What the numbers say
An order at $120.00 weighs about 2 lb packed, so its label costs $10.50 at USPS's Zone 5 commercial price. Charging the 1 lb label ($9.29) and shipping free differ by $7.23 per order.
Free shipping on every order keeps $39.16 per order against $46.39 when shipping is charged. To earn the same per visitor it has to bring 18.5% more buyers.
A threshold only adds something above the average order. An order that tops up from $120.00 to $136.31 with more of the same goods and ships free keeps $46.39, against the $46.39 the average order keeps with shipping charged. That is the break-even: a lower threshold loses money on every order that tops up to it, and at $140.00 each top-up earns $1.63 more.
Those two orders are costed in the average order's parcel, at the same gross margin; a top-up heavy enough to need a larger label raises the break-even. And every order already above the threshold stops paying its $9.29 of shipping and buys nothing extra. The free-shipping threshold calculator counts both sides with your own order values.
The cost structure, and where it comes from
| Price | $120.00, the average order. FIGS, fourth quarter and full year 2025 results, read 23 September 2026 |
|---|---|
| Unit cost | $40.20. From the reported gross margin: “Gross margin was 66.5% … average order value of $120” FIGS, fourth quarter and full year 2025 results, read 23 September 2026 |
| Pick and pack | $3.20 per order and $0.48 for each extra item. Fulfill.com, 3PL pricing benchmarks (The Fulfillment Advisor 2025 survey of 600+ warehouses), read 23 September 2026 |
| Shipping label | USPS Ground Advantage, commercial, Zone 5, by weight rounded up to the pound: 1 lb $9.29 · 2 lb $10.50 · 3 lb $12.12 · 4 lb $13.89 · 5 lb $14.53. Packed weight is an assumption: 2 lb per order. USPS Notice 123, USPS Ground Advantage Commercial, Zone 5 (effective 4 October 2026), read 13 October 2026 |
| Card fees | 2.9% + $0.30 per order: Shopify Payments' online rate for a standard card on the Basic plan in the United States. Higher plans pay a lower rate, and premium cards a higher one. Shopify's pricing page for the United States, online standard card rates, read 12 October 2026 Rates by plan and country |
| Refund reserve | 19.3%, NRF's estimate of online sales returned in 2025, across all categories. NRF and Happy Returns, 2025 Retail Returns Landscape (15 October 2025), read 23 September 2026 |
| Gift | A pair of socks: unit cost $4.02, retail $12.00. A $12 pair of socks, costed at FIGS' reported gross margin. |
The offer, as an agent writes it
An agent writes this offer as one document for Offer Suite's API, validated against the offer schema. Below is one option of it: what the buyer gets and the price it promises. Offer Suite checks with a real cart that checkout charges exactly the prices above.
Show one option 1 option · excerpt
{
"key": "order",
"display": {
"title": "Free shipping"
},
"lines": [
{
"role": "main",
"quantity": 1,
"purchase": {
"type": "one_time"
}
}
],
"pricing": {
"promise": {
"firstChargeCents": 12000,
"renewalChargeCents": null
}
}
}How Offer Suite validates, versions and publishes a document like this one: offer documents.
Questions
Is free shipping profitable for apparel brands?
Shipped free, an average order of $120.00 keeps $39.16 on these costs, $7.23 less than with the $9.29 label charged. It pays for itself if it brings 18.5% more buyers.
What free-shipping threshold should apparel brands set?
Above $136.31 on these costs: an order that tops up to less keeps less than it kept paying for shipping. At $140.00, each top-up earns $1.63 more.