Stacey Rudolph — January 10, 2017 Did you know that free shipping is the second most popular influencer of online purchasing decisions? The phrase “free shipping” is music to the ears to many who shop online. Indeed, 90% of customers say that free shipping is the no. 1 incentive to shopping online.
While doing a research for an online grocery store, Devid Bell noticed a very interesting phenomenon. He observed that a free shipping offer that saves a customer $ 5 dollars is more appealing to the customers than a discount that reduces the price by $ 9.99.
Free shipping has therefore become unavoidable for most internet marketers. As much as online shoppers prefer cheaper things, they do not like waiting for them more so if shipping is going to significantly increase the final cost of the product. Luckily, it is now possible for small businesses to offer free shipping, reduced rate shipping or next day shipping to entice customers. According to research, offering free shipping is a powerful promotional tool.
Free shipping increases online sales
When Amazon introduced free shipping for the purchase of second book, it saw a dramatic increase in purchases. Therefore, free shipping is necessary for retailers who want to increase sales, and customers have come to expect free shipping either as an automatic feature or as a bonus for buying a given quantity of items. This is a big deal to consumers because shipping costs can greatly increase the cost of purchasing a product. In some cases, especially for those who are buying from abroad, shipping costs can exceed the cost of a product. It is useful, therefore, to find creative ways of reducing or even doing away with the shipping costs.
It is interesting to note that customers are not just expecting free shipping from online retailers; they actively search for it. Statistics from Accent show that88% of consumers would purchase an item online if they were promised free shipping. Another study by Compete found that 62% of customers who shopped online would not have made the purchases if they hadn’t been promised free shipping. Hence, it is not difficult to sewhy there has been a shift of customers towards inline retailers that offer free shipping.
Having said that, it is evident that if you haven’t started offering free shipping, then you could be losing out on a big chunk of online sales. It is clearly a game changer in terms of increasing sales and improving customer service
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