12-08-2006, 12:31 PM
Quote:Online shoppers' favorite perk -- free shipping -- is becoming harder to find this holiday shopping season.
With a brighter outlook for both the economy and consumer confidence, retailers this year are still dangling free shipping on many orders, but the offers come loaded with conditions and often have a shorter and earlier time frame...
Roughly 75 percent of shoppers say free shipping is an important factor in deciding where to buy online, according to the National Retail Federation, and retailers aren't turning their backs on the promotion. Some 83 percent of retailers say they plan to offer free shipping with conditions, up from 79 percent last year...
But the conditions on free-shipping offers -- from high price thresholds to fees for shipping to multiple addresses -- are multiplying and can be meaningful. Jennifer Rosen of Arlington, Va., has been inundated with online shopping deals this season, mostly through retailer email lists. A free-shipping offer from J. Crew Group Inc. on its JCrew.com site recently caught her eye, but she passed on the perk after realizing the threshold for cashing in on it was spending $175. "I am not going to spend a couple of hundred dollars to save fifteen bucks," says Ms. Rosen, a 22-year-old paralegal...
full article: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06339/743707-96.stm