Free shipping in most cases proves to be a silver bullet with consumers. The ease of shopping from home and not having to pay extra for that convenience? Sold!

But for marketers, offering up free shipping can be a slippery slope, as indicated by a UPS/Forrester study. That’s where free shipping thresholds come in. By requiring customers to meet a defined minimum dollar total to qualify for free shipping, marketers can attract sales without hurting profit.

In a recent test, the marketer tied their free shipping offer to a threshold that was a little higher than their website’s overall average order value (AOV).

And to be sure that visitors saw the promotion, the marketer used a lightbox to deliver the message:

The result? A solid hit, with an 11.43% increase in AOV. And by not overthinking the creative, the marketer was able to get the campaign out there quickly and generating a positive return.