---
title: "Free shipping threshold for supplement brands"
description: "Free shipping for supplement brands on USPS's published label prices: what it gives away on orders that already qualify, and what a top-up earns."
url: https://offersuite.io/playbooks/free-shipping-threshold-for-supplement-brands
updated: 2026-10-13
---

# Free shipping threshold for supplement brands

Free shipping for supplement brands on USPS's published label prices: what it gives away on orders that already qualify, and what a top-up earns.

### 1 unit, pays shipping

Revenue $47.24 to contribution margin $20.25 (42.9%)

Revenue

$47.24

Cost of goods

−$10.47

Pick and pack

−$3.20

Shipping label

−$9.29

Card fee per order

−$0.30

Refunds

−$2.36

Card processing

−$1.37

Contribution margin

$20.25

2 declared kinds cost nothing on this option

### 3 units, ships free

Revenue $113.85 to contribution margin $58.49 (51.4%)

Revenue

$113.85

Cost of goods

−$31.41

Pick and pack

−$3.20

Extra picks

−$0.96

Shipping label

−$10.50

Card fee per order

−$0.30

Refunds

−$5.69

Card processing

−$3.30

Contribution margin

$58.49

1 declared kind costs nothing on this option

Orders below and above the threshold

| Option | Customer pays | Shipping charged | Costs | Margin | Margin % |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 unit, pays shipping | $37.95 | $9.29 | $26.99 | $20.25 | 42.9% |
| 2 units, ships free | $75.90 | $0.00 | $40.21 | $35.69 | 47.0% |
| 3 units, shipping charged | $113.85 | $9.29 | $56.10 | $67.04 | 54.4% |
| 3 units, ships free | $113.85 | $0.00 | $55.36 | $58.49 | 51.4% |

Every figure is computed by the margin engine in Offer Suite's own code, in whole cents, from the costs below.

## What the numbers say

Free shipping from $75.90, two units. Below it the customer pays $9.29, the 1 lb label passed through. One unit paying shipping keeps $20.25; two units shipped free keep $35.69.

Every order that tops up from one unit to two earns $15.44 more. Every order that was already at or above the threshold stops paying its $9.29 of shipping and buys nothing extra, which costs $8.55 of margin: the shipping, less the card fees and refund reserve it no longer carries.

So the threshold pays when the top-ups outnumber the orders that already qualify by enough to cover them. The free-shipping threshold calculator does that count with your order values.

Nature's Sunshine's Subscribe & Thrive takes 25% off every subscription order and ships it free. [Nature's Sunshine, Subscribe & Thrive, read 23 September 2026](https://www.naturessunshine.com/subscribe-and-thrive)

## The cost structure, and where it comes from

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Price | $37.95, a bottle of supplements. [Nature's Sunshine homepage, read 23 September 2026](https://www.naturessunshine.com/) |
| Unit cost | $10.47. From the reported gross margin: “Gross margin in 2025 increased to 72.4% compared to 71.5% in 2024.” [Nature's Sunshine, fourth quarter and full year 2025 results, read 23 September 2026](https://ir.naturessunshine.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/267/natures-sunshine-reports-strong-fourth-quarter-and-full) |
| 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](https://www.fulfill.com/3pl-pricing) |
| 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: 0.5 lb per unit. [USPS Notice 123, USPS Ground Advantage Commercial, Zone 5 (effective 4 October 2026), read 13 October 2026](https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/Notice123.htm) |
| 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](https://www.shopify.com/pricing) [Rates by plan and country](https://offersuite.io/fees/shopify-payments/united-states) |
| Refund reserve | 5%, Offer Suite's default assumption for consumables. NRF's all-category figure for online sales is 19.3%, but consumables are rarely returned; use your own rate. |
| Gift | A travel-size bottle: unit cost $5.24, retail $15.00. A half-size bottle, costed at half the full bottle's unit cost. |

## 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 2 options · excerpt**

```
{
  "key": "two-ship-free",
  "display": {
    "title": "2 units, free shipping"
  },
  "lines": [
    {
      "role": "main",
      "quantity": 2,
      "purchase": {
        "type": "one_time"
      }
    }
  ],
  "pricing": {
    "promise": {
      "firstChargeCents": 7590,
      "renewalChargeCents": null
    }
  }
}
```

How Offer Suite validates, versions and publishes a document like this one: [offer documents](https://offersuite.io/features/offer-documents).

## Questions

### Is a free shipping threshold profitable for supplement brands?

On these costs an order that tops up from one unit to two to ship free earns $15.44 more, and an order that already qualified gives up $8.55. It is profitable when the first kind outnumber the second by enough.

### What free-shipping threshold should supplement brands set?

This page prices one at two units, $75.90: one unit paying $9.29 for shipping keeps $20.25, and two shipped free keep $35.69. A threshold just above what most orders already spend gives the fewest orders free shipping for nothing.

## See what your own offers earn.

Offer Suite opens to Shopify brands a few at a time. Join the waitlist, or ask for a free profit audit of your past orders: realized profit per item and per offer option, what each costs you, and where margin leaks.

[Join the waitlist](https://offersuite.io/waitlist) [Request a free profit audit](https://offersuite.io/profit-audit)

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- [Feature **Offer documents: one validated document per offer** An offer is one validated, versioned document your agent writes: tiers, bundles, subscriptions, gifts and prices, with no offer types to pick from.](https://offersuite.io/features/offer-documents)
- [Calculator **Free shipping threshold calculator** Price a free-shipping threshold with the shipping you give away on orders that already reach it, and the share of smaller orders that must top up to pay for it.](https://offersuite.io/calculators/free-shipping-threshold)
- [Benchmark **Supplements benchmarks from annual reports** What 6 US-listed companies selling vitamins, supplements and nutrition programs report: a median gross margin of 75.0%, from 69.4% to 78.3%. Read 13 October 2026.](https://offersuite.io/benchmarks/supplements)
- [Glossary **Free-shipping threshold: definition and formula** The order value above which shipping is free. It costs the shipping revenue of every order already above it, and pays only if enough smaller orders top up.](https://offersuite.io/glossary/free-shipping-threshold)
- [Glossary **Fulfilment cost: definition, formula and example** What it costs to get an order out: pick and pack, extra picks, the box and the label. Charged per order or parcel, which is why bundles and gifts change it.](https://offersuite.io/glossary/fulfilment-cost)