At what point in the shopping process should I be showing the shipping costs to avoid surprises?

As a Shopify store owner in the competitive e-commerce landscape, I've learned that shipping costs can make or break a sale. I used to hide shipping fees until the very end of checkout, thinking it would prevent cart abandonment. But what actually happened? Customers would get to the final step, see an unexpected shipping charge, and immediately exit. It felt like a bait-and-switch, and my conversion rates suffered. I realized transparency isn't just a nice-to-have—it's a critical trust-building mechanism. My customers want to know exactly what they're paying for upfront, without feeling like they're being tricked. The challenge is finding that perfect balance: revealing shipping costs early enough to build trust, but not so early that it scares potential buyers away. I've experimented with various approaches—showing estimated shipping on product pages, providing a shipping calculator, displaying range-based shipping costs—but finding the right strategy that doesn't interrupt the shopping experience has been tricky. I need a solution that feels seamless, builds customer confidence, and ultimately keeps more items in the cart.