Find Your Optimal Free Shipping Threshold

Use this Ready-to-Run Test to discover the free shipping threshold that maximizes profitability for your store

Why Run This Test | VIDEO: How to Run This Test | Step-by-Step Guide

What's a Free Shipping Threshold Test

A Free Shipping Threshold Test measures the impact of offering free shipping at a specific cart value compared to your current shipping strategy. This test helps you find the sweet spot between increasing conversions and protecting margins.

The test compares two groups:

• Control group: Your current shipping strategy (e.g., $5 flat rate on all orders)

• Test group: Free shipping when cart reaches a specific threshold (e.g., free shipping over $50)

This allows you to quantify whether a free shipping threshold drives enough incremental revenue and larger cart sizes to offset the shipping subsidy.

Why This Works

Free shipping is consistently ranked as one of the top factors influencing purchase decisions, but offering it universally can erode margins. A threshold-based approach creates the best of both worlds:

• Increases conversion rates by removing a major purchase barrier

• Encourages larger cart sizes as shoppers add items to reach the threshold

• Protects margins by only subsidizing shipping on higher-value orders

• Creates a clear value proposition that's easy to communicate across your site

The key is finding the right threshold.

Set it too low and you subsidize shipping on orders that would have converted anyway.

Set it too high and shoppers won't adjust their behavior to reach it.

The optimal free shipping threshold typically falls between your current AOV and +/- 20% above it. Shoppers are often willing to add 1-2 additional items to unlock free shipping.

How to Build This Test in Intelligems

Step 1: Determine Your Test Thresholds

Before setting up your test, review your store's Order Value Distribution in Sitewide Analytics to identify natural clustering points.

For this example:

• Control: $5 flat rate shipping on all orders

• Test: Free shipping on orders over $50

Choose your threshold based on:

• Current Average Order Value

• Shipping cost per order

• Product margins

• Where orders cluster in your distribution

Step 2: Create Your Offer Test

1. Go to Tests → Create New Test

2. Select Offer

3. Name your test: "Free Shipping Threshold $50 "

4. Click Create

Step 3: Set up Groups

1. Name the control: "Control - $5 Flat Rate"

2. Leave the control with no modifications (your current Shopify shipping rates will apply)

3. Name the test group: "Free Shipping Over $50"

4. Click into Modifications tab

Step 4: Configure Test Group Offer

1. Select your test group tab, click + Add offer

2. Choose Free Shipping

3. Click Configure Offer

Step 5: Configure Free Shipping Offer

1. Add discount name shown in cart/checkout: "Free Shipping!"

2. Check the box for Minimum Purchase Requirements since we only want free shipping to be eligible on orders over $50

3. In the dropdown, select Subtotal of items

4. Type in 50

5. For free shipping configuration, select Powered by Intelligems so Intelligems will automatically apply the free shipping discount on the backend

6. Limit ship-to countries: Select United States (or your desired countries)

7. Choose eligible rates:

   • Select Limit to rates by name

   • Set the rate name to exactly match your standard shipping method: Standard Shipping

     • To double check, you can go into your Shopify shipping profiles and find the rate name that you want to replace

Now, any orders over $50 in the test group will get free shipping on the standard shipping profile.

Step 6: Add Components (Recommended)

On the right side, you have the option to Add Components. These components are available out of the box inside Intelligems. Learn more.

You can add a Progress Bar to your mini cart, or you can add an Offer Message that will show on your homepage.

In this case, let's add an Offer Message:

1. Click + Add component

2. Select Offer Message

3. Set the title: "Free shipping on orders over $50"

4. For the description: "Automatically applied at checkout" - this lets shoppers know they don't need to add a discount code or do anything

5. For Color & Style, match your brand theme

6. Click Confirm Changes

Progress bar not showing up? Some themes require our progress bars code snippet <ig-shipping-progress-container></ig-shipping-progress-container> to be manually added to your cart theme code. Follow these steps.

Step 7: Review and Save

Back in the Modifications tab, you can see the offer is set up. Double check:

• Discount name

• Minimum purchase requirements

• The message that will show on the homepage

Click Save.

Step 8: Add Optional Content Edits

If you'd like to make any other changes, like maybe updating your announcement bar to say "Free shipping on orders over $50", or to add that language in more places across your site:

1. In the top right, click + Add Modification

2. Select Content Edits

3. Use the onsite editor widget to make any changes you'd like to support the free shipping messaging

4. Once you've made those changes, click Save

Step 9: Add Targeting & Preview

1. In the Targeting tab, like any other test or personalization in Intelligems, you can choose who sees this test

2. In this case, we want to show it to all traffic, which is set by default.

3. Click Save

4. Preview your test on mobile and desktop

5. Add items to cart and verify:

   • Offer message appears on homepage

   • Free shipping applies when threshold is reached

   • Discount name shows correctly in cart/checkout

6. Start your test or schedule it to start and stop at a later date

Step 10: Review Results

After your test reaches statistical significance (typically 2-4 weeks depending on traffic), review the Results tab and roll out the winner as a Personalization.

How to Measure Impact

• Conversion rate lift: Are more visitors completing purchases?

• Average Order Value (AOV) lift: Are carts getting larger to reach the threshold?

• Revenue per visitor lift: Overall impact on revenue

• Profit per visitor lift: The most important metric - does the revenue increase offset shipping costs?

• Shipping revenue per order: Track the cost of the subsidy

Use the AI summary or Chat about your results to get deeper insights into your performance.

Roll Out as a Personalization

If the test wins:

1. Click End Test

2. Select the winning variant

3. Click Publish as Personalization

4. The free shipping offer will continue running automatically for all visitors

5. Update your site messaging (homepage banners, product pages, etc.) to communicate the new threshold

6. No ongoing maintenance required - the offer runs in the background

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Want Help With Setup?

Our team can walk you through this test and launch it while we're on the call. Book a strategy call