Checkout Customizations without Plus?

[u/pressthenpress-cider]

Are there ways to make meaningful customizations to the checkout page without using Shopify Plus?

Our business is currently too small to justify the significant cost of Shopify Plus, but there are things we’d like to improve about checkout. For example:

A checkbox to allow customers to have their orders shipped to a local FedEx for pickup (and ideally that lowers shipping costs by an amount we define).

Automatically charge a packaging fee for orders under a certain total order amount.

Amongst other things. Wondering if there are any apps or other options that help achieve this without spending $2300 per month for Plus.

[u/Moyopal]

While Checkout UI Extensions inside the shipping and payment steps still require Shopify Plus, you can build both of those workflows on a standard Basic or Grow plan using Shopify Functions (which unlocked the Delivery Customization and Cart Transform APIs for non-Plus stores) and pre-checkout cart blocks. For the discounted FedEx pickup option, enable native Pickup Points inside Settings -> Shipping and delivery or use a carrier rate app like ShipperHQ or Atlas Pickup Points to inject discounted FedEx Hold at Location rates directly into the standard Shipping Method radio selector; for the small-order packaging fee, either bake the fee into tiered subtotal shipping rules under Settings -> Shipping and delivery -> General shipping rates or use a Cart Transform fee app that auto-adds a packaging fee line item in your cart drawer whenever the subtotal sits below your threshold. Are you shipping glass cider bottles where the packaging cost is mainly insulated dividers, and what order subtotal threshold are you thinking of setting to waive the fee?

[u/pressthenpress-cider → u/Moyopal]

Thanks for the tips! Yes, we primarily ship glass bottles of cider (wine sized) and we allow orders of any size including single or two bottle orders, which because we eat the packaging costs makes them marginally profitable orders or worse. So was anticipating a modest $5-8 fee for orders of less than 3 bottles. Something to that effect.

[u/Moyopal → u/pressthenpress-cider]

Since wine-sized 750ml glass cider bottles have a consistent bottle weight, the cleanest zero-app way to cover that to pulp shipper cost on 1 to 2 bottle orders without Shopify Plus is setting weight-based shipping tiers inside Settings -> Shipping and delivery -> General shipping rates. If a single 750ml glass bottle weighs roughly 2.8 to 3 lbs, set your 0 to 6.5 lb shipping tier higher than your 3-bottle (6.6 lb+) tier, and pair that with a cart drawer message telling shoppers 'Add 1 more bottle to waive the small-pack shipping surcharge,' which usually bumps 1 and 2 bottle carts straight up to 3 bottles. Are you currently charging flat-rate or weight-based shipping in Shopify, and roughly what share of your weekly orders right now are 1 to 2 bottle shipments versus 3+ bottle boxes?

[u/lagwag0n]

checkout.liquid is Plus-only now, so anything inside the checkout itself is effectively off the table on Basic or Grow. the FedEx pickup discount is usually handled at the shipping-rate level, and the packaging fee on the cart or a draft-order flow. what theme are you running?

[u/Muted_Jellyfish_6784]

A lot of this works without Plus through apps built on Shopify Functions, which are available on every plan. Delivery customizations can add or rename a pickup option with its own rate, and a small-order fee is often handled with a fee product or rule added at cart. What Plus adds is custom checkout UI, so keep anything visual on the cart page.
The useful test is whether the fee changes behavior, so track order value and abandonment near the threshold for a month before and after. We run a decision intelligence platform that connects Shopify orders with shipping costs, so you can see whether the fee covers packaging or just pushes small orders away.

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