Discount offer of free shipping EXCLUDING certain products

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

Users are requesting the ability to exclude specific products from free shipping discount codes and promotions—a feature Shopify has not implemented despite requests dating back to 2018.

Core Issue:

  • Free shipping discounts apply to entire orders with no option to exclude certain products (heavy items, low-margin products, clearance items, MAP-priced products, hazmat items, or non-shippable products)
  • This causes margin erosion when customers combine sale items with free shipping thresholds

Shopify’s Response:

  • Staff acknowledged the limitation multiple times (2018-2020) and promised to pass feedback to development teams
  • No native solution has been implemented after 6+ years
  • Support typically suggests third-party apps (often $70+/month) or workarounds

Available Workarounds:

  • Create separate shipping profiles for excluded products, which removes them from the “General” profile that offers free shipping
  • Limitations: This approach works for standard shipping rates but doesn’t solve discount code scenarios, may cause double-shipping charges when multiple excluded items are ordered, and creates complexity for stores with existing multi-region/weight-based profiles

Current Status:

  • The discussion remains unresolved with ongoing frustration
  • Users continue requesting this basic e-commerce functionality available on competing platforms
  • Many express disappointment with Shopify’s reliance on paid apps rather than native features
Summarized with AI on October 28. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
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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.

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