By Mar 26, 2024 05:48:43 35 minutes ago read
Online retail merchants and private sellers frequently offer “free shipping” deals to encourage buyers to purchase their products. Free shipping is a promotional tool where the seller does not charge any shipping fees to the buyers purchasing their products.
Free shipping promotions occur in many diverse online retail venues and marketing platforms, such as eBay product listings, business website storefronts, classified ads, social media posts, search engine ads, etc.
Free shipping is an attractive promotion to buyers who do not like paying additional shipping costs for the items they purchase online. By offering free shipping, retailers give their buyers an extra incentive to complete a purchase that they might not have otherwise made.
Suppose an e-commerce storefront sells Dell laptop computers for a fixed price of $499. The listing page uses the term “free shipping” in its description and pricing details. Buyers visiting the listing page can see the shipping price is $0.00, verifying the free shipping claim on the page. So, if a buyer decides to purchase the Dell laptop for $499, the only additional cost will be the sales tax. No shipping costs are added to the total price.
A free shipping promotion encourages the buyer to complete a purchase and gives them a better sense of value and satisfaction about the deal. It may even turn them into a loyal customer if the retailer continues to offer free shipping promotions like this one.
In the previous free shipping example outlined above, the e-commerce storefront listed its Dell laptop for $499 with free shipping. What the buyer does not realize is that the retailer really wants to sell the computer for $484 because the shipping costs are $15 to ship the product domestically.
The retailer could have listed the laptop for $484 with a $15 shipping fee, but that would not have looked as attractive to buyers. Instead, the retailer secretly added the $15 shipping fee to the price of the product to create a $499 listing price with a free shipping promotion. By doing this, they know the buyer is more likely to complete this purchase due to the free shipping incentive.
Free shipping promotions come in different forms. Here are the most common free shipping promotions you may come across from various online retailers and sellers:
Free Shipping Price – The retailer sets the shipping price to $0.00 on the product listing page and checkout screen. The buyer does not have to enter any special promo codes or complete any special offers to receive this benefit because the retailer provides it to all buyers automatically.
Free Shipping Code – The retailer may promote a free shipping code for a particular product they want to sell. When the buyer goes to the retailer’s website to purchase the product, they must enter the promo code on the checkout screen to receive the free shipping offer with the purchase. If applied successfully, the shipping cost is deducted from the total purchase price to give the buyer free shipping. However, if the buyer does not enter the promo code on the checkout screen successfully, the shipping costs will not be deducted.
Free Delivery Fee – A free delivery fee is a variation of the free shipping promotion. You will often see free delivery fee promotions when purchasing services rather than products, such as restaurant food deliveries and grocery deliveries. Mobile app-based companies like Grubhub and DoorDash use free delivery fee promotions all the time.
Free Returns – Honest and trustworthy retailers will offer free shipping on all product returns made by unsatisfied buyers. Free returns give buyers more confidence in purchasing because they know they can return the product for free if something is wrong with it or it appears different than described. Retailers will supply prepaid shipping labels to their unsatisfied buyers so they can return the products at no additional cost to them. Buyers are more willing to stay loyal to retailers that offer free returns in this manner.
Free Shipping with Membership Subscription – One of the newest free shipping promotional deals is free shipping for buyers who sign up for a membership subscription with the retailer. The best example is Amazon, which offers free shipping to buyers who have Amazon Prime memberships at a cost of $14.99 monthly or $139 annually. Buyers can receive free shipping on unlimited items purchased on the retailer’s platform as long as they pay their subscription fees as indicated. If you plan to make frequent purchases from the same retailer, it may be beneficial to sign up for a membership that offers a free shipping deal like this one.
Retailers will usually choose the most economical shipping method when honoring a free shipping promotion. An economical shipping method is the standard shipping service offered by the shipping carrier (e.g., USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc.). Typically, the standard shipping service takes anywhere from 3 to 7 business days, depending on the physical distance between the shipping location and the buyer’s destination address.
Many retailers offer buyers the option to pay extra for faster shipping services like Express Mail, 2-Day Delivery, 1-Day Delivery, Same-Day Delivery, etc. But if you do not mind waiting a week to receive your purchase, then you should take advantage of the free shipping offer and avoid paying extra for shipping.
You may notice that most free shipping offers only apply to buyers residing in the same country as the retailer. The reason is that domestic shipping costs are cheaper than international shipping costs. Retailers that offer free shipping do not mind bearing the domestic shipping costs because they will not raise the product price too much after those costs are factored into it.
On the other hand, it is uncommon for retailers to offer free shipping worldwide because international shipping costs are much more expensive than domestic shipping costs. If a retailer tried factoring international shipping costs into their product prices, it would drastically raise those prices and deter buyers from purchasing their products.
Some retailers may still offer free shipping worldwide if they want to attract new international buyers or if they have smaller weighted items to sell. As you browse various online merchant promotions, you may come across one of these deals now and then.