Offering free shipping on subscription orders

You may want to provide free shipping to your customers, especially if they sign up for a subscription. Free shipping can add value to your brand and encourage customers to purchase a subscription rather than a one-time product.

This guide provides guidance on setting up shipping in your ecommerce platform and Recharge depending on different free shipping scenarios. For general information on shipping, visit Setting up shipping for subscription products. 

Before you start

• Merchants using the Shopify Checkout Integration can configure shipping settings via the Shopify shipping settings and in the Recharge merchant portal. 
• Merchants using the Shopify Checkout Integration can also refer to Using Shopify shipping profiles for setting up shipping profiles with the Shopify Checkout Integration. 
• Merchants using the Recharge Checkout on BigCommerce should configure shipping settings on Recharge. Shopify merchants can use Shopify rates or implement advanced shipping rules and create specific rules in Recharge, but shipping settings still need to be configured in Recharge. For general information on shipping, visit Setting up shipping for subscription products.

Free shipping on the first charge only

There are several ways to offer free shipping on the first charge only.

• You can create a free shipping discount code that can only be used on the first charge. See Creating discount codes for more information.
• You can offer free shipping at checkout and then use Recharge Workflows to change the shipping price for your recurring orders. Review the free shipping workflow use case for more information.

Free shipping on subscription and one-time products

If you offer free shipping on your products, regardless of product type or customer location, you can set your Recharge shipping settings to Do not charge shipping. This disables shipping charges for all orders processed through the Recharge checkout.

If you use the Shopify Checkout Integration or the Migrated Shopify Checkout Integration, you must disable your custom shipping profile for this setting to work.

Free shipping for new customers only

You may want to offer free shipping as an incentive to new customers when they sign up and charge existing customers for shipping. See Offering free shipping to new customers for details on changing shipping rates for new customers only.

Free shipping on subscription products

There are multiple ways to offer free shipping on subscription products: Shopify Shipping Profiles and weight-based shipping rates.

Shopify Checkout Integration merchants can use Recharge's Shopify Shipping Profiles to create separate shipping profiles for subscription products only, offering free shipping.

Shopify Shipping Profiles

• International shipping - Merchants can control free shipping for international customers to prevent losses from more expensive international shipping rates.
• Custom shipping for subscriptions - Merchants can create custom shipping rates for subscriptions.
• Conditional shipping logic - Merchants can set price-based and weight-based shipping rates using Shopify shipping profiles. 

For more information on using this feature, see Using Shopify shipping profiles.

Additionally, you can use Recharge Workflows to offer free shipping on recurring charges only. Review the free shipping workflow use case for more information.

Check package weights

Shopify places a default weight on packages in their Shipping settings. This can cause the free shipping rate to not apply if you use weight-based rates. For example, if you have a product that is 1 lb and a shipping rate for 0-1 lb of $4.99, then the shipping rate will not work.

To resolve this issue, update your Shopify package weight:

1. In Shopify, click Settings and select Shipping & Delivery.
2. Scroll down to the Packages section and click Edit next to the default package.
3. Set the weight to 0.
4. Click Save.