How can I apply free shipping to specific products only?

Topic summary

A merchant wants to apply free shipping selectively—specifically excluding dropshipped items that incur shipping fees—while maintaining a $55 free shipping threshold for other products.

Key Challenge:
Shopify doesn’t natively support free shipping rules limited to specific products or collections when using order-value thresholds. Mixing eligible and non-eligible items in one cart creates customer confusion.

Suggested Workarounds:

  • Discount codes: Can target specific collections for free shipping, but prevent combining with other discount types
  • Third-party apps: Bespoke Shipping, Better Shipping, Parcelify, and Advanced Shipping Manager enable per-product shipping rules (require Carrier Calculated Shipping, adding $20/month or upgrading to Advanced plan at $299/month)
  • Weight-based manipulation: Assign artificial weights to control which products qualify for free shipping
  • Shipping Profiles: Introduced after the original post, allow different shipping rules per product group—but don’t solve time-limited promotional free shipping for specific items

Ongoing Limitation:
Multiple users report wanting discount codes that offer free shipping on specific products/collections for limited-time promotions. This remains unavailable in Shopify’s native discount system, with requests spanning several years.

Summarized with AI on October 25. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.

Hello Leslie,

The advanced shipping manager can offer a solution for accurately calculating shipping and item level free shipping of your products.

No more worrying how to quote shipping rates in your store! Now you can account for product level settings, such as:

  • Shipping from multiple dropshippers (multiple origins), and even cover for dropshipping fees

  • Dimensional weight products and products that ship alone

  • Flat-rate or free shipping promotions for specific products

  • Block certain shipping methods for specific products

  • Real-Time rates from common US couriers - for domestic and international shipping methods

  • Real-Time rates from many freight couriers!

To read reviews from some of our Shopify customers and download the app, please click on: https://apps.shopify.com/advanced-shipping-manager-for-shopify

Let me know if you would like to discuss in further detail.

Burt,

Your Shipping Guru

Ebrowsershop@gmail.com