Have An Online Store? Need-to-know Info About Shipping Costs

by CB on Jan.26, 2010, under ecommerce

According to a recent survey by Compete Online Shopper, free shipping offers can and do impact consumers’ decisions to purchase online. Further, free shipping also affects customer satisfaction. The presence of shipping costs, particularly on small purchases, creates bad feelings with consumers. But free shipping offers make your customers happy and encourage them to purchase more.

Key takeaways from the survey include these data points:

93% of respondents said that free shipping offers encourage them to buy more.
66.6% of respondents said they’d increase their online purchases if returns were free.
67% of respondents said they buy items in stores to avoid shipping costs.

Bottom line: absorbing the cost of shipping your customers’ orders can pay big dividends in the form of happier customers and bigger orders.

See the survey data here.