Free delivery: when it is actually worth it
Free delivery above a certain spend is the most effective tool an online shop has for raising basket value — and it works because paying five euros of postage hurts more than spending twenty euros more on products. The calculation, though, takes two lines.
Updated August 31, 2026
The sum almost nobody does
The right question is not "how far am I from the threshold" but "what am I paying to avoid paying for delivery". If the basket is at 42 euros, the threshold is 59 and delivery costs 4.90, reaching it costs 17 euros of extra product to save 4.90.
That only makes sense if you would have spent those 17 euros anyway, and soon. If you add something you had not planned, the shop got exactly what the threshold exists for: you spent more, not less.
There is a simple way not to get this wrong: look at the order total, not the delivery cost. It is the only number that actually leaves your account.
The filler item costs twice
The item added purely to clear the threshold is the one most likely to be sent back or left unused. In the first case the return costs time and sometimes the return postage; in the second you bought something you did not need.
One clause in the terms is worth reading, too: some shops, if you return an item and the order drops below the threshold, deduct from the refund the delivery charge that had been waived. That is not unfair when it is written down, but it is better known in advance.
When free delivery is a real advantage
On heavy or bulky goods — an appliance, furniture, cases of water, sacks of pet food — delivery can be worth tens of euros and the threshold is met without straining. There, included shipping is a real part of the price rather than a sweetener.
The same goes for purchases you would have split across several orders anyway: grouping a fortnight’s needs into one delivery cuts both the cost and the packaging.
The alternatives that remove the problem
Before adding a filler, it is worth checking whether the shop offers another route:
- collection in store, almost always free even below the threshold;
- delivery to a pickup point or a locker, often cheaper than to your door;
- slow delivery, where it exists: a few days more at no cost;
- a code that covers the delivery rather than the product — the kind of promotion that pays off precisely on small baskets.
Free delivery and discount codes together
Watch out for a common interaction: if a code pushes the total below the free-delivery threshold, many baskets recalculate and the delivery charge reappears. Part of the code’s saving eats itself.
Checking it is the same routine as always, and the one rule that holds in any shop: apply the code and read the final total before entering payment details.