We've just released our report on the impact of free shipping during the holiday shopping season. We see free shipping offers increasing every year. More importantly, people who remember seeing free shipping offers are more satisfied with the website overall, and research shows us that satisfied visitors are more likely to purchase, recommend, and return.
Greg Sterling's takeaway (and I think he's right) is that free shipping and lower margins will probably be necessary for most e-retailers to remain competitive. The one catch is that our study was really finding out what's true for e-retail overall, on average. An individual retailer may find its own customers have different needs, priorities, or expectations. So while the study certainly would indicate free shipping as a best practice during the holidays, it may benefit retailers to survey their own customers and shoppers to see if it has the same impact as it does on retail populations overall. Retailers may also find some valuable information by seeing how free shipping affects different audiences--new visitors. vs. repeat customers, high-dollar shoppers vs. low-dollar shoppers, early shoppers vs. late shoppers...
The name of the game in this economy is understanding what YOUR customers want and not making assumptions based on general data or findings.
You can read more about our free shipping findings in Promo Magazine or download the report from our website.(now that I've told you not to make assumptions based on general data!)
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