After scouring the internet for an answer to my question “what shipping method leads to most sales?” the conclusion was widely unanimous: offer free shipping on your site.
Not only is free shipping the #1 criteria for making a purchase, where 73% of people listed it as “critical,” but it is also a driver in purchasing more items at once. In fact, 52% of American shoppers have added items to their e-commerce shopping cart to qualify for free shipping. So not only will free shipping get people to follow through with their purchases, but it could actually encourage your customers to purchase more items.
When deciding whether or not to include free shipping on your site, keep in mind that…
- More that ¾ of e-shoppers think that free shipping with 5-7 day delivery time seems more attractive to them than having to pay extra for a 1-2 day delivery. 62% of online shoppers say they would not purchase on a site where they don’t receive free shipping.
- Orders with free shipping average around 30% higher in value than those that charge a few bucks for transport.
- More that ¾ of e-shoppers think that free shipping with 5-7 day delivery time seems more attractive to them than having to pay extra for a 1-2 day delivery. 62% of online shoppers say they would not purchase on a site where they don’t receive free shipping.
- 73% of visitors consider free shipping to greatly impact their ordering decision. 50% of people would rather pick up their order in store instead of having it delivered if the store has high shipping costs.
- 86% of people abandon their shopping cart because of the cost of shipping
With stats like these, it is hard to ignore the tremendous benefits of adding free shipping as an option to your online store. However, the question still left unanswered is whether you should offer free shipping on all orders, or only on orders over a certain minimum.
In one case, for TrailcamPro.com, the mention of Free Shipping on Orders over $99 increased sales by 20%. In this particular instance, they already offered free shipping before the study but just started advertising that they offered it and saw an increase in sales. In other cases, companies offered free shipping without having a high enough profit margin to cover the costs and ended up losing money because of it.
Bottom line is, you have to do what is right for your company but in any case, free shipping continues to be the top incentive to drive more frequent online shoppers.
Have you tested this out and have insights to share?
Sources:
- The Ultimate Guide to Increasing Ecommerce Conversion Rates (CXL)
- Why Should Ecommerce Retailers Offer Free Shipping? (ECN)
- Is Free Shipping Really Sustainable for E-commerce? (ECN)
- Top trend in shipping? More consumers want fast and free (Alix Partners)
- Study: Nearly a Third of Consumers Now Shop Online At Least Once Per Week (Walker Sands)
- The Big Ticket: What’s Stopping Shoppers? (Future Pay)
- Case Study: How Free Shipping and Returns Lifted Sales by 20% for this eCommerce Website (Inflow)