Needless to say how much modern ecommerce companies have to struggle to maintain their position on the marketplace.
There are many possibilities available to business owners that can help them to improve conversion, however, there is one particular option many people forget about making a great mistake. This option is offering free shipping to clients which can give you amazing results.
Free shipping as your advantage over competitors
First of all, it is obvious that you need some special benefits to offer to your potential clients if you want your business to look more attractive and certainly more appealing than the services of your competitors. Of course the most logic idea will be to offer your clients something absolutely exclusive that they will not be able to find anywhere else. Still, in reality, this factor seems thus important only to a fraction of users. Many customers would be happy to see the same goods on several platforms and be able to look for the one offered for the best price.
It is necessary to understand the best price includes not only the price of your goods themselves but also the costs of shipping. Depending on your exact offer, these costs can become pretty large and you can easily imagine how repelling it would be for your clients. This is especially true for the ecommerce websites functioning on the international market and offering their good in other countries as well.
Knowing this fact, there is nothing strange in the urge to find a website where you can get the same goods without paying anything for shipping.
Free shipping: psychological factors
Secondly, there is certain psychology lying under the surface of online shopping.
On the one hand, it is obvious shopping online usually means the goods are delivered right at your door. This does not happen in the land-based shops where you can go and get them without paying for shipping while shipping them home on your own. On the other hand, depending on the price of the shipping, it can appear such a delivery is actually not worth bit. Indeed, many people have to resign from purchasing something online at all in order to avoid shipping prices.
This means, besides all of other flourishing online businesses, you are still competing with land-based shops.
Another crucial psychological aspect of online shopping is that many people find it more profitable to buy more in order to reach the free shipment threshold and avoid these costs rather than spend money on the shipment itself and buy less. In practice, this is sensible in many situations especially if a person decide to get something extra that one really needs or when this extra purchase is not expensive enough. Still, many customers are ready to buy something they do not really need just for the sake of having something for whatever money they had to pay for shipment rather than not being able to convert that money into anything material.
Knowing these fact, there is nothing strange in the modern research showing how much people love free shipment.
Free shipment in practice
Depending on the scope of your business, you might be willing to include completely free shipment into your offer or set some threshold. While the first one will definitely attract many clients, there is always a risk of them making rather small purchases. Still, with a threshold you can expect people to get even more for the sake of meeting that required amount of money spent on purchases. In addition to it, such thresholds also make people feel like they should buy something in advance even if they do not need these products right now.
That is so since the feel as if they have already met the required threshold and if they wish to buy something in the future, they will have to do it again. Being afraid of generating too much expenses, they can make more massive purchases believing into being able to save money. No wonder, the recent research have shown that a threshold for free shipment equal to 75 USD has boosted sales by 90%!
At the same time, you should be careful not to set this threshold too high as it can discourage many people from shopping on your website.