Is free shipping really free is going to open many of your eyes, commonsense tells us merchants are not ever going to take a loss in profits just to make a sale? Since I operate two online stores, I am going to tell you the honest truth about how they do this.
Prices are exactly the same for you if your purchase is through an affiliate link or a non-affiliate link. You will not pay more by clicking through the link.
Is Free Shipping Really Free
We are going to first look at ways merchants can offer you this without losing money, one of the most common strategies is to simply add the shipping costs to their merchandise. Actually, this is dishonest since your shipping charges are included and not really free. Let us now educate you on other ploys merchants use, remember my online store is an affiliate store, just to be honest with you that I have no control over shipping costs.
- Know your margins.
- Incorporate it into your pricing strategy.
- Use free shipping to increase your average order value.
- Optimize your packaging.
- Get competitive shipping rates.
- Offer short-term free shipping promotions.
- Offer free shipping on some products, but not all products.
- Including shipping on the price of your merchandise
The information was provided by the Shopify Blog, one of the most popular online store e-commerce websites online. Wish to read the entire blog post, click on the link above, I provided this access as a convenience to you.
Why Merchants Offer Free Shipping
If you are like Gizmo, you go out of your way to find free shipping or shipping included. This is just a smart shopping strategy for consumers, how many times have you found a great deal only to experience high shipping costs to ruin it? These costs are the major cause of checkout abandonment, and I myself have abandoned my shopping cart due to the hidden cost of shipping. Why merchants offer free shipping is what you will find out next, but the obvious reason is it attracts consumers like you and me.
- Encourages consumers like us to buy from them, and when we know the total cost we are going to pay, this tells us if we are really receiving the best deal.
- The main problem store owners face is checkout abandonment, so offering this really is the most productive solution to solve this problem.
- By simply offering free shipping merchants experience a dramatic increase in sales, and at the same time build a long-lasting relationship with returning customers.
The information you just read in this paragraph was from Big Commerce, another highly used online store website similar to Shopify. Just by visiting my website, you already have two awesome resources if you ever dreamed of opening your own shop online. Just so you realize there are no affiliate links in the content of my blog posts, now let us move on to learn even more.
Consumers n Free Shipping
Let us now look at what this means for shoppers like you and me, I will always check the shipping costs before clicking that button to purchase in my shopping cart. Most of us have a set price in mind that we wish to pay, and if the total price goes over this, most of the time we are going to abandon the shopping cart.
- 90 percent of shoppers seek out free shipping while browsing for products they need and want to buy.
- 74 percent of consumers value merchants who are honest and not trying to pull something on them.
- 84 percent of shoppers admit that free shipping influenced them to purchase impulse products while browsing online.
- Shipping costs are costing merchants more sales than any other factor, so when comparison shopping for the best deals searching for free shipping is a great strategy.
- Consumers are actually paying for the shipping without knowing it, but even so, when we know our total investment, we are still being smart shoppers.
- By comparing competitive free shipping from your favorite merchants you are receiving the best deals, maybe jotting these down for later reference might be a good idea.
Gizmo seeks out shipping-included online deals regularly, even though we are still paying for the shipping, we at least are avoiding wasting our time with hidden high costs when we are ready to check out.
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High Shipping Costs
Like everything that has increased unrealistic, the blame goes to COVID-19. What I wonder is whether this is necessary or an opportunity to rip off consumers, we might never find out the truth, but let us just see why shipping costs are so high.
- COVID-19. The pandemic has destroyed the global supply chain since 2020.
- Shipping container shortage: The market prices for new containers have risen to $3500 per cost-equivalent unit compared to $1800
- The Suez Canal event caused another significant disturbance during March of last year. When the shipping vessel got stuck in the Canal, it blocked the entire waterway for a week. This incident also is responsible for a shoot-up in freight prices.
- If the demand shoots up and supply remains the same, prices are bound to go up. Since COVID-19 kept people home more, they started ordering online more than ever, many consumers who rarely ordered online got into the habit, and now we are still shopping online more after experiencing the convenience.
- You might have noticed many small local merchants were forced to close their stores, and this forced us to shop online for more of the merchandise we are not able to buy locally now.
What do you think about what you just read, do you really feel the increase in shipping is legitimate or an excuse to take advantage of shoppers like you and me? I must admit, I am ordering online more than before COVID-19, and the reason this is for convenience as well is that the products are not available locally.
How To Find The Best Deals
This publication is to provide you with information and resources for smart shoppers, knowledge is the key to finding the best deals online. In this paragraph, we are going to learn a few shopping tips on how to accomplish this goal.
- Researching is our best strategy, I just purchased a fan air bike recently. First I researched the best ones within my spending budget. Then by shopping around I was lucky enough to find one with shipping included in the price, and to make it even better one of the better products was on sale at 50 percent off.
- Take your time comparison shopping and researching the best deals, way too many of us get taken by purchasing bad products by being in too much of a hurry. I took several months waiting for the deal I received on the bike, now that I have it in my apartment it was worth the wait.
- Reading customer reviews is something I make a point to do, even though we have no idea if they are real this is what to do. If you are finding both negative and positive reviews this can be very helpful, on the other hand, if everything is bragging about the products, there is a very good chance they are not from real consumers.
- You should always compare with reliable merchants before making your purchase, I prefer when possible to buy from the manufacturer instead of a middleman. This just has given me many more successful experiences over the years, so you should always visit the manufacturer’s” website for the best information, and they will provide you with better customer service since you purchased directly from them.
- Another shopping tip to mention is to beware of third-party Sellers, you will find these often on websites such as Amazon and eBay. It is a risk if they are honest and reliable to buy from, and once they get your money they might not help you if any problems come up.
- The last thing to be aware of is to read the fine print, you might not want to purchase some products that are refurbished. If this is important to you, be sure to take the time to know what you are actually buying.
This content is to help you become a smarter shopper, with the high cost of everything you want to get the most for your hard-earned money. Living on a fixed income, I realize how every dollar counts, so that is what motivated me to use this blog to help others living on a low income as well.
Free Shopping Tools
How about some freebies, you are going to get access to three free shopping tools. Why not check them out, since they will not cost you anything to give them a try? I have never used these myself yet, but you can be sure that Gizmo is going to explore them right after this article is published.
Microsoft Edge Shopping
- Find coupons and discounts
- Cashback offers
- Trending deals
- Price comparison
Just click here to learn more about how Microsoft Edge Shopping works
Capital One Shopping
- Coupon codes
- Shopping credits
- Price comparison
- Price drop notification
- Search tool
Click here for the Capital One Shopping Tool
Honey Shopping Tool
- Coupons
- Gold rewards
- Many retailers available
- Automatic coupon search tool
Click here for the Honey Shopping Tool
Resources of the Day
Every article includes a wealth of information and resources, and to thank you for reading “Is Free Shipping Really Free”, I have a few more for you to show my appreciation. Feel free to spread the word to your family and your friends, and if you are on social media that would be a great place to reach even more people.
Thank you once again for visiting my website, you are the reason that I am motivated to write these smart shopping guides. You can sign up for my VIP Publication, you will find the signup form on my menu. Just a reminder this opportunity exists, now it is time for us to get on with our day.
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