Free-shipping progress bar. What brands are testing.

What it is

Most stores set a spend threshold for free delivery. The progress bar turns that threshold into a running total the shopper can see: how much is in the basket, how much more unlocks free delivery, and sometimes a marker showing the distance to go.

Almost every experiment in this group sits in the cart — the slide-out cart drawer, the mini-cart or the full basket page. A one-off moved the threshold message onto the product page instead.

What brands tried

The experiments in the record fall into a few themes, all seen between May and October 2026. No brand is named in this section.

Adding a bar. The largest group added a progress bar where there was none, usually in the slide-out cart or mini-cart, sometimes in the order summary on the basket page.

Restyling what was there. Several turned a plain line of text into a bar or a card, with a marker showing how far the shopper still has to go.

Changing the words. A couple tested the message itself: “Add £X more” against “£X away from free delivery”.

Moving or hiding it. A couple moved the bar from the top of the cart drawer down by the total, or hid it until the shopper reached the threshold.

One-offs. The threshold amount itself nudged up; the bar reused as a free-gift meter; a members-only version that asks the shopper to sign in to unlock it; and a threshold banner on the product page instead of the cart.

Examples from the record

Public examples from the record, with the page before and the version tested. The chip shows what the brand did next: Shipped means the tested version became the page; Rolled back means the original stayed. A card without a chip shows what the test looked like; its outcome is being rechecked.

Before

Tested

AéropostaleMini-cart

Mini-cart free shipping meter addition

What changed Adds a progress bar showing how much more to spend for free shipping.

Seen 16 May to 13 Jul 2026

Outcome being confirmed

Before

Tested

R.M.WilliamsCart

Cart page free-shipping tracker addition

What changed Adds a free-shipping progress tracker and next-step buttons to the cart.

Seen 16 May to 10 Aug 2026

Outcome being confirmed

What this page does not tell you

• Whether it works. There are no outcome rates here. Outcomes — whether each brand kept the change — are tracked per experiment and are part of the Intelligence plan.
• Whether it will work for you. Your shoppers, prices and range differ from the brands in the record. A change one brand kept can fail on another site.
• Why a brand decided. One experiment is one brand's decision. The record shows what the brand did next, not the measured lift behind it.

ABSee is experimentation intelligence for ecommerce: a record of real experiments run by 1,150+ brands, with the page before, the version tested, and whether it was kept. How the record is built.

How to use this

Treat this page as evidence for a hypothesis, not an answer.

• Bring it to your own hypothesis. Name the problem on your own checkout that this change would address, and for which shoppers.
• Check the record for your category. Look for brands like yours, the version they tested, and what they did next.
• Test it yourself. Your own experiment is the only result that applies to your site.