Hey, @jervin1984tx !
This is Summer from the Social Care team at Shopify. Welcome to Shopify Community!
I understand you have a concern about offering free shipping. That is a really good detail to think through as shipping can impact your profit margin negatively or positively, according to how your strategy is set up. It’s best to ensure this isn’t generating a loss for your business in the long run.
In most cases, shipping cost is not deducted from your payout. It is paid separately and the exact method is dependent on how your fulfillment process is set up. If you ship your products yourself and purchase shipping labels in the Shopify admin, shipping labels are paid using the payment method you added in the Settings > Billing area. If you purchase shipping labels outside of the Shopify admin (e.g. in the post office), this is done with your chosen payment method that is separate from your payouts.
If you have a dropshipping or print-on-demand business model, shipping is paid once you place an order with your supplier for them to fulfill your order. This is also an entirely different payment method, which is the payment method you have connected to your account with your suppliers.
The only time your payouts may be used is when your store is based in the United States, you purchase shipping labels in the Shopify admin and you have set your billing settings to use Shopify balance to pay bills. If you have sufficient funds in your Shopify Payments account balance, it can be used for paying for your Shopify bills, which includes your shipping labels.
Without using your payouts to pay for shipping labels, you have the ability to plan ahead and carefully think about how you’re going to cover shipping costs. That’s an advantage, however, this can still result in a loss if the shipping fees aren’t taken into consideration in your product price. I recommend proactively coming up with a foolproof shipping tactic before you start taking orders so you can avoid spending all your profit on shipping. A good example of this is to simply add the cost of shipping to your product price.
We have an article that discusses the free shipping strategy in-depth and tells you how you can pull this off while staying profitable. I highly recommend going over this before you launch, especially if you’re expecting a lot of orders so you can ensure you’re able to make a profit. You can find the article in this page.
While you sort out how you’re going to cover shipping costs, I also recommend going over our launch checklist, if you haven’t yet, since you’re close to launching your website. A prelaunch marketing plan is discussed in step 9 and this will help you get visitors beyond your family and friends. In addition to getting visitors that can translate to sales, it will also serve as a guide to having a smooth and successful launch. Step 3 tells you how to create a test order which is an opportunity to fine-tune the customer experience in your store.
Do let me know if you have any other questions about shipping!