Suppose that our store resides in the UK and we want to apply free shipping if the total order value is more than $100, no matter how many products a customer purchases.
- Let's open the Extensions | Shipping menu in the administration panel and click on the Install link near the Free Shipping item.
- The next step is to Edit the free Shipping settings. Write 100 for Total, choose Geo Zone as UK Shipping, and Status as Enabled. Click on the Save button to enable Free Shipping.
- In the following case, free shipping will be enabled since the customer shipping address is the UK and the order total is $180, which is bigger than the minimum free shipping condition of $100.
- In the following case, the customer did not get the free shipping option even though he/she is from the UK. The reason is that the shopping cart value is less than $100.
Tip
An error was generated because there were no other shipping methods defined yet for the following situation.
We have learned how to set up the free shipping method. Free shipping for orders more than a pre-defined value can encourage customers to buy more. Many established online stores use the free shipping method as a powerful tool for promotion and selling.
Flat rate shipping is defined as when we don't want to deal with individual product or basket shipping rates. No matter the order amount, a fixed shipping charge is applied on it. As in the case of free shipping, it needs careful planning because some customers can order many products at once, leaving us with large shipping costs even though we only charge a flat rate for shipping. The common method is to secretly reflect the shipping and handling costs in each product price. Another alternative is to analyze sales and find the average order value and average shipping costs for the store. Then, a profitable flat rate shipping method is determined according to these values.