"Should I Offer Free Shipping?"
Boy, its tempting, isnt it! Free Shipping!
People will see your proclamation of Freedom from the dreaded SHIPPING CHARGE (imagine agonized screaming here), and flock to your web page to take advantage of THE INCREDIBLE SAVINGS! (Fanfare, many people cheering).
Well, its true. In my experience, shoppers will check out an offer of free shipping before they commit to your competitor. Yahoo Shopping even lists Free Shipping sites as a category on their home page every once in a while, when theyre promoting their Shopping area. Do those sites get hits? You may bet they do. Are they doing better than you are? Probably not.
Internet Shoppers, as a rule, are not dumb. Although the Internet Shopper tends to be an measure -gratification junkie (like me), they will check around before pushing that all-important Order button. Theyre going to go all the way through your order process, until they get the FINAL price. Then theyre going to cancel the order, and do some checking.
What are they going to check before they push your button? The same merchandise on other sites.
Now, lets assume that life is perfect, and you get the best possible wholesale price on the items being drop-shipped for your site. Naturally, life being perfect, the Shopper is going to be comparing prices on other sites that get the identical grand wholesale price that you do. Whats going to happen?
Remember, somebodys got to pay for that shipping. Unless you are personally related to the Shipping Fairy, youre going to have to deal with shipping charges in all their sneaky little forms. Ground shipping, air, motor freight. Residential delivery surcharge. Shipping insurance charge. Signature release charge. They get you coming and going. (Literally