Posts Tagged ‘free shipping’
How I Did It: Create an Online Sales Holiday
Friday, December 19th, 2008
The online shopping boom of recent years inspired both comScore and Amazon.com to name “holidays” marking the holiday season’s biggest selling days: Cyber Monday for all online retailers and Green Monday for Amazon.com specifically.
For Luke Knowles and Simon Jobman, the rising popularity of online shopping made them wonder if anyone could create such a “holiday.” Less than three weeks later, they did – though with Free Shipping Day, Knowles and Johnson also hoped to inspire a new best-selling day, rather than just note one.
Even with such short notice, over 250 merchants agreed to present free shipping offers yesterday, Dec. 18. For some smaller merchants, their participation resulted in traffic to their Web sites at record levels, according to Knowles, founder and CEO of FreeShipping.org .
"I just wanted to let you know that we had our highest visitors ever on the site yesterday which resulted in great online sales as well,” Kari Kraichely, owner of Charm Boutique , wrote in an e-mail to Knowles.
Both Knowles and Jobman hoped that the “holiday” would extend a online shopping season that traditionally fades after Dec. 10, once consumers fear they will not receive their gifts by Christmas Eve.
“Retailers really grabbed on to that vision and saw that this could be really useful, that this could be helpful, that this could create some publicity – especially this year, with the economy,” Jobman said.
As comScore noted in a study released Wednesday, a “clear correlation” exists between online retailers’ use of free shipping and dollars spent per order. After the two weeks including Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers, retailers that cut back on free shipping deals saw their average order values decline.
As for the rest of the season, “it’s possible that the strong promotion of this free shipping day may help keep consumers spending online in the season than they normally would,” said Andrew Lipsman, senior analyst, in an e-mail.
Given the surprising results he has seen, Knowles is already anticipating next year’s “holiday.” As early as next month, he plans to consult merchants on when the next Free Shipping Day should take place.
“Next year we want there to be 500, 750 – 1,000 retailers take part and have this be even bigger,” he said.
Tags: Charm Boutique, christina lee, free shipping, Free Shipping Day, Kari Kraichely, Luke Knowles, Simon Jobman
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Use Free Shipping to Skyrocket Your Online Sales
Friday, December 21st, 2007
As Internet companies pick up the pace in shipping products around the world, a few are using free shipping to boost online business. Not many companies can afford to offer unconditional free shipping to every customer. But just like many others, free shipping offers that are conditional can boost your business and help you gain new customers.
Free Shipping with a First-Time Purchase
The "lose profits now to gain future profits" philosophy applies when you offer free shipping to first-time customers. This offer gives customers an opportunity to buy a product risk-free (when it comes to shipping). You carry the burden of shipping costs for their first purchase to hopefully gain a repeat customer for life. You should only offer free shipping under these terms if the following apply:
a. You are able to afford the shipping costs on first-time purchases. This will only work if your products are lightweight and small in size. If your products are heavy and will cost a lot to ship, you should consider another type of offer.
b. You anticipate your customers to shop with you frequently, at least once every few months.
c. You plan to follow up with your customers to encourage other purchases through promotion, email updates, up-selling, etc.
Free Shipping with a Purchase Valued at $_____ or More
You can also offer free shipping with the purchase of products priced at certain dollar amounts or with combined purchases that reach that amount or more. This will work great if your profit margin is enough to cover the costs of shipping for your higher-priced products. This free shipping offer can encourage higher-priced purchases and encourage buyers to place more items in their shopping cart.
Free Shipping During Special Sales and Events
Another way to leverage free shipping is to offer it only during special sales and events. These might be special holidays, end-of-the-year sales, incentive sales, etc. There are numerous ways to incorporate free shipping offers into any sales event.
Cover All Bases
When offering free shipping, promote it carefully. Be sure to specify on your website the details of your offer and any stipulations of the offer. List the requirements one must meet to receive the free shipping. Also, mention your policy on international shipping. If the customer will be charged for shipping on additional items they purchase, be sure this is stated in your offer as well. Write a disclaimer to include on your site. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
Free shipping offers can dramatically increase your Internet profits, so get creative with free shipping ideas and watch your online business soar.
Tags: boosting sales, Business, E-Commerce and E-Business, free shipping, online sales, Sales
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Deciding If Your Website Should Offer Free Shipping
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
There is no doubt that free shipping is enticing to customers. In fact, research has shown that the number one reason for shopping cart abandonment on websites is high shipping costs. Big retailers offer free shipping all the time, however they have a much higher profit margin then smaller retailers who aren’t placing million-dollar bulk orders with manufacturers.
Of course, shoppers aren’t oblivious to an offer of "free shipping" from retailers. They know that many times the cost of shipping is just added onto the cost of the product. Online consumers have been trained to shop around and find the best price on a product - and that means shipped. However, as many big retailers have noted, taking the hit on shipping can actually mean bigger profits in the long run. For instance, instead of selling 10 products a week with an average $100 profit per order, maybe with free shipping you would sell 12 products a week with an average $90 profit per order. Sure you make less profit per order, but what many retailers are finding is that they make it up in volume.
First, figure out if you can afford to offer free shipping
Take a look at your sales and shipping history. Obviously if you are sending heavy, yet inexpensive, items then you don’t want to lose money. But, if your average order is $50 and shipping costs you $6, then maybe offering free shipping is worth looking into. It’s important to do some thorough number crunching to decide how much your profit margin drops with free shipping. Many websites will offer free shipping only on orders above a certain dollar amount. Even if it doesn’t make financial sense for your website to offer free shipping on every order, it may work out on orders over $50, for example.
Next, experiment with different offers and time frames
Offering free shipping may or may not be a boost in profits for your website, but there’s only one way to find out: do some test marketing. See if taking the hit on shipping really means you’ll get more sales. Offer free shipping for a few weeks and compare it to sales over the same time period the previous year, or to the weeks before and after the free shipping offer. See if your actual profit increased, or if web traffic increased or if your shopping cart abandonment decreased.
You can also experiment with free shipping over a certain order amount. Often times this can result in higher order amounts, as customers will sometimes add more to their cart just to take advantage of the free shipping. You won’t know what works best for your company until you actually try several offers.
Also, if at certain times throughout the year sales slump, then try offering free shipping during that time to entice more customers to buy. Even if free shipping doesn’t make sense for you during peak sales months, it may during times when sales are scarce.
The key to finding out whether or not free shipping will work for your website is to test various offers at various times. And then test some more. Yes, it is time consuming but once you have it figured out you very well may have boosted your profits by a sizeable amount. And, that makes it all worthwhile in the end!
Tags: Carrie Hinkel, E-Commerce and E-Business, free shipping, Generating More Sales, Sales, shipping methods
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