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.
37

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

@Shopify_77 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.

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