Membership benefits: Free shipping

Offering free shipping on member purchases is a popular membership program benefit and entices members to make additional purchases and increase conversion rates. 

This guide provides an overview of how merchants can configure a free shipping benefit in Recharge. This feature automatically applies a free shipping discount code to active members at checkout and does not require Shopify Plus to configure. 

Before you start

• Memberships are in Early Adopter status. To request access to this feature, fill out the Memberships interest form. For more information on the Early Adopter Program, previously known as the Recharge Beta Program, see Early Adopter Program.
• Merchants on Shopify Plus can also implement free or discounted shipping using Shopify Scripts. See Membership benefits: Free or discounted shipping with Shopify Plus for more information. 

Create a free shipping benefit

Offering free shipping on member purchases entices members to make additional purchases and increase conversion rates. 

Add a new benefit

Add the free shipping benefit to a membership program: 

1. Click Memberships then select Membership programs in your merchant portal. 
2. On the Membership programs page, click See details on the membership you want to add shipping benefits to.
   
3. In the benefits section, click Add new benefit.
4. Choose Free shipping from the drop-down and select Next.
   
5. Fill in the benefit name and optionally add a description. Choose if you want to enable the benefit. 

Configure free shipping benefit

Configure the free shipping settings: 

1. Create a new discount code. Edit this discount code within Recharge later if needed. 

   • In Shopify, the discount will appear in the discounts list as Free Shipping Benefit - [Program name].

   • Shopify defaults the following settings when a discount code is created in Shopify:

     • Countries: All countries

     • Sales channels: If you have installed any additional sales channels on your store, they will not be selected. Recharge will not override settings created in Shopify. 

     • Maximum discount uses: None

     • Active dates: Date and time of discount creation

2. Select minimum purchase requirements and choose if you want to Exclude shipping rates over a certain amount.
   
3. Choose if you want to combine the shipping discounts with product or order discounts. 
4. Select the type of products the benefit applies to and click Save to confirm your changes. 

Enable app embed

To enable the free shipping app embed on Shopify: 

1. Once the free shipping benefit is created and enabled, the free shipping app embed will appear in your Theme Editor and will need to be enabled. In the Shopify Admin, click Online Store and select Themes.
2. Click Customize on the intended theme.
   
3. In the theme editor, click App embeds and Enable the free shipping app embed for your store.
   
4. Save your changes.