One highly effective sales strategy in e-commerce is offering free shipping. E-commerce giants like AliExpress, Amazon, and Temu take advantage of free shipping to drive sales through the roof.
Statistics show that one of the reasons customers abandon their carts is the cost of shipping. When customers see how much they have to pay for delivery, they may become discouraged and seek out alternative retailers that offer free shipping. Many shoppers would rather wait for the extra time to get free shipping as long as it allows them to save some money.
If you own a WooCommerce shop and want to increase your sales, consider offering free shipping rather than removing shipping fees from your checkout. You don’t necessarily have to absorb the order cost; you just have to cleverly include or hide it in the price of your products.
In this guide, we will show you how to make shipping free after the amount is added in WooCommerce.
Benefits of Adding a Free Shipping Option After a Minimum Amount in WooCommerce
You need sales to have a successful eCommerce business. To get sales, you need to implement all sales strategies in the book, and that includes free shipping.
To entice customers to spend more or buy more, you should offer a free shipping option in your WooCommerce store when they add products up to a certain amount to their carts.
This will allow you to:
- Increases average order value: Customers will buy more products to qualify for free shipping, thereby improving your average order value.
- Encourages customers to buy more: Customers are usually happy to buy more products if they won’t incur any shipping fees for their products. It’s all about getting what they want while saving money.
- Competitive Advantage: Offering free shipping can help you stand out from your competitors who charge for shipping and attract their customers who are actively seeking alternatives to save costs.
- Increase in Revenue: With customers buying more and spending more, your revenue is bound to increase, allowing you to hit or exceed your bottom line.
Step-by-Step: How to Make Shipping Free After a Certain Amount in WooCommerce
To enable the free shipping option in WooCommerce or remove the shipping fee from checkout when a minimum order amount is reached, log in to your dashboard and follow the steps below:
Step 1: Open WooCommerce Shipping Settings
From your admin dashboard, go to WooCommerce > Settings and click the Shipping tab.
Step 2: Add Shipping Zone
To use shipping in WooCommerce, you need to add a shipping zone. A shipping zone is a geographic region where a specific set of shipping methods and rates apply. To add a shipping zone in WooCommerce, click Add zone.
Enter a name for the Zone (e.g. Free Shipping to US) and select the regions (states, countries or zip codes) that apply.
Step 3: Add Free Shipping Option
Scroll down, and click on Add shipping method. From the popup, select Free shipping, and click Continue.
Step 4: Enter Free Shipping Minimum Amount Condition
Enter the title of the free shipping to be shown to customers during checkout. Then, from the dropdown, select Free shipping requires a minimum order amount. Enter the minimum order amount, and click Create and save.
You can click Save changes if it is not saved automatically.
Step 5: Test Your Free Shipping Minimum Amount Condition
You need to add products to your cart and test checkout with different totals to ensure the free shipping option appears when the minimum order amount is met. For this guide, I have included a $12 flat fee to test against the $100 minimum amount free shipping option.
You can see that when the order amount is not up to $100, the free shipping option is unavailable on checkout, and the customer has to pay the $12 delivery flat fee.
However, when the order amount reaches $100, the free delivery option becomes available to the customer.
Best Practices When Offering Free Shipping in WooCommerce
Your customers must be aware that you offer a free shipping option to them when buying from your WooCommerce store by implementing the following practices:
- Display a “Spend X More to Get Free Shipping” Message: You should display how much a customer needs to add to the cart to qualify for free shipping. You can include the message in key areas, such as the WooCommerce product page, cart, mini cart, and checkout, to psychologically trigger customers to add more products to their carts and remove the shipping fee when the minimum amount is reached.
- Show Free Shipping Bar: Similarly, you should use plugins that allow you to dynamically display free shipping progress bars as users add products to their cart. We recommend Free Shipping Bar for WooCommerce.
- Set a Reasonable Free Shipping Threshold: Establish a reasonable and achievable minimum amount for free shipping that benefits both your customers and your business.
- Use Conditional Free Shipping Rules: Create flexible free shipping minimum amount options based on shipping classes, product types, location, and other relevant factors to ensure the best output.
- Combine Coupons with Free Shipping: Offer discounts with promo codes alongside free shipping to encourage customers to make more purchases. For example, you can offer coupons to first-time buyers with free shipping to encourage them to make a purchase.
- Highlight Free Shipping Across Your Site: Put up “Free shipping over $X” in your header, banners, and product pages to keep customers in the loop and reduce cart abandonment.
- Create Limited-Time Free Shipping Offers: Utilize countdown timers or limited-time offers to create a sense of urgency and boost sales. This can help you sell out during holidays, clearance sales, and other special events.
Conclusion
I hope this guide has helped you learn how to make shipping free after the amount is added in WooCommerce. If you are serious about increasing sales, then you should remove shipping fees from your WooCommerce store with a minimum order amount.
By following the best practices outlined in this guide, you will be able to effectively maximize the impact of adding a free shipping option, helping you reach your bottom line.
