Tutorial: Limiting Free Shipping to the Continental US
Offering promotions such as free shipping is a great way to increase sales. However, much like a promotional offering, there will almost certainly be some exceptions to the rules. One very common request we’ve run across is to limit free shipping to exclude Alaska and Hawaii. While this isn’t possible through the regular shipping carriers configuration in Magento, it is possible through a workaround by restricting your store’s free shipping to only the desired states, as further described.
The first step that you will need to follow is to create a tablerates.csv file, similar to the one displayed on the image below, containing all the states that you would like to allow free shipping to.
In the admin interface under “Configuration > Shipping Methods” configure table rates as:
Condition: Price v. Destination
Method Name: Free Shipping
Ship to applicable countries: Specific Countries
Ship to Specific countries: Select only United States
Show method if not applicable: No
Once that’s complete, using the “Current Configuration Scope” dropdown select the main website and Import the tablerates.csv file. This will enable the table rates shipping method, allowing for free shipping to the applicable states only.
Note: The CSV file should not be generated nor edited on Microsoft Excel as it may remove the quotation marks that are mandatory for Magento to read it properly.
