Updated November 2026
Short answer: Shopify's free shipping discount has no product or collection conditions, so the built-in route is a separate shipping profile with a free rate. In RM: Advanced Free Shipping, you add a product or collection condition instead and keep your shipping profiles as they are.
Shipping is charged per rate, not per item. When the cart matches, the whole rate becomes free or cheaper, not just the shipping for certain items.
Product in cart Contains Garden Bench, then All shipping rates, Free.
Product collection Contains (any) "Free shipping items", then Free.
Anything else in the cart ships free too. To require that the cart has only those products, use Contains (any / strict mode) for products or Contains (only) for collections.
No free shipping when oversized items are in the cart: Cart total Is at least 100, AND Product collection Does not contain "Oversized".
Some products don't count toward the threshold: Cost of items from collection (subtotal) Is at least 100, with a collection of the products that should count. Merch, gift cards or add-ons outside it don't count.
To leave out a few products, tag them (for example "no-free-shipping") and create a smart collection that excludes products with that tag. Use that collection in the condition.
Item count from collection Is at least 3, with your collection. Shopify's built-in minimum quantity counts every item in the cart.
A shipping profile with a free rate suits products that always ship free. When a cart mixes products from different profiles, Shopify combines the rates from each profile, so customers still pay shipping for the other items. A shipping discount keeps one profile and decides by what's in the cart.
Up to 150 products per Product in cart condition. For more, put them in a collection.
To target a product tag, create a smart collection based on the tag and use a collection condition.
Each collection condition checks only its own collections, so one rule group can require one collection and exclude another.
Strict mode and Contains (only) count everything in the cart, including add-ons like shipping protection.
See Product in cart and Variant selector and Collection conditions.
Can I make shipping free for just one item in a mixed cart?
No. Shipping is charged per rate, so a discount changes the whole rate. You can make the discount depend on what's in the cart.
Can I exclude products from free shipping?
Yes. Use Product collection Does not contain, or count only some products toward the threshold with Cost of items from collection.
Do gift cards count toward the threshold?
Yes. Gift cards bought in the cart count toward Cart total and Cart subtotal like any other item. To leave them out, use Cost of items from collection with a collection that doesn't include them.
Can I use product tags?
Not directly. Create a smart collection based on the tag, then use a collection condition.
