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Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.
I always use to give coupon codes with every purchase, but not a single customer ever returned to use them, so I quit offering them. I realize that my shop wasn’t necessarily the type you’d frequently visit due to its limited availability among a few categories. Now that I will have a much, much larger shop offering a huge variety of items, I guess I should start offering loyalty rewards again.
As for shipping, while the survey notes that customers want to see the total cost before deciding to buy, I don’t think that translates to expecting free shipping as some would seem to think (like the marketplace execs). I, too, want to see the total cost, but don’t expect to see all the details until I’m checking out. Although, I have to say that it would be nice not having to go that extra step, so I plan to see if I can adjust the code of my shop to include all the details on the listing page.
I only charge what I am charged by the carrier service because I know high shipping costs can be a deterrent. So I account for all other expenses in the item price because adding even a single dollar can make a huge difference to a shopper, especially if they’re familiar with what shipping costs.
I’ve noticed this because my Etsy shop offered commercial base rates, while the other shop on a different site only offers retail rates. Despite never having promoted the Etsy shop and my other shop having been established for years longer, offering more than just vintage, my Etsy shop always got the sales. When I reduced item prices on the other shop to make it more competitive with the Etsy shop, it didn’t make much difference.
I can’t say with any certainty why that is, but my feeling is that if they were comparing the two shops, they could see the difference in shipping, but the reduced item price to account for that difference didn’t make it seem any less likely to them that I was inflating shipping costs. I know that’s how I would view it if I weren’t familiar with USPS pricing.
So, my take away from the survey is that shipping is important to shoppers, but they know it does cost something, so will look for other ways to save, like coupon codes. Nowhere in the survey does it scream to me that shoppers expect free shipping as some would claim. It’s more about seeing the total cost upfront, which CAN be provided without charging all customers the same zone 7 rates by lumping shipping into the item price.
Online shopping is quickly becoming the normal way to shop. As soon as the majority of people in the world are buying online, all the perks will disappear. Sellers won’t need to entice customers to buy anymore.
“Globally, about two-out-of-three shoppers (63%) ship returns back to sellers/retailers.”
Most of them expect the merchant to eat the cost of shipping both to & from the “customer”… Yeah, OK…I see how that’s fair… NOT.