Flat rate shipping

[mycrystalbridge]

sales has been standing still at my website and when checking google analytics, there are some traffic to view cart but no checkout.

What would stop people from checking out after viewing their cart? The only thing I can think of is shipping coast. We charge percentage for shipping.

Does anyone offer flat rate shipping within US or free shipping? Does it help with sales?

Thanks.

[rocknbil]

What would stop people from checking out after viewing their cart?

If anyone had a definitive answer to this, they would be very very rich. :-) Site search on "cart abandonment" [google.com]

Invalid cert, buyer remorse, competitor checking you out, something in the checkout making them feel uneasy, "just looking,", it can be any number of things. If your system requires final checkout to view shipping cost, sure, that could do it, the could just be snooping for what you charge to ship.

I can't comment on the flat rate shipping, or say whether it would help or not. Free "anything" always promotes sales.

You're absolutely positive the checkout process works, right?

[mycrystalbridge]

yes, I have tested the checkout process several times and it works fine. Might have to try free shipping on everything to increase sale:-)

[MrHard]

Final step to purchase, found cheaper price at competitor.

[lammert]

It is not your site but probably others.

Search for competitors which went below your price. I often shop that way with different on-line sellers in parallel. I proceed through the checkout process until I know exactly the total price including shipping. I then decide on the end which seller is the cheapest and enter my payment information there.

[piatkow]

I have tested the checkout process several times and it works fine

Get some non IT people to test it. I once created a checkout process that worked fine for me and worked fine for my tester (an IT professional). User feedback was 50-50 between how brilliantly simple it was and how impossible it was to use.

[mycrystalbridge]

Hi piatkow

Thanks for the tip. You are right, IT people use different logic than end users for testing. I have been thinking to use an online user testing service but haven't got around it.

[tangor]

Flat rate is flat rate, as long as your product fits into that category. Don't overdo study in this regard if that is the way you are going to ship. Your price+flat rate=sale. That simple.

[tangor]

Meant to add the other thought, which only works if your product has enough margin: price+free shipping=sale, wherein you eat the cost of shipping via flat rate mail.

[jwolthuis]

Flat-rate shipping (which includes free shipping, penny shipping, or tiered-price based on cart subtotal) can also turn customers away. It all depends on what the customer perceives as a "fair cost".

A customer located an hour away from a merchant will expect a much-lower shipping cost than a customer located halfway across the continent. I'm not sure that a flat-rate cost exists to make everyone happy.

While "free shipping" would seem to be ideal, customers aren't naive. They know that postage isn't free, and the true cost is hidden elsewhere.

In my experience, I've had the best cart-conversion by charging actual shipping+insurance costs, based on cart-weight and destination postal code. IMO, the less gimmicks, the better.

[mycrystalbridge]

In my experience, I've had the best cart-conversion by charging actual shipping+insurance costs, based on cart-weight and destination postal code. IMO, the less gimmicks, the better.

thanks for sharing your experience. my shipping calculation is not as advanced as yours. I pass the total value of the order to paypal, then setup a percentage in paypal. so weight or distance is not considered in the calculation.

[bwnbwn]

mycrystalbridge if your only using paypal well that in itself could be a major problem and no testing in the world would be accurate.
You have to get or set up as many checkouts or ways to checkout as possible.
I personally won't use paypal for any purchase.

[mycrystalbridge]

my paypal setup accepts both credit cards and paypay balance. what checkout methods do you use? Thanks.

[wayzel]

you said you charge a percentage for shipping. The problem with this is that you are making the customers who spend more $ on your site also pay more for shipping. This is the opposite of standard practice. Re-write your formula to charge a declining percentage of sale as price goes up, and maybe an = 0 if total price > X. This way you can increase your average cart value because people will have incentive to add a few more things to cart and get free shipping.

ANother idea is if all your items weigh roughly the same amount, just do flat rate shipping. Why force people to input zip codes and other unneeded info if your cost is always about the same. We have a site that sells small lightweight items always around 1 to 2 lbs so this works well.

[mycrystalbridge]

Paypal has a way to do tiered shipping - to set up different percentage for a given tier.

I'm seriously thinking a tiered flat rate shipping may be the best solution for my website.

Thanks.

[jwolthuis]

Why force people to input zip codes and other unneeded info if your cost is always about the same.

Because that info *is* needed. Shipping costs for a 3-pound (for example) package vary widely depending if you're shipping to Maine, Alaska, Puerto Rico (a U.S. territory), or Sydney Australia.

It's possible to pick *some rate* that works for certian destinations, but customers who are two hours away from you will think it's too high, while those in Hawaii will be getting a deal.

[dpd1]

As long as you are not totally gouging them, I don't think people freak out about shipping costs as much as we might think. Believe it or not, I have been charging one standard fee for each product within the US for years now, based on what the highest zone is. Our products are mostly large, so it still seems like a fair deal. But yes, closer people do pay more than they could. But what I do is I just pretend that extra money is put into a fund to replace any lost or damaged items. Then I don't charge anybody extra for insurance. So everybody pays less, but some closer people do pay more. But most of those people are in the same state, and I have been paying sales tax out of my pocket. So it all ends up about right in the end. Bottom line, nobody has complained once in 9 years. I think that's mainly just because the shipping is pretty fair overall. There are many people out there doubling shipping charges and the other half goes right into their pocket. So as long as you aren't doing that, I think you're OK.

[mycrystalbridge]

Thanks for your input. Standard fee is a pretty good approach. I have been buying books from Amazon for as long as I can remember and I like their flat shipping fee.

[bwnbwn]

I understand paypal accepts both cc and accounts but your still holding yourself back to one payment option.
I have a merchant account and accept all cc's, google checkout, and just added amazon checkout.
I did have paypal as well but they suspended my account for some unknown reason.
All I am saying is set up as many payment options as you can paypal works great but what happens if for some reason you lose paypal.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket is all I am saying.

I don't know if you can get the numbers that leave from paypal so testing is not available.

[eferg]

I charge flat rate shipping (all my products cost the same to ship), but I charge about 90% of the actual cost and subsidize the 10%. Why? Because people have a general idea what it costs to ship via Priority Mail. Some competitors try to make money on shipping and add 20% to 50% - that upsets customers. So by charging 90%, I look very reasonable even when the other guys charge actual cost.

I offered free shipping for 6 years, then went to charging 90% of actual. No drop in sales. None. Nada.
And, I saved a bunch of money. Don't leave money on the table. Try it - you can always switch back.

[pbrband]

One of your problems may be too many steps in the checkout process....do some searching for solutions which offer a single page checkout. This has been proven to greatly reduce shopping cart abandonment.

[edited by: tedster at 3:39 am (utc) on Mar 17, 2010]
[edit reason] no promotional urls, please [/edit]