How to add a free shipping bar to your Shopify cart

How free shipping works with Yaco

A Free shipping tier shows the progress on the bar, such as $12 left for free shipping, then a success message once the threshold is reached. It works in one of two modes, chosen in the tier card:

• Goal + automatic discount: Yaco creates a Shopify shipping discount. As soon as the cart reaches the threshold, every shipping option at checkout is free. Nothing to set up in Shopify.
• Goal only: the bar announces the free shipping your store already offers in Shopify, with a free shipping rate or a "Free shipping" automatic discount. The tier's threshold follows that offer on its own.

The Free shipping type is available on every plan.

Set up the free shipping tier

1. In the app, open Goals & Discounts, tab Goals, and click Add a goal.
2. Choose the type Free shipping (Shipping fees waived).
3. Name it, for example "Free shipping", and adjust the Goal's text template, for example {amount} left for {name}.
4. Choose the mode: Goal + automatic discount for Yaco to make shipping free, or Goal only to follow the offer set up in Shopify.
5. With Goal + automatic discount, set the threshold in the tier sentence. With Goal only, the threshold comes from Shopify.
6. Click Save.

See add a tier for the other tier settings.

Goal + automatic discount: Yaco makes shipping free

When you save, Yaco creates a Shopify automatic shipping discount for the tier. At checkout, once the cart reaches the threshold, every shipping option offered to the customer is free.

• Threshold after all discounts. By default, the threshold is checked on the cart after every discount (product discounts, order discounts and codes), excluding taxes: the rule Shopify uses for its own free shipping rates and discounts. To use another amount, click the threshold in the tier sentence and change Discount calculation: Before all discounts, After product discount, or After cart discount (the default, after all discounts).
• The tier's conditions apply. Markets and countries, customer targeting, active dates, traffic source and cart attributes decide who gets free shipping, as for any tier. See targeting and markets.
• The bar decides what counts. The threshold counts what the tier's bar counts: an amount, a number of items or a weight, on all products or on some of them. Once the threshold is reached, shipping is free for the whole order.
• It counts as an automatic discount. The tier's discount counts towards Shopify's limit of 25 automatic discounts per app, like a percentage off tier.
• In-store pickup. When the customer picks up part of the order in store and has the rest shipped, only the shipping is made free: pickup has no fee. The threshold counts the whole cart, picked-up items included.

If your store already offers free shipping

Shopify never applies two shipping discounts to the same delivery, so Yaco looks at your existing offers when you choose Goal + automatic discount:

• A free shipping automatic discount: Yaco offers to turn it off when you save, so it doesn't compete with the tier's discount. Nothing is deleted: you can turn it back on in Shopify at any time.
• A free shipping rate: Yaco shows a warning, but never changes your shipping rates. The rate keeps making shipping free from its own minimum: align it with the tier's threshold, or remove it in Settings › Shipping and delivery if the tier should decide alone.

Combine free shipping with other discounts

The tier's Combines with line works as for other Yaco discounts, with two classes: Product and Order. Both are ticked by default. Click Edit to untick one if free shipping must not add up with product or order discounts. There is no Shipping box: Shopify never combines two shipping discounts.

Combination is only accepted when both discounts allow it. A discount code must also tick shipping discounts in its Combinations section, otherwise Shopify keeps one of the two.

Goal only: the bar follows your Shopify offer

In Goal only mode, Yaco creates no discount. The tier announces the free shipping you set up in Shopify, in one of these two places:

• a free shipping rate: in Settings › Shipping and delivery, a rate at 0 with a minimum order price. If your store sets shipping per market (Shopify's market-based shipping), it is the shipping option of each market, with a free shipping minimum;
• a free shipping discount: in Discounts, an automatic discount of type "Free shipping" with a minimum purchase amount.

The tier's threshold is read from that offer and can't be edited in Yaco: change the offer in Shopify, and the tier follows a few seconds later. The tier card links to the offer in Shopify. In markets where Shopify doesn't offer free shipping, the tier is hidden, on the store and at checkout, so the bar never promises what checkout doesn't apply.

To follow your offer, the bar must count the cart amount: on a bar that counts items or weight, the tier keeps the threshold you enter. The threshold is checked as Shopify does: after all discounts, excluding taxes.

If you chose Goal only before Yaco had read your Shopify offer, or created the offer afterwards, the tier keeps the threshold you entered and shows Follow Shopify's offer: click it, then save.

Free shipping tiers created as Text goals

A free shipping tier created before the Free shipping type, or imported when you installed the app, is a Text goal: it keeps working as it is, and creates no discount. Its threshold doesn't follow Shopify: each time you change your free shipping amount in Shopify, update the tier too, then save. To switch it to the new type, open the tier, choose Free shipping among the types, pick a mode and save.

At installation, a market whose free shipping minimum is the same amount as the tier's threshold, in your store currency, gets no exception: it follows the tier, even after you change the threshold. A market with another minimum, another currency, or free shipping in only some of its countries gets an exception with its own amount. When free shipping covers fewer markets than it leaves out, the tier is created Only on those markets, and no other market sees it; otherwise, the markets without free shipping are listed after Except on, where the tier is disabled.

On a Text goal, keep the countries aligned yourself:

• If the free shipping amount differs by country, set a threshold per market or country with + Adapt a market/country. See markets.
• If you do not offer free shipping in some markets, use Disable goal for this market there, so the bar does not promise it.

Free shipping limited to some products or zones

Shopify can reserve a free shipping rate to some products (a shipping profile) or to some zones. You can set up the same rules in the app:

• Products: give the free shipping tier its own bar that only counts those products. Click the measure in the tier sentence, then Create a bar. In Goals & Discounts, tab Bars, open that bar and, under What is counted › Cart item filtering, choose Include only items from (or Exclude any item from) and pick the products or collections. Use one bar per shipping profile that has its own free shipping minimum. See bars.
• Zones: set a threshold per market or country with + Adapt a market/country, use Disable goal for this market where you don't offer free shipping, or show the tier Only on some markets or countries. See markets.

A free shipping rate limited to some products is not imported when you install the app: set it up this way. With Goal + automatic discount, the tier's discount then makes shipping free for the whole order once those products reach the threshold.

Yaco discount, rate or your own discount: which to choose

All three work with the bar. The difference shows at checkout, when other discounts are involved:

• A shipping rate at 0 is not a discount, so it never conflicts with any discount, including Yaco tiers.
• A shipping discount, Yaco's or your own, follows Shopify's combination rules. Two shipping discounts never combine. It can also block a Yaco gift or discount tier, or be blocked by it, if their combination settings do not allow it.
• The Yaco discount adds what Shopify's free shipping discount doesn't offer: a threshold per market or per country in a single discount, a threshold in items or weight, targeting by traffic source or cart attributes, and a title translated at checkout.

If you use your own shipping discount together with Yaco reward tiers, check both sides. On the Yaco tier, Shipping must not be struck through in the tier's Combines with line. On your Shopify shipping discount, the combination with the Yaco tier's discount type (product or order) must be ticked too. If a discount still does not apply, see discount not applied.

Free shipping not applied at checkout

Check, in this order:

• The mode. With Goal only, Yaco creates no discount: the free shipping comes from your Shopify rate or discount. Check that it is still active, for the customer's country.
• The threshold. By default, it is checked after all discounts, excluding taxes. A discount code can bring the cart back under it: the customer then pays shipping, as with a Shopify free shipping discount. See Discount calculation above.
• The country and market. At checkout, the tier follows the shipping country. A tier disabled for that market or country, or limited to other markets, gives no free shipping there. See markets.
• Another shipping discount. Shopify applies only one shipping discount per delivery: a shipping code, your own free shipping discount or another app's shipping discount can take the tier's place.
• The combinations. A discount code or automatic discount that doesn't combine with shipping discounts, or a class struck through in the tier's Combines with line, makes Shopify keep only one of the two.
• The Shopify discount. If the tier's discount was deleted in Shopify, open the app and click Save to recreate it. See discount not applied.

Messages and next tiers

When the threshold is reached, the bar shows the tier's success message. You can hide it once a higher tier is reached with Then hide the success message, so the bar focuses on the next reward. See success message.

Free shipping is often the first tier, followed by a free gift or a discount tier at a higher amount.