Forum Moderators: buckworks
If not why not?
If you do would you ever go back to charging?
For items which vary every time calculating exact shipping rates to every location is a time waster and a headache. Also, customers will never buy if they need to go through hoops to find out what the shipping cost may be beforehand.
If you try to standardize the cost then the amount will often vary from the true shipping cost, so you have to calculate this at the end of the year, increasing mistakes and using up a lot of time, unless you pay an accountant to do it.
If giving fee shipping is a no brainer then why do most old line paper catalogers charge a fortune for shipping? They use shipping as a profit center. Somehow I trust JCPenny over DotComDuJour.com
Why should retailers give away something that is SO DARN EXPENSIVE and is getting more so by the day?
We use FS sparingly. Depends of course on your specific products and ship-to locations.
it also seems to give a lot of customers the impression that because it's free, it's going to be there next day (never understood this..)
i don't think i will ever offer free shipping again, it's been a headache the whole way around.
over the years i've slightly increased my shipping rates and gotten rid of ground - which brung my overseas chargebacks to a screeching halt. the cheapies would purchase the ground shipping (for example, in australia) and wonder why it's taking 6 or 7 weeks to get their order. duh.
i find the more expensive the shipping the more quality customers it attracts, it weeds out a lot of the crazies. oddly enough, i do get the occasional "i won't buy from you because your rates suck" but then i check out my major competitors and they're just about the same price (or more!)
when you get emails like that, you know you have something they want but can't find anywhere else. =) i have the same reaction myself when shopping online, but i usually have to buckle up and buy it anyway if i want it badly.
All shipping worldwide $1 per item
Simple huh? Nope some plonker frequently emails asking how much the shipping is.....
I think people realise that there isnt such a thing as free shipping so it must be in teh price, witha small charge, they figure you have a good deal on shipping costs.
[edited by: Essex_boy at 1:42 pm (utc) on Jan. 13, 2008]
some how makes you look more professional
It's again the case that the primary business of some firms is selling shares of stock, not products. Some probably have loan covenants that require them to maintain sales benchmarks. Missing figures by a few dollars could cost those companies millions.
Make sure the "Professional" company you copy isn't the next Enron, HealthSouth, Adelphia, Tyco etc.
Or Citi or Countrywide, to add the lastest examples from the "Everyone is Doing It" business school.
Something to think about. Although my figures wont quite compare Im sure I will be turning a profit "STILL" in 5 years time lol.
If i offer free S&H i get a bunch of orders for cheap crap that people just don't want to drive out and buy. While its a sale, i'm not making any money and probably losing money because of labor/processing/fees in the end.
If i charge for delivery, people won't just buy 2 batteries and a charger. They will buy 2 batteries, charger, cell phone charger, replacement cell phone battery, bluetooth headset, bluetooth car install kit and other items.
I can sell 10 of the free ones vs 2 of the paid ones but the paid ones i make money on.
If people are committing to buying stuff of quantity, size or because its hard to get locally, shipping isn't going to kill the deal.
If people are buying stuff because they simply want it cheaper and don't want to leave the home then free shipping is just a piece of the pie you choose to deal with in that scenario.
[edited by: ByronM at 9:35 pm (utc) on Jan. 14, 2008]
Convienence is certainly a key factor here and I know that price is to. I can offer fre delivery and still make a killing.
My customers are not very net savy at all.
Does this make a differne web master world followers.
Whats your opinion?
We just got back our sales breakdown and we found that we were being outsold online by Amazon books.
On our site the books are listed at $16 with FREE shipping.
Amazon was listing the books at $12 and was charging for shipping... once you completed an order it worked out to about $17.10 which was more then on our site.
We summized/assumed that anyone doing a price comparison would look at our site and see it for $16 and look at Amazon and see it for $12 and naturally would buy it there because it was listed cheaper even though once you get tagged with shipping it works out to be more.
As a result of this assumption we lowered our price to less then Amazon's price and added a shipping cost. We end up collecting the same amount of money per book but when someone looks at our price they see that it is the lowest price available online, this has increased our sales by about 15% so far and in the low sales season.
So I would say lower your prices and charge for shipping at time of check out.. it can give the illusion of a deal to people doing price comparisons.
But ByronM has brought up a very good point about people jumping all over the cheap stuff.
It may still be worth it if you set a decent minimum order amount to get the free shipping.
They will most certainly think about how much the individual item is costing! ie 5 in a pack 1 is £5.00
Our item comes in at £4.00 with free shipping BINGO
Should generate sales.
