How to Add a Free Shipping Bar in WooCommerce

July 26. 2020

If you are new to online shopping, you might be wondering why should one even consider free shipping. Surely, your customers will value your products enough to pay the extra shipping fee. So why go through the trouble of setting up and adding the free shipping option? Well, numerous studies have shown that having free shipping is not only smart but often mandatory when working with WooCommerce. So, with this in mind, we are going to go over how to add a free shipping bar in WooCommerce. And we are going to explore a bit how to optimize your free shipping bar so it works well with your website.

Why adding free shipping is a good idea

One of the basic rules of online shopping is that you want your customers to be at your checkout as soon as possible. If you’ve designed your website properly, they should see what they want, choose to purchase it, verify their info, and be done with it. Any more steps or changes along the way gives them another reason to reconsider. And one of the biggest reasons for reconsideration is the shipping cost. If your customers have come to terms with your prices, the last thing you want is to add a bit more for shipping.

Even a small amount can be just the push they need to forgo the current purchase and see if there is a more affordable option on a different website. So, trust us when we tell you, you want to shorten your customer’s checkout time as much as possible. And the only way to make that happen is to add free shipping with your purchases. It is a common fact that people will gladly pay $15 with free shipping. And think twice about paying $10 with $2 for shipping.

Adding a free shipping bar in WooCommerce

While there are numerous ways in which you can add a free shipping bar in WooCommerce, for the sake of this article we are going to go over two. We feel that these are the most straightforward ways to tackle shipping bars, as they require little extra work.

The first way is to head on to WordPress.org/plugins/ and type in “Free Shipping Bar in WooCommerce” in the search bar. Among the first plugins that are available will be the Free Shipping Bar in WooCommerce plugin by VillaTheme. To install it you simply need to follow three steps:

• Download and unzip the package from the current page.
• Upload the woo-free-shipping-bar to your WordPress plugin directory (/wp-content/plugins/).
• Activate the plugin.

It is important to note that you need to have WooCommerce plugin version 3.0 already installed. With this plugin, you will get useful features like:

• Display of shopping progress – Free shipping usually comes with a minimum cost requirement. This plugin will help your customers see their current progress towards it.
• Shipping zones – You will be able to integrate WooCommerce shipping zones with the VillaTheme plugin.
• Basic customization tools.
• Mobile adaptability – The plugin is well optimized for mobile use.

All in all, with this plugin you will have an easy to use and easy to update free shipping bar. But, unfortunately, you won’t have much room for customization. So, to help you out, we are also going to cover how to add a free shipping bar in WooCommerce with a more powerful plugin.

Using OpinMonster to add a free shipping bar in WooCommerce

OpinMonster is a more advanced plugin that will not only allow you to add a free shipping bar in WooCommerce but will also allow you to customize it.

In order to install OpinMonster, you will first have to visit their website and create an account. Once you’ve created an account and signed in, you will be able to install the free OpinMonster plugin. Doing so is pretty similar to installing any other WordPress plugin, so we won’t go into much detail. Once you install it, the plugin will connect your website with the OpinMonster app. To connect your account, you need to click on the OpinMonster menu in the WordPress dashboard. There you simply need to click on the “Connect your Account” button and follow instructions.

Creating a free shipping bar

Now that you’ve fully connected OpinMonster with your website, you can proceed to create a free shipping bar. To do so, you’ll need to:

• Go to your WordPress dashboard and open the OpinMonster page.
• Click on the “Create New Campaign” button in the upper right corner. Doing so will take you to the OpinMonster campaign builder.
• Choose the “Floating Bar” option.
• Choose your preferred template. There are numerous different options for you to choose from, and you can even customize some of them.
• Name your campaign.
• Choose websites that you wish to run with your campaign.
• Click the “Start Building” button.

The default setting will put the free shipping bar at the bottom of the screen. If you wish to put it on top simply go to the Floating Settings in the left part of your screen. There you can choose whether the bar will be on the top or bottom. If you wish to alter the text, you simply need to click on the current text in the bar. A text editor will open which will allow you to choose the font, color, font size, and many more.

It is often a good idea to have a page on your website where you outline the rules and benefits of free shipping. If you have such a page, you can easily make your shipping bar direct your audience to it. To do so, you simply need to click on the button of your free shipping bar and go to the Action tab on the left-hand side. There you can type in the “Redicert URL” your page. Other options will allow you to change the color and the size of your free shipping bar.