Shopify merchants are encountering a confusing issue where customers see “Qualified for Free Shipping” notifications in their carts, despite the stores not offering free shipping. When customers proceed to checkout, shipping charges are correctly applied, creating a misleading experience.
Root Cause:
The problem isn’t located in the standard Settings → Shipping and Delivery section. Instead, it’s controlled by a separate toggle in the theme settings → cart section that displays a free shipping progress banner.
Solution:
Navigate to theme settings → cart and either:
Uncheck the free shipping banner toggle to remove it entirely
Update the banner language to accurately reflect actual shipping policies
Multiple users confirmed this fix resolved their long-standing issue, with some reporting they’d struggled with it for years without receiving helpful guidance from Shopify support. The discussion includes screenshots showing the conflicting settings and the exact location of the problematic toggle.
Summarized with AI on October 27.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
We have had 2 customers contact us in the last month saying they had a notification on their order that is “Qualified for Free Shipping”. We DO NOT OFFER Free Shipping. Then when they went to check out the shopping cart added shipping. I have gone through all of our shipping rates and all of the states and zones have shipping rates. We have never offered Free Shipping. Where is this coming from? How do I get rid of it. We have not heard of this before and have been on Shopify for years.
I have a $100 threshold for free shipping, and as you can see, my settings in the shipping and receiving section conflict with the free shipping banner shown in the cart.
The free shipping banner option is on a radio button toggle found in the theme settings —> cart, as shown in the attached pic below.
You can un-check the toggle to eliminate the banner, or like I’ve done, update the language to reflect the shipping options. Now that the $100 threshold is set below the toggle, the cart shows the customer how far they are from free shipping.
