Retailers are curbing free-shipping offers

[mandy]

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

[bargainbloodhound]

Our free shipping offers are the same 365 days a year. 

"I am not going to spend a couple of hundred dollars to save fifteen bucks,

The free shipping threshold for our stores ranges from $50-$100.  We also offer quantity discounts based on the number of items in the shopping cart.

[stardust]

In my two ecrater stores, all items include *free shipping*.

[amy]

[quote author=stardust link=topic=6250.msg35656#msg35656 date=1165609210]
In my two ecrater stores, all items include *free shipping*.
[/quote]

Easy for you to do since your items are higher priced ;D but try offering free shipping on your items when you sell many lower priced items.  If I list an item with a MSRP of $4 at $3 + $3.95 shipping I can get a sale.  If I included the shipping in the price and listed it at $6.95 nobody would touch it.

Free shipping isn't feasible on low priced items which is why we base our free shipping on order total.

[stardust]

Exactly.  However, in my case, I had the luxury of having a 'business decision' choice.  Price + shipping cost, or price only.  I decided that, given how people detest the shipping costs, that it would be more buyer friendy to include the shipping in the price. 

Even so, on *my* lower priced items (under $100), it still makes those appear a bit 'higher priced' at first glance, and the 'lower priced items' aren't being looked at as much as the 'higher priced items'.

I recently had a buyer purchase two 'higher priced' items.  She has told me several times she *loves* the 'shipping included in the price'.  AND she knows now that if she purchases more than one at a time, that I will discount because of combined shipments. 

Offering 'discount coupons' for repeat buyers could also work with my items, but I actually prefer one-on-one negotiating.  It's more fun, and you get to size up your customer. Offering a 'combined price' to obtain free shipping won't work for me, because what I offer (or could offer) can be priced from $10 to $10,000. 

Then again, considering our different inventories, one-on-one discussions -- or devoting one to two hours per day to pack a single shipment -- would be basically impossible for someone who sells lots and lots of items per day.  I would be a really happy camper with selling ONE item per day.  TWO would make me absolutely ecstatic.  Any more than that, and I'd have to hire help.