# What Should Your Free Delivery Threshold Be?

Set it at your average order plus delivery cost divided by margin rate. Five Singapore cake sites publish $150 to $200 against cakes from $18. Worked sums.

Source: https://singrank.com/blog/free-delivery-threshold-singapore/
Published: 2026-11-08
Updated: 2026-11-08
Author: Khuzayfah Redo, SingRank

"Free delivery above $180." Somebody typed that into your website once, and it has been there ever since. Nobody has checked whether it earns its place, and it is a price — one of the few on your site that applies to every order you take.

**A free delivery threshold is worth setting only if the gap between it and your average order is a gap a buyer can close on purpose.** If your typical order is $60 and your threshold is $180, the line never changes a decision. It is decoration that you still have to honour for the handful of buyers who clear it by accident. If your threshold is $80, one box of cookies closes the gap, and the arithmetic below shows why that version pays for itself.

We can put real numbers against the first half of this. Reading ten Singapore cake websites on 8–9 November 2026, five published a threshold: $150, $170, $180, $180 and $200. Across the ten pages, the lowest cake prices on display started at $18, $39, $39.90, $46.87, $50, $55.90 and $140. On most of those sites a buyer has to double or triple a normal order to reach free delivery.

## Where the number usually comes from

Almost never from a calculation. In our experience it comes from one of three places.

A competitor's website, copied in an afternoon. A platform's default, pre-filled when the store was set up. Or a round number that felt right the week the shop opened, when the courier charged less and the cakes cost less.

All three share a flaw: the threshold was set once and the business moved. Prices went up. The courier's rate went up. The average order changed. The threshold stayed, and it drifts from a tool into a decoration without anybody noticing, because nothing on your dashboard is labelled "orders lost to a number nobody chose".

## What five Singapore websites publish

Five of the ten cake pages we could read gave a figure. The spread was $150 to $200, and only three of the five also said what delivery costs below the line.

Those three charged $15, $20, and "from $10" with the final amount depending on distance. A fourth page said delivery is complimentary, with the conditions marked by an asterisk whose terms did not appear on the page we read. A fifth stated no fee at all, but noted an area surcharge for Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands. The other five pages said nothing about delivery cost.

The full counts are in our [study of 13 Singapore cake websites](https://singrank.com/blog/singapore-custom-cake-serving-size-study-2026/ "Customised Cake Singapore: 4 of 10 Say How Many It Feeds"). The pattern is not confined to cakes: in [Singapore furniture retail](https://singrank.com/blog/singapore-furniture-website-delivery-study-2026/ "Furniture Sites: 6 of 9 Say Free Delivery, 1 Says When") we found 6 of 9 sites promising free delivery and 1 saying when it arrives. Promising free is easy. Saying what it is conditional on is the part that gets skipped.

## The calculation I would run

One division, then one sanity check.

The numbers below are an illustration, not measurements. The only measured figures on this page are the five published thresholds above. Put your own numbers in.

Say your average order is $60, your gross margin before delivery is 60%, and a courier drop costs you $12.

| Case | Order | Margin | Courier | Fee charged | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| You charge the fee | $60 | $36 | −$12 | +$12 | $36 |
| You absorb it | $60 | $36 | −$12 | $0 | $24 |
| Threshold moves the order to $80 | $80 | $48 | −$12 | $0 | $36 |

Read the third row against the first. A threshold that genuinely lifts a $60 order to $80 leaves you with the same $36 you had when you charged for delivery — except the buyer paid nothing extra, bought more cake, and had a reason to add to the basket. That is the break-even point, and it has a formula:

**Minimum uplift = delivery cost ÷ gross margin rate.**

At $12 and 60%, that is $20. So the threshold wants to sit at your average order plus $20, which is $80. Not $180.

Now run it at a thinner margin. At 30%, the same $12 drop needs $40 of extra order to pay for itself. If your cheapest add-on is $8, no buyer bridges $40 by accident, and the threshold cannot work. Charge the fee and say so.

## The rule I use

Three conditions, and the threshold has to pass all three.

1. **The gap is one add-on wide.** Threshold minus average order should be roughly the price of a single thing you sell and can suggest at checkout. If the gap needs three items, it is not a threshold, it is a wish.
2. **The uplift clears delivery cost ÷ margin rate.** Below that line you are buying revenue with your own margin.
3. **The gap is smaller than your average order.** A threshold above twice your average order is decoration. We cannot test this condition on anybody else's shop, because we do not know their average order. What we can say is that four of the five published thresholds sat between three and five times the lowest price on the same page, and the fifth, whose cheapest cake was $140, sat at about 1.3 times.

If a threshold fails any condition, the better answer is usually a flat fee, stated in a figure, on the page where the buyer is choosing. Flat and visible beats free and conditional.

## When the honest answer is no threshold at all

When your delivery cost varies more than your margin can absorb, or when almost nobody will ever reach the line.

A baker whose orders average $60 and whose courier charges $12 to $35 depending on where the party is has no single number that works. The right answer there is a short zone table — three rows, three figures — not a threshold. Our note on [putting the answer in front of the form](https://singrank.com/blog/answers-in-front-of-your-form-singapore/ "Your Price Is Behind the Form. Buyers Ask Google.") covers why the figure belongs on the page rather than behind an enquiry.

There is one case for a high threshold that we do accept: when you genuinely do not want small delivered orders, because they lose money and you would rather the buyer collected. Then the threshold is a filter, not an offer, and it should be written as one. Say that collection is available and free, and that delivery starts at X. A buyer who reads an honest filter does not feel tricked. A buyer who reads "free delivery above $180" next to a $45 cake feels sold to.

## What the rules say about the word "free"

Singapore has guidance on exactly this word, and it is short enough to act on.

CCCS, which enforces the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act 2003, publishes [Guidelines on Price Transparency](https://www.ccs.gov.sg/consumer-protection/legislation-and-guidelines/guidelines-on-price-transparency/ "CCCS Guidelines on Price Transparency") that took effect on 1 November 2020. On free claims, the guidance is that any representation that a price is $0 or "free" should not be false or misleading, and that conditions "should be stated clearly and prominently together with the 'free' representation". On charges a buyer cannot avoid, it says they should be "included in the total headline price", or disclosed "in a clear and prominent manner together with the headline price".

In plain terms: the condition goes next to the word, not in a footer, not behind an asterisk with no matching note, and not on a terms page. One of the five sites we read used an asterisk whose terms were not on that page. That is the shape of thing the guidance is pointed at. This page is marketing guidance, not legal advice; read the guidelines yourself or take advice before changing your terms.

## What this costs you

Three costs, and the first one is the real one.

Lowering a threshold that was decoration will cost you margin on the orders that used to pay a fee and now clear the line. That is the deal: you trade fee income for order size and a clearer page. Run the table above before you move the number, not after.

Publishing a flat fee instead will cost you some enquiries. Buyers who assumed delivery was free will see $15 and go elsewhere. In our view that is cheaper than the ones who find out at checkout, because the second group also leaves a review.

And there is a cost to doing the work at all. Five of 142 Singapore cake searches we pulled on the same morning asked about free delivery, which you can read in our note on [what cake buyers actually type](https://singrank.com/blog/cake-search-demand-singapore/ "Cake Delivery Singapore: 12 of 142 Searches Ask Halal"). That is a real slice of demand and it is a small one. A threshold is not a growth lever. It is one price on your site, set properly instead of inherited, and the thing that costs you more than any threshold choice is saying nothing about delivery at all, which five of the ten pages did.

Against our own interest: if this is the only thing wrong with your site, you do not need an agency. You need twenty minutes with your order history and the division above. We would rather tell you that than sell you a page about it. The wider question of what any single enquiry is worth to you is in our note on [what you can afford to pay for one enquiry](https://singrank.com/blog/cost-per-enquiry-ceiling-singapore/ "What Can You Afford to Pay for One Enquiry?").

## One next step

Open your order history, take the median order value of the last 50 delivered orders, and divide your courier cost by your gross margin rate. If your published threshold is more than that uplift above the median, it is not doing the job you think it is.

If you want a second pair of eyes, send us the page where your delivery terms sit. We will tell you in writing whether the threshold passes the three conditions above and whether the page says it clearly enough for a buyer, or a machine, to quote. That starts as a free visibility check through our [contact page](https://singrank.com/contact/ "Contact SingRank"). If you want the pages written and measured, our [SEO, AEO and GEO programme](https://singrank.com/services/seo-geo-aeo-marketing-package/ "SingRank SEO, AEO and GEO package") is S$750 a month with 20 articles a month, a three-month minimum, then month to month.

## FAQ

**What should a free delivery threshold be?**

Set it at your average order plus the minimum uplift, where the uplift is your delivery cost divided by your gross margin rate. At a $12 drop and 60% margin, that is $20, so a $60 average order points to an $80 threshold. The gap should be one add-on wide, and smaller than the average order itself.

**Is a high free delivery threshold bad?**

It is only bad if it pretends to be an offer. A threshold two or three times your average order will rarely change a buyer's decision, so it works as a filter rather than an incentive. If that is what you want, write it as one: collection free, delivery from a stated figure.

**Should I show a delivery fee or say "free above X"?**

Show a figure either way. In our 8–9 November 2026 reading of ten Singapore cake pages, five gave a delivery figure and five said nothing. A flat fee stated on the page beats a conditional promise the buyer has to go and verify.

**What do Singapore rules say about advertising free delivery?**

CCCS's Guidelines on Price Transparency, effective 1 November 2020, say a "free" or $0 claim should not be false or misleading and that its conditions should be stated clearly and prominently together with the claim. Unavoidable charges should be in the headline price or disclosed alongside it. Take advice on your own wording.

**What free delivery thresholds do Singapore cake shops publish?**

Of ten cake pages we could read on 8–9 November 2026, five published one: $150, $170, $180, $180 and $200. Three of those five also gave a delivery charge below the line, at $15, $20, and "from $10" by distance.

**Will lowering my threshold increase sales?**

Not by itself, and we will not promise it. What the calculation above does is tell you whether the number is capable of changing a decision. If it is not, lowering it to a reachable level trades fee income for order size at roughly the same margin, and makes the page honest.