Minimun Orders

Good or bad idea?

[lgn1]

Generally orders under $20 are not very profitable, once you throw in the handling.

We were thinking of having $20 or $30 minimun order size.

I don't see much of this on the web as of yet. Any experinces with setting minimun order sizes.

[philbish]

I've seen a minimum order a few times and it really pisses me off.

Perhaps you can let those small orders in with hopes the customer will come back and place bigger orders, tell their friends, etc.

[SlimKim]

i learned long ago to not let my personal preferences be a guide for offers, cuz evidently the majority of folks think differently, but here's my take

i'm a sucker for the Free Shipping with x amount of purchase offers ... and why not, everyone loves a bargain

don't do the minimum order, if you have to, make small purchases cost more than larger ones

another thing that bothers me is these isp / cable tv / dish satellite /cell phone offers that offer you a cheap rate for 3 months and then increase significantly ... all the while you are reading their brochure or hearing their ad, they either leave out the important regular price after the discount or cover it up til it's hard to find. I'm in life for the long run and a three month discount is almost an insult - if you don't give equal time / exposure to the after rate

[Staffa]

I have many small amount products and have added a little mark-up on the postage cost for handling. But when customer buys 5 or more items they get 15% off their order.
It's an incentive to buy more than one product.

[jsinger]

Generally orders under $20 are not very profitable, once you throw in the handling.

No question. That's why we have a fixed shipping charge to discourage small orders and encourage large ones. Makes orders under $30 pretty expensive for the customer (but we still get some).

Note that Ebay has discovered that setting a minimum bid can be counterproductive. Likewise, I think a minimum order will do you more harm.

[sem4u]

We used to have a minimum spend but we axed it. You can always charge a higher shipping rate for smaller items.

[etechsupport]

You should set a minimum order value (standards) for order processing; however you can include an overhead (V.A.S) cost to compensate it.

[Corey Bryant]

One thing to be careful about is also the merchant account side. Requiring a minimum might actually be against the merchant account agreement. For example, you go into that convenience store down the street and they blatantly state there is a $10.00 minimum for credit card orders? Chances are very likely they would get their account yanked if the processor caught that.

As far as the minimum orders, do like Amazon does. Charge for shipping if it is under $25.00. I bought two books the other day for about $20.00. I had to pay something about $4-$5 in shipping. But I did not need anything else.

The more restrictions you place on your customers, the more chances you have that the customer will find another company to do business with

-Corey

[HRoth]

I used to have a minimum order. The few responses I actually got to it were along the lines of "The shopping cart won't let me buy anything!" This was even though it explained about the minimum purchase in a big font. So I got rid of it and added a dollar to the shipping to cover "handling." Also, I have noticed that a number of people will make a small purchase as a test run and then they will come back for more if they like the experience and the products. Many people are still very leery of online purchasing.

[sniffer]

I have discounted flat rate shipping. Its pretty clear that you are getting a good deal if you bundle your order together, which encourages 'shopping' on our site

[your_store]

Requiring a minimum might actually be against the merchant account agreement

This only comes into play when you're allowing customers to bypass the minimum w/ other payment methods. Visa/Mastercard can't tell not to have a minimum order, but they can tell you to treat credit card customers the same as cash.

[Corey Bryant]

Actually they can pretty much do whatever they wish. It is their organization. You always need to review the acquring bank's agreement with the merchant application.

Of course, online - most people are well aware that the rates are not micro-friendly.

And as far as treating the same as cash, there are some organizations that are grandfathered into that clause where they can charge consumers a handling fee if they elect to use a credit card instead of cash, mainly federal and state institutions.

-Corey