Should You Offer Free Shipping? A Practical Guide for WooCommerce and Shopify Stores

Why Late Fees Trigger Abandonment

People anchor on the first price they see.

When shipping appears late in the checkout, it breaks that anchor. The buyer shifts from buying mode into evaluation mode. They start questioning whether they really need it, whether they can find it cheaper elsewhere, whether they should wait.

Even a small shipping charge triggers this. It doesn’t feel like part of the price. It feels like a penalty.

Is Free Shipping Actually Your Problem?

Before you change anything, check whether shipping is the real issue.

Look at your cart abandonment data.

In WooCommerce: use a plugin like Metorik or CartFlows to track abandonment by checkout step
In Shopify: Analytics, Reports, Online Store Conversion Over Time, then check Checkout Behaviour

You likely have a shipping problem if 60% or more of carts are abandoned at the shipping calculation step. If your checkout abandonment spikes specifically when shipping costs appear, that’s your answer. Customer support gets regular questions about shipping costs. You see completed purchases cluster just above your free shipping threshold.

It’s probably not shipping if people abandon before reaching checkout. If abandonment is spread evenly across all checkout steps, look elsewhere. Your AOV is under $30 where shipping expectations are different. You’re getting abandoned on the product page or cart page before shipping is even shown.

If your data shows shipping isn’t the main friction point, focus on other conversion issues first. Payment options, trust signals, or page load speed might matter more.

The Basic Fix

Raise your product prices slightly and offer free shipping.

You’re removing the psychological tripwire at checkout rather than actually charging less.

How to Calculate If This Works for Your Store

Find your average order value.

In WooCommerce: Analytics, Revenue
In Shopify: Analytics, Reports, Average Order Value

Let’s say it’s $70.

Find your average shipping cost per order.

In WooCommerce: WooCommerce, Orders, export recent orders, calculate average shipping charged
In Shopify: Analytics, Reports, Sales by Delivery Type

Let’s say it’s $7.

Calculate the percentage.

$7 ÷ $70 = 10%

Increase prices by 5 to 8%, not the full 10%.

Why less than the full amount? Because some customers will buy multiple items, and you’ll recover shipping costs faster on those orders.

Test with 5% first. Monitor what happens to conversion rate and margins over two weeks.

When Free Shipping Doesn’t Work

This approach isn’t universal. Here are the cases where it fails.

Low-cost, high-volume products

If you sell $2 seedlings and most orders are 10 to 20 units, you’d need to add $1 per seedling to cover a $15 shipping cost. That’s a 50% price increase. It won’t work.

Better option: free shipping threshold like “Free shipping over $30.”

Retail and online hybrid businesses

If you run a physical store and an online store, in-store customers shouldn’t subsidise online shipping.

Better option: price differently by channel, or use location-based pricing rules in WooCommerce or Shopify Markets.

When it encourages unprofitable orders

One store owner reported that free shipping caused AOV to drop 20% and shipping costs to rise 30%. Customers made smaller, more frequent orders of items that weren’t worth the cost to ship.

Better option: “Free shipping over $X” where X is slightly above your current AOV. This pushes basket sizes up instead of down.

When competitive pricing matters more

If you’re selling commoditised products where shoppers compare prices across multiple sites, baking shipping into your product price can hurt click-through rates.

Better option: hybrid approach. Keep prices competitive on entry-level items, build shipping into your bestsellers and higher-margin products.

How to Handle International Shipping

International shipping changes the equation completely.

Costs vary wildly by destination. A $10 domestic Australia Post delivery might be $25 to New Zealand, $45 to the US or UK, or $70 to remote regions in Asia or Europe.

Option 1: Free domestic shipping only

The safest approach. Offer free shipping within Australia, charge calculated rates internationally.

In WooCommerce: Settings, Shipping, Add zone for Australia, Free Shipping. Create separate zones for New Zealand, North America, Europe, and Asia with live rates or flat fees.

In Shopify: Settings, Shipping and Delivery, Create Australian zone with free shipping. Set up international zones with carrier-calculated rates or flat fees.

Label it clearly: “Free shipping within Australia” on product pages and at checkout.

Option 2: Free shipping threshold by region

Set different thresholds for different regions based on typical shipping costs.

Example:

• Australia: Free over $80
• New Zealand: Free over $120
• US, UK, Europe: Free over $150
• Asia: Free over $180

In WooCommerce: Use a plugin like Table Rate Shipping or WooCommerce Advanced Shipping
In Shopify: Use Shopify Markets to set region-specific thresholds

Option 3: Build in domestic costs, subsidise international

Build Australian shipping into prices, then charge a reduced international fee that you partially absorb.

Example: Shipping to the US actually costs $45, but you charge $20 and wear the difference as a customer acquisition cost.

Only do this if international orders are high-value and repeat purchase rates justify the subsidy.

What doesn’t work

Don’t offer worldwide free shipping unless your margins can handle 50% or more shipping costs on international orders. Most can’t.

Don’t hide international shipping costs until checkout. Show estimated delivery costs on product pages for visitors outside Australia using geolocation.

How to Test This in Your Store

Don’t guess. Test it properly.

Phase 1: Measure your baseline (1 week)

Track conversion rate, cart abandonment rate, AOV, total revenue, and margin per order.

Phase 2: Implement the change (2 weeks minimum)

Increase prices by 5 to 7% across your catalogue.

In WooCommerce: use Bulk Edit or a plugin like Advanced Bulk Edit
In Shopify: use Bulk Editor (select products, edit prices, adjust by percentage)

Add “Free Shipping” to product pages, collection pages, cart page, and checkout.

Remove all shipping charges from your Australian shipping zone. Or set domestic only if testing that approach.

Phase 3: Compare results

After two weeks, compare the same metrics. Look for higher conversion rate, lower cart abandonment, similar or higher revenue, and maintained or improved margin.

If conversion rises but margin drops, increase prices another 2 to 3% and test again.

When to Reverse Course

Free shipping doesn’t work for every store. Here are the signals that it’s not working for yours.

Reverse immediately if

Your gross margin drops below your target threshold and doesn’t recover within three weeks. If you need 40% margin to stay viable and you’re sitting at 32%, you’re bleeding.

Reconsider if you see

AOV drops 15% or more and stays there for more than two weeks. Conversion rate doesn’t improve or actually drops. Customer complaints increase about “overpriced products.” Your price positioning moves you out of competitive range on comparison sites or marketplaces. Repeat purchase rate drops, which suggests customers feel the value isn’t there.

How to exit cleanly

Don’t just flip everything back overnight. That confuses customers and damages trust.

Instead, run a “policy update” transition. Announce you’re adjusting pricing and shipping structure. Drop product prices back to original or slightly higher. Reintroduce shipping fees, but consider a free threshold instead of flat fees. Give existing customers a one-off discount code to maintain goodwill.

Frame it as “listening to feedback” rather than “we made a mistake.”

What to try instead

If flat free shipping failed, test these alternatives before giving up. Free shipping threshold like “Free over $100.” Flat-rate shipping like “$9 shipping on all Australian orders.” Free shipping on specific product categories only. Time-limited free shipping promotions rather than permanent policy.

The goal isn’t to force free shipping to work. It’s to find the shipping structure that removes friction without killing your margin.

Alternative: Free Shipping Thresholds

If flat free shipping doesn’t fit, try a threshold instead.

Set it 20 to 30% above your current AOV.

If your AOV is $70, set free shipping at $90 to $100.

In WooCommerce: WooCommerce, Settings, Shipping, Add shipping method, Free Shipping, Minimum order amount
In Shopify: Settings, Shipping and delivery, Select zone, Add rate, Free shipping, Based on order price

This pushes basket sizes up without eating into margin on small orders.

What to Do Next

If you’re losing sales at checkout and your AOV is above $50, test free shipping.

Start with a 5% price increase and monitor for two weeks.

If your products are low-cost or high-volume, test a free shipping threshold instead.

If you run both retail and online, consider channel-specific pricing or local pickup incentives.

If you serve international customers, start with free domestic Australian shipping only.

The key is removing the surprise rather than removing the cost.