Remarkably, online shoppers will pay more to get free shipping than they will to buy an item and pay to have it delivered. Thanks to the proliferation of Amazon Prime, it’s also becoming a perk more shoppers are expecting to find. This makes determining how to offer free shipping as critical as figuring out which of thefree ecommerce website templates to use.
Introduce a Price Threshold
Many shoppers, when presented with an opportunity to get free shipping if their order exceeds a certain dollar amount, will buy another product or two to push their total past the threshold. This has the benefit of increasing your average order value, as well as offsetting the cost of absorbing shipping fees.
Offer a Trade
This one holds the potential for broadening your customer base, thereby helping you sell more products. Offer first-time customers free shipping if they’ll sign up for your newsletter.With this data you can make subsequent offers, increasing the possibility of retaining them as customers so you can recoup the cost of giving them shipping on their first orders.
Provide Multiple Delivery Options
Find the least expensive method available, regardless of how long it would take the item to arrive. In fact, the longer it would take the better. Then, provide a list of paid options with vastly more favorable delivery times alongside the free one. Free shipping that takes a week loses some of its luster when compared to overnight and two-day offers at reasonable rates. This way, you can offer free shipping, but the odds of having to provide it are reduced.
Make It a Cart Reminder Perk
Studies show most shopping carts are abandoned because the total purchase price is higher than the customer anticipated. To counter this, offer free shipping when you send your cart reminder. This lowers the customer’s total purchase price without discounting your merchandise—per se.
Reward Cheerleaders
Word of mouth is the best form of advertising. When your customers trumpet their positive experiences,others will be enticed into your fold. To encourage them to do this, offer a coupon code for free shipping whenever a customer touts you in social media. Make the code a limited time offer to introduce a sense of urgency. “Get a discount code on purchases made within the next 30 days when you share your experiences over social media.” If you created your store using one of the platforms for the best free ecommerce websites, you probably already have this functionality built in.
Offer Memberships
Depending upon the nature of your product, you might be in a position to mimic Amazon’s success with Prime. Offer memberships, one of the perks of which is free shipping. In the process, you’ll simultaneously create a loyal customer base.
Fold it into the Price
If you’re in a situation in which competition is limited, you might be able to bump the price of your merchandise to bury the cost of free shipping within it. If you’re offering something customers can’t readily find anywhere else, this will be easy to pull off. You just have to be careful to avoid eroding your competitive edge with this strategy.
Ultimately, the decision of how to offer free shipping is going to depend upon your circumstance. Far from a one-size-fits-all proposition, you have to consider the nature of your customer base, your profit margins and what you really want to accomplish. There’s always a way it can be done, you just have to find the strategy that entails the most significant benefits while minimizing your costs.
