Free Shipping Configuration

Introduction to Understanding Free Shipping

Many online stores will offer their customer's free shipping in a variety of different ways. This page will explain all the different ways to provide free shipping.

Attach free shipping methods to specific items.
Create free shipping methods (and optionally exclude certain items).

Different Ways to Receive Free Shipping

Specific Items Receive Free Shipping

Often certain items will always receive free shipping to entice the customer to purchase. In order to configure an item as free shipping you need to navigate to the shipping tab of the item editor:

Main Menu → Items → Item Management → Click the Item Id → Scroll down to the "Shipping" section

Once you are on the shipping tab you can check the free shipping box as shown below.

You're not done yet!

Once you check this box and save it you are not through with the configuration! You need to tell UltraCart which of your shipping methods qualify for free shipping items. You have two choices below.

Marking a shipping method as a potential candidate for any items shipping free.

To tell UltraCart that a particular shipping method qualifies as a "free method", method navigate to:

Main Menu → Configuration → Shipping → Methods → [edit]

On this page you need to check the Qualifies for Free Shipping box as shown below.

At this point whenever you mark an item as free shipping, only the methods that qualify for free shipping will be free. If the customer wants a faster method for instance than they will have to pay for the higher priced shipping.

Item receives free shipping for a method that is not normally free

Alternatively on the shipping tab of the item editor you can mark very specific methods as being free. For example if you normally only provide Ground shipping for your free items, but also want to provide 2-day shipping for free on a specific item then you could use the section shown below.

Global Free Shipping for Method

If you want to provide free shipping for a particular method you can configure that under:

Main Menu → Configuration → Shipping → Methods → [edit]

At the bottom of the Cost tab is a section for free shipping as shown below:

You can make the shipping method free if:

The order is a certain subtotal (such as $99)
The order is a certain subtotal (such as $99) and the customer is the continental United States (prevents losing money on shipments to Hawaii and Alaska)
The order contains a certain number of items
If this method is the cheapest of all the methods that are available for a given address.

Configure only one of these

Only one of these options should be used on a method.

Free Shipping for an upsell after offer

If you are using the "Upsell After" offer tool to present order upgrades to the customer during their checkout, you ma want to allow for free shipping for the upsell offer.

Main Menu → Configuration → Items → Upsell After → Create/Edit offer → Options (section)

Must configure Free Shipping Methods

For the free shipping to work with the upsell offer, you must first edit and configure one or more of your shipping methods with the qualifies for free shipping checkbox selected.

Excluding Items for Free Shipping

Let's say that you have configure free ground shipping for all orders over $99, but you have a few items that are over-sized items that don't qualify for free shipping. UltraCart can handle these items too! Navigate back to the Shipping tab of the Item Editor located:

Main Menu → Item Management → Items → Click the Item Id → Shipping (tab)

Now check the No Shipping Discount checkbox as shown below.