Discount Bot· 6 min read
Conditional Free Shipping on Shopify: By Spend, Collection, Country, or Rate
Set up conditional free shipping in Shopify: free or discounted shipping that applies only over a spend amount, from a specific collection, to selected countries, or on cheaper rates, all on the same code as your product discounts.
Free shipping once the cart holds $100 from one collection. Free Standard shipping while Express stays full price. A shipping code that works for Canada and nowhere else.
Each of these is conditional free shipping: a shipping discount that checks the cart, the rate, or the destination before it applies. In this guide I’ll build all three in Shopify with Discount Bot, plus a fourth that discounts shipping only on large orders, and then combine conditions into a single discount.
- How conditional free shipping works in Shopify
- Free shipping only for a specific collection
- Keeping Express at full price
- Free shipping by country
- Discounted shipping on large orders
- Combining shipping conditions
How conditional free shipping works in Shopify
Shopify’s built-in free shipping discount handles one case: 100% off shipping, with an optional minimum measured on the whole order, a country list, and a maximum rate price. Promotions beyond that need an app.
In Discount Bot, shipping is one of the three discounts a Super Discount can carry, alongside product and order discounts. The value doesn’t have to be 100%: a shipping discount can be a smaller percentage or a fixed amount, so “half off shipping” is as valid a promotion as “free shipping.” And a shipping discount accepts conditions, the same ones product and order discounts take, plus two of its own:
- Cart conditions: a quantity or spend amount the cart must contain, counted from the whole cart, one collection, or specific products, with the same builder conditional product discounts use
- Shipping country: a list of destination countries, picked from your store’s shipping zones
- Shipping rate: a price test on each rate, either Costs at most $X or Costs at least $X
The rest of this guide sets up each condition on its own, then combines them.
Free shipping only for a specific collection
The setup merchants ask for most: free shipping, but only when the cart has $100 or more from one collection.
Create a Super Discount, add a shipping discount at 100%, and give it one condition: the cart contains at least $100 from the Hair masks collection. A spend minimum counted from one collection is the same setting behind tiered discounts by order total; here it decides whether shipping is free.
This discount also carries a 20% product discount on mattresses, which is the reason to build both into one Super Discount: the customer enters a single code.
In the cart, one code covers both. The mattress is 20% off, and four masks put the cart at $104 from Hair masks, so the $5.00 shipping drops to free:
Below $100 of masks, the product discount still applies and the cart pays its normal shipping.
Keeping Express at full price
A free-shipping code normally makes whichever rate the customer selects free, including the priciest courier options.
To keep the promotion on the cheaper rates, add a Shipping rate condition set to Costs at most $4. The discount list reads the rule back:
At checkout, Standard at $3.00 becomes free and Express stays at its full $5.00:
The condition also runs the other way: Costs at least discounts only the pricier rates, which is the setup for a half-off-Express promotion.
Some stores would rather help with Express than exclude it. For that, skip the rate condition and tick Limit the maximum discount amount on the shipping discount instead:
At 100% with a $3.00 cap, Standard still ships free, and Express comes down from $5.00 to $2.00:
The cap is the same one product and order discounts take.
Free shipping by country
A Shipping country condition limits the discount to destinations you pick. Choose Shipping country in the condition, then search or browse: the picker lists the countries from your store’s shipping zones, so it matches where you actually ship. Here it’s the second condition on the discount, with Canada selected:
Shopify’s built-in free shipping also takes a country list. The additional benefit with Discount Bot is what pairs with it:
- Partial values: 50% off shipping for Canada is one shipping discount at 50% with a country condition
- One code: the country-limited shipping discount goes on the same code as your product and order discounts
Discounted shipping on large orders
For stores selling furniture, equipment, or anything freight-shipped, the common promotion is shipping help on big-ticket orders: $50 off shipping when the order reaches $1,000.
That’s a shipping discount with a fixed amount value and one cart condition: at least $1,000 from any items. The minimum counts the whole cart, and the discount applies once the order qualifies.
Combining shipping conditions
Every condition above worked on its own. A shipping discount takes up to five, and the Match all / Match any control at the top of the conditions list decides how they work together.
The country screenshot above already had two: Rate $4 or less and Ships to Canada, with the conditions set to Match all. Together they free only the cheaper rates, and only on orders headed to Canada. The discount list sums up the whole rule:
Match any points the other way: one passing condition is enough. Set the same two conditions to Match any, and every rate ships free to Canada, while everywhere else the $4-and-under rates ship free.
When no condition passes, shipping stays at full price, and the product and order discounts on the same code keep working.
Shipping that qualifies before it saves
A conditional shipping discount comes down to three checks: what the cart holds, where it ships, and which rates qualify. Use them one at a time, or stack them with Match all, and run the whole promotion beside your product and order discounts on a single code.
Install Discount Bot from the app store and build one — there’s a 7 day trial.
