74% of WooCommerce orders included free shipping in 2025 — up from 65% in 2023. Free shipping has gone from a competitive edge to a near-default expectation. Metorik's analysis of 65M+ orders across 6,000+ stores shows the shift clearly, and also shows that "free shipping lifts order value" is true at the typical store but reverses at the market level — a distinction that matters for your margins.
The headline numbers
74% of orders ship free (up from 65% in 2023)
Average shipping charge, when charged: $9.27
What free shipping does to AOV — it depends how you measure
Measure | Free-shipping AOV | Paid-shipping AOV |
|---|---|---|
Per-store median | $123 | $80 |
Weighted average | $96 | $116 |
At the typical store, free-shipping orders are worth much more ($123 vs $80) — usually because free shipping is gated behind a minimum cart threshold that pushes baskets higher. But across the whole market, the weighted average flips: free-shipping orders average less ($96 vs $116), because the democratization of free shipping means stores absorb a long tail of small, low-value orders that ship free anyway.
Both can be true at once, and that's the point: free shipping helps when it's structured as a threshold that lifts cart size, and quietly erodes margin when it's applied universally to orders that would have converted regardless.
The standout example
Coffee stores show an extraordinary free-shipping AOV premium: $239 vs $129 for paid — and it jumps to 112% among large-tier coffee stores. For categories with a natural "stock up to qualify" behavior, a free-shipping threshold is one of the most effective AOV levers available.
What to do with this
Don't treat free shipping as binary. The questions worth answering for your store: Is your free-shipping threshold actually raising cart size, or is it set so low it changes nothing? How many free-shipping orders fall below your true fulfillment cost? And does your category (like coffee, supplements, or other consumables) have the "stock up" behavior that makes a threshold especially powerful? You can't answer any of these without tracking shipping cost against order value — which is where the margin actually lives.
FAQ
What percentage of ecommerce orders have free shipping?
74% of WooCommerce orders included free shipping in 2025, up from 65% in 2023.
Does free shipping increase average order value?
At the typical store, yes — free-shipping orders averaged $123 vs $80 for paid — usually because free shipping is gated behind a minimum spend. Market-wide, the weighted average reverses, because many low-value orders also ship free.
What's the average shipping charge when it's not free?
$9.27 per order.
Methodology
Based on 65M+ WooCommerce orders placed in 2025 across a randomized sample of 6,000+ stores using Metorik. Figures use a per-store median or weighted average, as noted. Full data: the 2026 Metorik Insights for WooCommerce report and the key statistics page.
Free shipping only makes sense if you know what it costs you. Metorik's cost & profit reports track true profit per order — including shipping — across WooCommerce and Shopify.
