When is best to display the shipping cost?

[Raymond]

I have always believed that the sooner a user to find out the shipping cost the better. Over these few years I have adopted a method of displaying an "estimated shipping cost" right at the shopping bag. I am doing a review of the site and trying to find out if any improvements can be done to increase conversion.

I am interested to hear how and when others are displaying the shipping cost. Have you tested other methods also and what are the results?

Thanks.

[moose606]

We offer free UPS ground, and state that on every page. When they add an item to cart, they are prompted to checkout. The first place they go is shipping. Based upon their info, they get free ground shipping, and then expedited options. The sooner they get shipping costs, the better.

[MrFishGuy]

We placed an estimated shipping price in our mini cart (flat rate based on price) and it increased our conversions and dropped our abandoned carts by almost 30%.

[webtress]

Using a shipping estimated has reduced the abondoned cart considerably. I use it now on most of the site.

[lgn1]

We display a flat rate shipping rate of $9.95 right on the home page (with free shipping over $199), for the past several months.

I have the impression that this is hurting us, as our conversion has gone down. I was thinking of moving the shipping rate back to the shipping screen.

Maybe our rate is to high. Is $9.95 shipping for purchases that average 80-150 dollars, to high for UPS Ground Service.

How much would you pay for UPS Ground Service?

[Rightz]

Depends what i was buying and how much it weighted. I wouldnt pay that for a card..... but i would for a washing machine!

[lgn1]

What we charge $9.95 for ranges from 2 to 10 pounds.

Im beginning to think, its better to accentuate the positive, and hide the negative.

IE announce free shipping (for a particular dollar limit)
on the home page, but leave the actual shipping cost to the internal pages, after the customer has shopped around, and found something they like.

[Raymond]

Maybe our rate is to high. Is $9.95 shipping for purchases that average 80-150 dollars, to high for UPS Ground Service.

I think 9.95 shipping is reasonable for an order of $100. But still, I wouldn't "advertise" it throughout the wholesite. Customers never know what is considered a good deal in terms of shipping. For them any extra cost other than the item amount is expensive.

[kevinpate]

[consumer hat on]
Many places have roughly the same merchandise prices posted, but the final delivered price can vary significantly due to the 'handling' fudge factor.
If I have to leap through hoops before I can determine the total delivered price, one should not
be surprised to find me exiting from the 'oh, never mind' side of the cart if I don't like what I find behind door #3.
[consumer hat off]

[sun818]

One of the big flaws with the older Yahoo! stores is that shipping was revealed toward the end of the checkout process. I think it is very important to spell out your rates after the first item is added to the shopping cart. I'll name drop here, but I like ShopSite's feature where each shipping method has a price next to it. I think that's a lot more convenient than having to change the shipping method to see what your new total will be.

[sniffer]

I make it clear above products before they're addded to the cart from the cat page. So if the process is 5 steps they know the shipping charge at #2. Still, i bet there's some who completely overlook it!

[Rugles]

>>Is $9.95 shipping for purchases that average 80-150 dollars, to high

It does seem high if your customers are used to shopping at Amazon, or any other sites that offer free shipping.

In my opinion, shipping costs are the biggest obstacle for ecommerce. When you charge for shipping (which we do), you are asking customers to pay a premium for waiting for your products. As oppossed to driving to the local shopping mall and getting product immediately.