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Free shipping is the most powerful word in online checkout — consistently among the top two factors buyers cite — but it is not free for you. The honest framing is that buyers compare total price anyway, so free shipping usually just relocates the cost into the item price; the real question is whether your margin can carry it. The classic answer is a threshold: free shipping above a basket size that sits just over your typical single-item order, pulling carts upward while protecting small orders. Heavy and oversized items should almost always charge shipping outright. This guide gives you the decision maths and the habits that keep the offer profitable.
Free shipping lifts conversion but shrinks margin; charged shipping keeps prices honest but adds checkout friction. A practical framework for deciding per product — with the math that decides it.
Because unexpected shipping costs are the number one cause of abandoned carts — buyers build a mental total from the item price and feel ambushed by a $7 charge at the end. Free shipping removes that ambush, which is why it lifts conversion even when the item price is raised to cover it.
A common working figure is 25-50% above your typical single-item basket. If most orders are $25, set free shipping over $35: single-item buyers still pay shipping, while two-item baskets clear the bar and your average order value climbs.
Almost never. One heavy order can erase the profit of several light ones. Charge real shipping on anything oversized, or state a flat heavy-item rate up front — the buyers who want the item will pay it; the ones who won't were never going to be profitable.
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