shipped for free.
Alternatively, if you wish to provide free shipping to your customers, you can generate a free shipping discount.
However, such discounts do not get applied automatically to the orders, and your customers must enter the code during checkout to avail of the discount.
To create a free shipping discount code,
Optionally, you can set up a minimum purchase requirement.
In order to circulate this discount, you can either send the code to your customers through email or exhibit it on your online store.
But how will you let your visitors know about the free shipping discount on your website?
Discount codes can be an excellent tool to drive sales and customer loyalty, but you need to ensure that your customers are aware of them.
This is where popups can come in handy. Popups can be used to display your discount codes to customers in a more prominent and eye-catching way.
Setting up free shipping discount popups on Shopify with Popupsmart is super easy!
Just create an account for free and then choose a ready-to-use popup template from Popupsmart’s rich popup template gallery.
You can tweak it to make it a perfect fit for your website. You can also customize the timing and frequency of the popups to make sure they're not too intrusive.
Tip: Popupsmart has a Shopify element that can help you showcase your collections in a stylish way.
When creating popups, it's important to strike a balance between promoting the discount code and not being too pushy or annoying.
Effective popups are those that are well-timed, well-designed, and have clear and concise messaging.
So keeping these best practices in mind…
Offering free shipping is not only a great way to increase sales, but it also shows your customers that you value their time and money.
By implementing the tips we've shared in this post, you can set up free shipping on your Shopify store and give your customers a reason to keep coming back for more.
Remember, when it comes to online shopping, the customer experience is everything.
Offering free shipping can be a game-changer for your business, and by using Shopify's built-in tools, and a user-friendly popup builder, you can make it a seamless and cost-effective part of your Shopify marketing strategy.
So, go ahead and give it a try – who knows, you might just see your sales soar!
The responsibility of paying for shipping on Shopify depends on the agreement between the buyer and the seller.
In general, the buyer is responsible for paying for shipping unless the seller offers free shipping or includes the cost of shipping in the item price.
Yes, as soon as an order in your store is prepared for fulfillment and satisfies the criteria you have established, shipping labels in draft form are generated automatically for that particular order.
Shopify calculates shipping costs based on the shipping carrier rates that you set up in your Shopify store.
You can choose to use carrier-calculated shipping rates, which are calculated by the shipping carrier based on factors such as package weight, destination, and shipping method.
You can also choose to set your own shipping rates based on flat rates, weight-based rates, or price-based rates.