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If you’re going to succeed
online, then you’re going to have to offer free
shipping in one form or another since free
shipping is one of the most effective marketing
tools being used online today to encourage
consumers to buy. In fact, just by placing the
“Free Shipping” headline on each and every page
of your website you can boost sales practically
over night.
Furthermore, offering free shipping encourages
customers to order more products to their
shopping cart than what they planned on
purchasing in the first place.
More than 60% of online stores cite "free
shipping" as their most successful marketing
tool. And over 50% of customers abandoned online
shopping carts after seeing the total cost with
shipping fees included. |
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Free shipping is one of the most successful
marketing strategies that help customers
complete the transaction. And if you fail to
offer free shipping in one form or another then
you risk the potential of losing sales daily.
However, there is a catch.
Free shipping may be free for your customers but
someone has to pay for it. And more often than
not, that someone is you, the business owner.
There may be circumstances where distributors
may offer free ground shipping on large orders
with multiple or high ticket items. However, for
the most part, those free shipping costs are
going to be deducted from your profit.
Therefore, if you’re going to offer free
shipping then you’re going to have to offer the
cheapest form of shipping available, such as UPS
Ground shipping, which is also the standard for
free shipping online.
2 to 3 day shipping services can cost anywhere
from $15 to $25 or more while UPS Ground
shipping can cost less than $10 and take only a
couple of more days for the package to arrive at
your customers location.
You’ll also need to make sure that you can
afford to lose $10 from the profit of that
product while still being able to make a profit,
as little as it may be. But even a small profit
is better than no profit at all. And a customer
sold is a new customer gained.
Types of free shipping offers
Although many online stores offer free shipping,
many more stores offer free shipping with
conditions as well.
Free shipping on every item: Depending on what
type of products you sell, you may very well be
able to offer free ground shipping on every item
you sell without losing much of your profit,
especially when you’re selling your products at
high profit margins.
However there are certain products where
offering free shipping may not be feasible and
therefore may require you to limit your free
shipping offer just as many retailers do online,
especially for small ticket items.
Free shipping on almost every item: Free
shipping on almost every item can become your
policy if at least 70% of your products or more
include free shipping.
Free shipping on selected items: You can also
offer free shipping on selected items such as
digital cameras for example yet charge for
shipping on accessories such as travel chargers,
camera cases etc…
There has to be enough profit margin on the sale
of the product in order for you to be able to
offer free shipping while still being able to
make a profit.
You can however offer free shipping on both
camera and carrying case when the customer buys
both together and you’re able to get both items
from the same distribution warehouse.
Free shipping for all orders placed online: If
there’s enough profit margin for every item you
sell then you can offer free shipping for every
item when the items are ordered online.
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This is also one of the best
ways to get people to order online instead of
calling you to order by phone. However, you need
not worry as more customers tend to place their
orders online than over the phone. And a notice
for “free shipping for all orders placed online”
will encourage them to do so.
Free shipping over $50: You can also offer free
shipping on items over a certain dollar amount
or when multiple items reach a set amount. For
example, free shipping on all orders over $50.
If your niche market offers accessories for your
products then this is the best time to up-sell
your customers on those accessories by adding
and offering those accessory items on that same
product page.
If the customer sees that they have to buy one
or two more items in order to meet your free
shipping order rate then they’ll be more than
happy to do so.
When customers order multiple products or high
ticket items then the total price of the order
is more than enough to cover the UPS Ground
shipping fees without hurting your bottom line. |
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Implementing free shipping
Implementing free shipping is as simple as
adding the free shipping option in your shopping
cart and assigning it a value of $0.00 and a
time frame of anywhere from 4 to 6 business
days. And you can add your shipping options from
within the administration area of your shopping
cart program.
Conclusion
Free shipping has become the way of the web. And
in order to remain competitive, offering free
shipping in one form or another is one of the
best ways to do so.
Whether it be free shipping on all items,
selected items, or items over $50, it’s
important to offer free shipping as an incentive
for customers to buy online and become repeat
customers as well. And offering free shipping,
can and will boost your online sales. |
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