How do you offer free shipping on your online store?
Free shipping in online stores continues to be one of the most sought-after things by customers everywhere. Merchants face significant challenges in providing a shopping experience that exceeds customer expectations, especially regarding supply chains. And the shortage of workers and the rise in container shipping from China after the Corona pandemic made merchants think of multiple solutions that would make them offer products at reasonable prices while maintaining high costs in general.
One of the most important features that distinguish online stores and drive them towards excellence is providing the free shipping option. It is one of the most important reasons customers leave their shopping cart in the online store.
Free shipping is one of the most important pillars of e-commerce through which e-stores can push customers to buy more products. In this article, we will learn about free shipping, how it affects e-commerce sales, and the best practices and ideas.
What is free shipping?
Free shipping is for the online store to bear the costs of shipping products to the customer’s door, regardless of the weight or size of the package. Some online stores offer this service with specific conditions, while others provide it without conditions.
What is the importance of free shipping in e-commerce?
- Enhance the competitive value
The free shipping service enhances the online store’s competitiveness, making it the preferred choice for customers. Therefore, many famous online stores compete to innovate solutions and ideas, such as Amazon Prime and free shipping in the Jumia store, to give customers multiple shipping options.
- Improve your shopping experience
Providing the free shipping option is a great way to build a comfortable shopping experience for customers. It also entices customers to make more purchases and increase their return rate to the online store more than once.
- Reduces cart abandonment
48% is the percentage of buyers who leave their cart in the USA due to the cost of shipping and various taxes and fees. With free shipping, you remove the burden of additional costs and reduce the chance they will back out on a purchase at the last minute.
- Sales volume increases
Free shipping still greatly impacts your percentage of purchases 75 ٪ from customers worldwide, and free shipping may be a greater incentive to purchase than discount codes. For instance, a t-shirt shop On the way offers Free shipping service at the end of the week, and the store witnessed large sales compared to the rest of the days.
What are the best free shipping ideas and practices?
You may have some ideas about best practices, solutions, and how to reduce costs in order to provide free shipping. In the following points, I will show you some useful practices:
Conditional free shipping
They can offer free shipping to your customers when they make a minimum purchase. It is the lowest volume purchase which will result in free shipping. But it is important to balance the profit margin with customer satisfaction.
Unconditional Free Shipping
They ship all products regardless of the type or quantity of the order, as is the case in the Amazon Prime program.
You must consider these things when free shipping:
- The average cost of shipping a package by shipping companies
- Fees and taxes such as value-added and customs costs.
- Packaging and warehousing cost
Highlighted free shipping ideas:
The provision of free shipping service depends on factors that include balancing the profit margin, shipping cost, and competition in the market. Here are some ideas in this aspect:
Free shipping on certain products
It can provide free shipping service to your store through specific products such as electronic products or any products with a low weight.
Economy shipping
It is to provide low-cost shipping without the customer incurring additional costs and use this store model from Jumia. But if the customer wants express shipping, he must bear all costs regardless of the quantity and size of the products
Increase the price of the product.
It is possible to slightly increase the volume of the product so that you can cover the shipping cost. And you can Torod, which enables you to link your store with shipping companies in order to obtain appropriate shipping rates.
Free shipping during peak times
May offer free shipping for a limited time at certain times, such as holidays and public holidays, when sales increase.
Are you looking for a reliable shipping partner? Torod offers the following services
– Provide a simple API, and with a one-time connection, the platforms will connect with all shipping service providers in the region
– Standardize tracking terminology and provide a platform-specific tracking page supported by API technology
– Build Orders Automate the process of selecting and assigning shipments by product type, freight company performance, coverage area, and added services
– Access to shipping and delivery companies that serve express and refrigerated freight
– Obtaining a payment matching system upon receipt, which speeds up the collection process to reach collection in less than two days.
– Obtaining detailed reports regarding shipping, returns, payments and customers