yef
← All guides

How to add a free shipping bar to your Shopify cart

A free shipping bar tells shoppers how close they are to free shipping, like “You’re $12 away from free shipping”, and fills up as they add items. It works best inside the cart, right where people decide whether to add one more thing.

Updated October 10, 2026. Steps checked on the Dawn and Horizon themes.

Do it yourself in the theme editor

First, set up free shipping

  1. Go to Settings > Shipping and delivery and add a free rate for orders over your minimum. Or create an automatic discount in Discounts > Create discount > Free shipping.
  2. Write down the minimum amount: the message in your store has to say the same.

Dawn

  1. Open Online Store > Themes and click Edit theme.
  2. Click Header > Announcement bar and add an announcement such as “Free shipping on orders over $50”.
  3. Save. The message shows at the top of every page.

Dawn doesn’t have a free shipping bar in the cart. The announcement bar is the closest built-in option.

Horizon

  1. Open Online Store > Themes, click Edit theme and go to the cart page.
  2. Add a Text block to the Cart section with your free shipping message.
  3. Save. The line shows on the cart page, not in the cart drawer.

Horizon’s cart drawer doesn’t accept blocks, so nothing can be added there from the theme editor.

Where the theme editor falls short

  • The message is the same for everyone: it can’t say how much is left for this shopper.
  • It doesn’t change when items are added or removed, and there’s no bar that fills up.
  • In themes with a cart drawer, it usually can’t go where shoppers are looking.
  • Free shipping bar apps fill the gap, but each one is another app with its own code on your store.

Or ask Yef

Yef is an AI developer built for Shopify themes, and you don’t need any technical skills to use it. You write the change in plain words and see what it will do, and Yef applies it to a draft of your store that you try before anything goes live.

You write

Add a free shipping bar to the cart that shows how much is left for free shipping over $50, with a bar that fills up as items are added.

You get

A bar at the top of your cart, in your theme’s fonts and colors, that counts down to $50 and says when free shipping is unlocked. You try it on a draft of your store before it goes live.

Yef is invite-only during the beta. Join the waitlist and you’ll get an invite at your email when there’s a spot.

Questions

Do I need an app for a free shipping bar?

Not for a fixed message: the announcement bar can say “Free shipping over $50”. To show the amount left and a bar that fills up in the cart, you need an app or a change to your theme. That change is what Yef makes.

Does the bar change my free shipping rules?

No. The rules live in your shipping settings or your discounts. The bar only shows them, so keep the amount the same in both places.

Will it work in the cart drawer?

Yef adds it where your cart is, the drawer or the cart page, and you check it on the draft before you publish.