Discount offer of free shipping EXCLUDING certain products

[Joe_Ciaramella]

Hello all,

I am wanting to create a discount that offers free shipping on orders over $75, but exclude certain products in my store from the offer.

What is the best way to achieve this?

Thank you!

[Ann456]

Hey, Joe, 

I'm Ann, from the team here at Shopify 🙂

When it comes to our free shipping discount code, there currently isn't an option to specify that you don't want to apply it to certain products. When you create a discount code for free shipping, it can only be applied to an entire order. That said, I can pass this as feedback along to our team for you, can you tell me a bit more about why you want to create a discount code like this? 

Alternatively, you can try creating a free shipping rate in your shipping settings, you can use price or weight to make it specific to certain products only. Check out the steps on how to do that on this page in our Shopify Manual. 

I hope this helps! If you have any more questions or concerns feel free to reach out to us on this thread 🙂 

Have a great one,
Ann

[Bram1987]

@Ann456 I think it makes a lot of sense to exclude certain items from free shipping, for example because they simply can't be shipped at all. I was wondering if you ended up passing on some feedback to your team and what happened to the feedback. Thanks a lot. 

[Nick]

Hi @Bram1987,

Nick here from Shopify just following up from Ann's reply above. 

I can see exactly what you mean by it making sense to be able to exclude certain items from free shipping. This is still something that isn't available as Ann mentioned. What I will do however is send another feature request on your behalf. The more store owners who discuss a feature like this help its cause for future development. Thank you for your feedback and letting us know why it would be beneficial for you and your store. 

[Bram1987]

Hi @Nick that is great, as expected though nothing happened with the request. Just this week again someone ordered a chair with free shipping despite us being unable to do that for free. Of course, the fact that this was mentioned in the product description does not stop customers from ordering the item and select free shipping. Why would they?

I just can't understand what's so difficult about this. It's the simplest of rules. Just exclude one group of products from the free shipping rule.

[Joel-Reeds]

Hey @Bram1987,

One workaround may be to move products that do not qualify for free shipping into a separate shipping profile. You can then create a separate set of rates for these items that will then blend with the shipping rate for the rest of your products that may qualify for free shipping.

The only drawback would be if these items typically ship together, having them split into separate profiles could double up the shipping cost for the customer when it may not be the actual case.

If you're open to using a third-party app, Intuitive Shipping can certainly handle this type of setup. You can hide your free shipping behind a set of conditions such as Collection > Does Not Equal > Chairs which will prevent free shipping from appearing if a certain type of product is in the cart.
https://apps.shopify.com/intuitive-shipping

Let me know if you have any questions about either approach.

Cheers,
Joel.

[Steve_Coulton]

For GOODNESS SAKE!

Can you PLEASE HEAR YOUR CUSTOMERS ASKING FOR REQUESTS AND UPDATES TO FUNCTIONALITY

and then....

Implement??????????

The ability to apply Free Shipping to specific products is a no-brainer.

Site Wide Free shipping is common.

BUT not having the ability to exclude products (ie: discounted ones, new ones, lower priced items) MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL.

What are we waiting for exactly?

(I can help program it, if the dev team is too busy?)

Sincerely,

TIRED OF HAVING TO SEARCH AND PAY FOR APPS - When our partner and platform Shopify Should Handle for us!

PS:

Same Goes for BOGO.

If Customer Purchases X, they get X Free - AUTOMATICALLY!!!! Bam! in the cart it goes!

Not require them to select their Get Free item!

[JamieC12]

Hire this man! @Steve_Coulton Having conditions on your discount codes is a a no brainer! What do we need to do to get this fixed?? 

[Andrew_Ardolina]

I couldn't agree more! I've been waiting for simple functionality upgrades since 2017...it simply doesn't happen.

[shpwnr]

Ugh, this entire thread is extremely frustrating and depressing. I might have to switch back to my old system, after all of the problems we are having just to get the simplest of functionalities to work without being nickle and dimed to death.

[Krissy_Jones]

YES! I can't even find an app that offers this functionality and it's SO IMPORTANT! I offer products that are required to ship as a Hazardous material, which costs an additional $29 for every 50lbs. Offering Free Shipping across the board would make me go broke. I NEED to be able to exclude those items.

To make an argument for likely the majority of Shopify stores: Anyone with a small boutique wanting to clear out inventory would NOT want to offer free shipping on their clearance items, because there's no margin in there to subsidize that. 

Not sure why Shopify doesn't see the value in this feature.

[Patchworld-net]

Almost 4 years and still not fixed 😅 

We NEED this feature!

[Andrew_Ardolina]

Joel,  Does your application apply to Shopify's Local Delivery app?

I've been back and forth with Shopify about being unable to exclude a certain collection of products from applying towards the minimum that I set for free local delivery (not shipping).

They are unable to do this and never actually apply any of the feedback/function requests. I've been asking for features like this since 2017 - no luck at all. These are simply functions for our small business; yet, Shopify doesn't seem to care at all.

Anyway, I want to exclude a certain collection from the free local delivery condition we set ($45 for free LOCAL DELIVERY). The products in this collection are items we sell for other small business, and the margins are MUCH lower, so we cannot have these product apply towards the minimum for FREE LOCAL DELIVERY.

[khoff]

we have the same issue and have only recently come to shopify as a new customer. Had we known the discounts were so limiting we would have gone with a different solution.

[Bedlam]

Same, haven't been here long and the discounts are the biggest issue that I have. Either let me choose which items the discount applies to or excludes. I should be able to limit what is on sale within my store. Try and reward customers with loyalty points which generate return purchases, but I want them to use those on products, not swag merchandising gear that I pay for a premium and get no discount or wholesaler price as that is not my business. Those items should remain discount free, and only offer discounts on the items I actually produce. Going to have to figure this one out I guess. 

[AudreyCov]

Hi Shopify Team, 

Your customers are still waiting for this feature... it seems for a year now ...
There has been an update of Shopify recently and this feature still does not exist!

Thank you. 
Audrey C.

[khoff]

This is still not available in Shopify. Why? this is a common feature in nearly every other shopping cart out there and is a MUCH needed feature for any ecommerce store. Shopify basically ties our hands and make it so we cannot even offer discounts to our customers AT ALL because of this. 

[ThompsonLane]

Another +1 for this request! Pretty disappointing it hasn't been implemented yet considering there is clearly a demand for it and it seems like a very basic function that most other e-comm platforms offer.

Use case: I have free shipping for orders over $200 but need to exclude a few bulky items. Pretty common scenario.....

[Joderella]

I would also like this feature. Our products have different margins, some are very heavy and have lower margins, so we do not want to offer free shipping on those products.

I switched over from woocommerce a few months ago, and I have to say woocommerce's coupon management was head and shoulders above shopify's.  I could choose whether coupons could be applied with other coupons, use coupons with automatic discounts, and just click which products weren't available for free shipping.

[TimberlineVik]

Shopify, is there a suggested feature form and corresponding development calendar? I'm trying to implement this today and it still doesn't look like it's possible to create a free shipping coupon that excludes (or only includes) certain collections.

Here's the use case: I want to offer free shipping over a certain cart value, but if that cart includes a sale item, free shipping coupon isn't valid (because we're already taking a margin hit on the sale item). Same thought process would apply on a % discount coupon. I may offer free shipping normally, but if you enter a coupon for a discount, I don't want free shipping to be available. Shipping costs are adding up these days, and we need to stop allowing customers to make a margin hit on both fronts.

[khoff]

It has been four years since this thread was started. Shopify will not listen to the customers. We are stuck with what they give us. 

[khoff]

Shopify really needs to step up their game and allow items to be excluded from free shipping and sitewide discounts.  Many of our manufacturers have MAP pricing and we are not allowed to put the items on sale or have them discounted via promotional codes. So this makes using any promotion on Shopify impossible.  

[Anthony_Jackson]

Hi Joe,

I see that you have the concern on free shipping discount. After you set up a free shipping code successfully, you may need an app to show shipping notifications on your store. If you want to use an app to display the free shipping notifications, you can install Shipping Bar Master. This app will help you make full use of free shipping codes to expand the order value.

Have a good time!

[hoberem]

Another customer needing this feature here. Have any of you found an app that will allow us to do this in the meantime? If so, which one?

~Holly

[sridharrajagopa]

+1 to this request. Some items may be too expensive to ship to include in the free shipping option, and hence the need for exceptions. 

How many requests must you receive here before you implement this? Since Shopify Staff seems to have gone quiet here, I'm not going to hold my breath for this, but I wanted to chime in nonetheless. In the meantime, I'm actually moving that product to a different platform! 

Thanks,
Sridhar

[sridharrajagopa]

So there is a way to do this! I figured it out. It's rather strange (and sad) that Shopify cannot answer this themselves as something that is doable! 

Create a custom shipping rate for the product (or products) that you don't want to give free shipping for. Then in your "General Shipping Rate", make sure it is selected for "all products not in other profiles". Offer free shipping in your general shipping rate. Since your exception products are in their own custom shipping rate, they won't get the free shipping offer. 

Hope that helps!

Sridhar

[TheVines]

Thanks Sridhar!

Works perfectly

[CardstoYou]

I couldn't get this to work for me. I don't understand the issue as this thread goes back so long! Shopify told me to ask on the forum for suggestions or suggested an app for $70 a month!

[aarikascloset]

Another Customer looking for this feature...and its Sep 2022 now...any updates!? 

I offer some POD products and I cannot afford to offer those with FREE shipping. I'd like to exclude those from the blanket Free Shipping option.

[tarasilberberg]

I also found this thread, while looking for help with excluding certain items from free shipping. I really do not understand why this can't be done, this thread is dating back to 2018 and it is still not an option!

Get your act together shopify!

[Krissy_Jones]

This makes me so sad. When I started with Shopify, their gurus could code. Many would resolve issues like this right on the phone as you made the suggestion. It's gotten so big and they've lost the care that they once had about their finished product. Once a company has stockholders to answer to, the meaning a purpose behind the original effort is lost. Heartbreaking.

[khoff]

They rely on far too many paid third party apps.

[dboyxx]

I am also wanting this feature. I want to have a free shipping for orders over a certain amount to encourage customers to buy more items in a single order but I have heavy items that would qualify on their own that I want to exclude since the shipping on those would wipe out any profit. 

I do not have the sales volume yet that justifies paying for a third party app. 

This along with assigning shipping profiles to individual items to get accurate rates for customers should be native!

I have small items and heavy items. I 

[KahunasCA]

Hi there! I'm not sure if you're still looking for a solution to this, but I posted an update on this thread that might be able to help!

[RESmaxwell]

Adding to this thread because this is definitely an important feature that seems like Shopify keeps over looking unfortunately. I have been on Shopify for 2 years now, and, while they are great in a lot of areas, they are the WORST at taking customer feedback and updating native features, so their community can run their businesses. It's sad to see that so many people have posted on this thread and after 6 YEARS, nothing has been done. In the '24 Winter Update, they even implemented discounts to be added to draft orders, but while doing that, could not add simple condition criteria for said discounts. That just seems lazy. 

I hope somebody at Shopify finally steps up and takes note of how their customers are feeling. My most hated response from Shopify when I ask a question about basic functionality I would expect to be available is " Oh, there's an app for that!". It is getting ridiculous and way out of hand. Do your job and give your customers what they are actually asking for. Don't pawn it off onto some third-party company that is going to charge me an arm and a leg, when your platform should be doing it to begin with.

[ralphs_orchard]

I'm also waiting for this feature, so far it's still not available. I offer free shipping for orders over £25 - however when a customer chooses an add-on like gift-wrapping or gift message, I don't want this to go towards the free shipping total - I also don't want to set a separate shipping charge for these two items (as I don't want to charge shipping for them at all). I've tried everything - making these products "non-physical", setting a a separate shipping rate with value £0 for these items only, nothing works. Shopify support have been unable to offer me a workaround either. 

[Therapedia]

Also looking for a solution to this issue. We have a free shipping promotion on orders over $50 excluding certain items that are heavy weighted items that don't qualify for standard shipping rates. 

[KahunasCA]

Hi there! I posted an update on this thread that might be able to help with your issue!

[RoseJannuzzi]

+10 more requests, as I have multiple clients (10) that need free shipping functionality.

@Shopify  Please add the ability to select and/or exclude specific products or collections for free shipping thresholds.  We don't want to ship clearance products free; we don't want to ship products with extra handling charges free, we don't want to ship oversized products free, we don't want to ship heavy-weight products free, etc.  We want the ability to have these common functionality requirements part of Shopify and not have to add apps (free or not free) and then manage or pay for them.

[KahunasCA]

Hi there, I too was looking for this feature and believe what I've set up will help some people who want to do this, no need for third party apps. This only solves the issue of wanting certain products/brands not available for free shipping. On our store I have the "Free Shipping Over $100" rule set on the "General" shipping profile. The General Shipping profile from Shopify by default includes all products NOT IN ANOTHER PROFILE, that's the key wording there. So all new products we create will automatically go here, however we had other larger items that we did not want to offer free shipping on since they cost us more to ship. I created a new shipping profile and typed a brand name into the search bar after selecting "Add Products". This specific brand contains many larger items that I didn't want to ship for free, so once the entire brand was on the screen, i scrolled through and selected all of the items I wanted to include. Then I used the default shipping rate from UPS for that profile and added a handling fee since these are larger items. This AUTOMATICALLY removed everything in this profile from our "General" profile, and since this new profile didn't offer free shipping, the specific items I added no longer qualified for free shipping. Here's a step by step for the buttons:
On Shopify Admin -> Settings -> Shipping and delivery -> New profile (Name it whatever you want) -> Add products -> *Select the products you want in your new profile* -> Add shipping Zone (I just did the United States) -> Add rate -> Select the rate you want, I normally do automated calculated rates from the carriers (you can also add a flat fee here).

And that should do it! You should now have a custom set list of products that are available online just like all of your other items, but not available for free shipping. And you didn't have to edit your free shipping rules that apply to all of the other products. Hope this was helpful to some!

[Joderella]

Hi, I have implemented this workaround years ago, and it does work, but sometimes charged double shipping on multiple products added from the no free shipping group. I just checked it again and it didn't seem to be duplicating the shipping charge, so I guess that's good news. Thanks for sharing.

[KahunasCA]

Yeah, it is definitely not a 100% fix to all solutions as some people's issues here were more complex. Just wanted to post in case anyone else could benefit from it!

[RoseJannuzzi]

Hello, Appreciate your response.  We are looking for this functionality in the Discounts, not the shipping profiles which are typically used for day to day not promotions.  It seems rather annoying that Shopify added Free Shipping Promotion but there is no ability to exclude.  It is a lot of work to update shipping profiles for promotions and then change back after the promotion especially when a store already has complex shipping profiles based on different weights by multiple regions and countries.  

[KahunasCA]

No worries, this definitely won't help anyone who doesn't need it. Many are looking for different solutions to specific wants and needs, but I saw quite a few responses simply looking for ways to exclude larger items from free shipping. I also wish Shopify offered more customization options for this kind of stuff, maybe in the future. If this didn't help you, no need to pay any attention to it!

[RoseJannuzzi]

I appreciate your response.  One of our clients sets items up under different weights just to be able to handle / run promotions and different the shipping rates by product 😉