How to Restrict Free Shipping Discount Code to Customers from 48 Contiguous U.S. States Only

How to Restrict Free Shipping Discount Code to Customers from 48 Contiguous U.S. States Only

sdl340
Excursionist
12 0 8

I was creating a free shipping discount code with a minimum purchase amount requirement however I was unable to choose specific States on the "Create shipping discount" page. The two countries options available were either "United States" or "Rest of World".


Currently the website does offer shipping rates to all 62 U.S. States such as to Alaska, Hawaii, the U.S. Virgin Islands, etc. which is set up already on the settings of "Shipping and delivery". At the moment we are not shipping internationally.


The only other alternative I see is to remove the non-contiguous U.S. States from the current Shipping Zone list on the "Shipping and delivery settings but then our buyers from those non-contiguous States will not be able to buy online along with choosing the shipping rates offered while the free shipping discount code is ongoing for the 48 contiguous States.


I did edit the current Shipping Zone setting to offer a free shipping rate to only the 48 contiguous States with a minimum purchase requirement and created another Shipping Zone for the non-contiguous States however this defeats the purpose of promoting and offering the Shipping Discount Code to customers to use during their check-out. This includes going back to the issue on how on the "Create shipping discount" page, there are only two options available and even by selecting the "United States" option, there is no condition set up for the Shipping Discount Code to be restricted to the 48 contiguous States while customers from the non-contiguous are still able to purchase online and select their shipping rate options.


Can Shopify add a feature to the "Countries" option on the "Create shipping discount" page for us to specify which States and other territories are exclusive to the shipping discount code?


I added three images that hopefully help illustrate the issues.

Replies 9 (9)

PaulNewton
Shopify Partner
7721 678 1619

Hi @sdl340 images can be embedding into posts for direct viewing instead of attaching a proprietary powerpoint slideshow users have to download and open software to try and assist you.

 

A partial band-aid is for pre-existing customers is to tag customers in the contiguous states and set that tag requirement for the discount?. So that at least is available for return customers.

There are tools like usemechanic, or auto-taggers to automate this part.

Shopify's free flow app may be able to at help tag new customers accounts with that tag (not 100% sure if it can parse addresses like this) ; but unless customer accounts are required before checkout naturally that means no discount condition is met until the next purchase since they aren't tagged until potentially after a checkout|account-creation .

 

If the store is on a shopify PLUS plan checkout-scripts may be able to utilized for this.

 


@sdl340 wrote:

I did edit the current Shipping Zone setting to offer a free shipping rate to only the 48 contiguous States with a minimum purchase requirement and created another Shipping Zone for the non-contiguous States however this defeats the purpose of promoting and offering the Shipping Discount Code to customers to use during their check-out.


Just a process and psych note discounts don't necessarily need to show up as a $0 line items in an invoice. Simply rewording the title of the shipping profile can be of similar utility:

"Discount - Free Shipping Campaign Name".

The tradeoff being not having actual discount metrics to track.

 

While their is some interactivity psychology lost by the customer not being that activator of the discount during the /checkout step the overall messaging can be similar.

If that interaction is really needed it can always be tried to be move to the /cart step and the discount code entered is just a sleight of hand that doesn't actually create a discount since the shipping will be free anyway.

 

 

Contact paull.newton+shopifyforum@gmail.com for the solutions you need


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sdl340
Excursionist
12 0 8

Hello Paul, thank you for your tip however we are not looking to use tags for pre-existing customers. We simply would like to offer a free shipping discount code with a minimum purchase requirement for those in the contiguous 48 States to use during their checkout as part of the shopping experience. To offer free shipping to the non-contiguous States would be too expensive for us which is why we would still like customers from the non-contiguous States to have the option to shop online and choose their preferred shipping rates while the discount is ongoing and providing us analytics metrics of the discount for us to track if I am using that line of sentencing correctly.

 

I was having issues uploading the jpg images as attachments and it would not accept the image file type which is why I uploaded the three images together as a PowerPoint file. I did not pay attention and now realize I could have embedded the images as you said into the text box using the Insert Photos option so I will keep that in mind next time. Thank you.

 

What I am hoping from Shopify which of course would not happen overnight is on the "Countries" option section on the "Create shipping discount" page, Shopify can somehow connect the shipping zone countries info from the "Shipping and delivery" setting to the "Countries" option section with a Countries/States drop-down menu option where one could manually select States to be a part of the discount code offer and have metrics tracked. Just a wish/thought that I believe can be beneficial for us sellers. Thank you again for taking the time to provide answers that can help others that come across this page. Have a wonderful weekend!

PaulNewton
Shopify Partner
7721 678 1619

While it's been awhile there is now an automatic free shipping discount

https://changelog.shopify.com/posts/new-automatic-free-shipping-discount 

https://changelog.shopify.com/posts/new-automatic-free-shipping-discount 

https://community.shopify.com/c/payments-shipping-and/new-feature-automatic-free-shipping-discount-i...  

 

Though afaik the Country Selection is still regional in all cases for native discounts and not granular down to a state level. Have not checked this in combination with markets.

But perhaps the automatic nature will create some flexibility else where in your process.

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MLW
Shopify Partner
4 0 4

Hi! Were you able to come up with a workaround? I'm looking to set up a free shipping code that is only eligible in certain states and does not work if the customer tries to ship to an excluded state. 

sdl340
Excursionist
12 0 8

Hello MLW. Shopify still have not made any modification in the discount options on being able to select "States" that would be eligible to use a discount code for free shipping or other. Since not being able to use discount codes for specific states, the free shipping is setup automatically with a minimum purchase amount via "Shipping and delivery" from the settings option. Included are options for customers to pay for shipping if they would like to have it sooner. Hopefully Shopify will get eventually add the State options since the fun part is being able to announce discount codes from time to time, especially for free shipping. Apologizes for not being able to assist much.

MLW
Shopify Partner
4 0 4

Thank you for your help! As you mentioned, it's frustrating not being able to announce discounts and promotions. Hopefully, Shopify sets something up like this in the near future. 

sdl340
Excursionist
12 0 8

No worries, happy to provide some insight. Its been almost a year since this post. Either it is a complicated process for the Shopify coders to figure out how to implement a "State" option feature within the discount options or if they have figured it out, they are waiting on a certain quarter to make a special announcement about it or they are considering to include it only on specific Shopify Plan(s) that cost more which unfortunately would make sense from a business perspective and exclude those who are only paying for the cheapest plan. Godspeed or as I like to say, May the force be with you!

MLW
Shopify Partner
4 0 4
Ha! Thank you!
I can't imagine coding a toggle that breaks down the states can be quite
difficult (although I'm no coder!) You're probably right about waiting on a
certain quarter or creating a more expensive plan.

Rohan-developer
Shopify Partner
42 0 0

Hello,

 

You can restrict the free shipping option to the 48 contiguous states using the ShipRight app:

 

  1. Open the app and click the "Add a new rule" button.
  2. Click "Add a new condition" and select the "Province codes" option.
  3. Choose "Hide if found", then enter the state codes for non-contiguous states and territories (e.g., AK, HI, PR, etc.) in the "Province/State code" field.
  4. Select your free shipping method in the “Select shipping methods” field.
  5. If your exact shipping option is not listed in the above field, add it in the "Additional shipping methods" field.
  6. Save the rule by clicking the "Save" button.

states.png

 

This setup hides the free shipping option for customers in non-contiguous states, restricting it to the 48 contiguous states.