In this article you will learn about free shipping, more specifically about items that might not benefit from applying this service.
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Free shipping - worth it?
Adding a high shipping cost of greater than 10 Euros to an item usually results in an uncompetitive total item price. This reduces the item’s visibility in search results and puts off potential buyers.
However, for some high cost items, you may find that you remain competitive even after adding shipping costs of over 10 Euros. For this reason, it is always worth checking competitors’ prices before deciding whether to employ the free shipping option or not.
Items that would not benefit from free shipping
Items that would not benefit from applying free shipping are those which require an expensive shipping or are less expensive that their shipping cost. When the shipping cost is twice the cost of the actual item, using the free shipping option would result in a 200% increase in the item price. This would render the total item cost to the buyer uncompetitive and will put off many potential buyers.
The free shipping option may also be unsuitable for items that are usually bought in multiple quantities. The reason for this is that, normally, when a buyer buys more than one of an item, a shipping discount is applied which reduces the overall shipping cost. However, when using the free shipping option, the shipping cost is hidden in the actual item price and therefore no subsequent shipping discounts can be applied. This again could result in your item becoming less competitive.
Since you know when to use the free shipping option and how does it impact online buyers, it is time for one last question. What does free shipping give to the online retailer apart from higher customer satisfaction? Is there benefit to the seller? As you probably guessed, free shipping obviously does result in a profit to an online seller. Webinterpret research, based on our sellers’ sales strategies, proved that all those who employed free shipping in accordance with our tips and advice, increased their revenue by up to 30%!