The Benefits of Offering Free Shipping: Increasing Sales and Customer Satisfaction

After hours of searching for the perfect product in my case matching bed side tables. I find the perfect set online but then come across a shipping charge which makes me think twice and doubt my purchase, why?

So I abandon the cart but leaving it as an option at the back of my mind, I'm really looking for something that can offer free shipping with quick turn around, needs to be in my hands in the next few days as we learn to become more in patients. So I continue the search then I stumble upon a website, in great large text in the banner of the homepage FREE SHIPPING! I thought brilliant, lets have a quick look around and happen to settle on something that my wife and I like. Then thinking back of the process I went through and how I a simple thing like free shipping can swing a customer.

Now lets try go through some of the benefits of offering free shipping to customers.

To be able to target the right clientele offering something as simple as free shipping can sound expensive and daunting. But in fact many business are doing this by offsetting slightly increased product prices but still being competitive in the market.
Firstly offering free shipping to customers can increase the perceived value you have on incoming traffic to the site, past reports show people tend to spend more and less abandoned carts happen.
This will decrease the buyers hesitation towards end of the purchase, where they aren't surprised by a shipping fee and continue with their purchase. Allowing an increase in revenue, average order value and boost overall sales.

Advertising the free shipping service on the homepage can be a very important, an opportunity not to be missed.  This will grab the attention of the customer and have a positive impact on the conversion rate. Something we experience earlier with my bedside tables.

There are many various organisation that can offer a membership based fee which can include free shipping and returns (some tend to offer next day shipping options) which can turn a one of purchase into a monthly subscription and now a loyal returning customer. To even potentially setting a minimum amount spend before you offer a free shipping service is also a very popular option businesses tend to use. But for small eCommerce businesses this may not be an option, they would need to find alternative way of negotiating the shipping costs or offsetting against increased product prices. It is important to negotiate the best pricing with the correct logistics team, as there are many that offer different services based of weight or quantity of packages sent weekly.

So from offering a basic service like free shipping can bring in visibility and broaden the target range for the business and a major factor increase in sales and revenue. It also allows you to be more competitive in such a growing market and capability of competing against high street stores. Allowing a higher customer satisfaction rate and creating a great sense of loyalty.