Shipping is Never Free – Don’t believe the hype…

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FREE is never really FREE…

We’ve had some things come across he board that customers have brought to our attention about free shipping. We wish shipping was completely free with no strings attached but sadly, that’s not true. Some retailers advertise free shipping but there comes stipulations behind that. Whether is be a minimum purchase  it’s stated upfront or hidden fees that are not upfront. We are here to attack the myths and help our consumers out! 

As my Grandpa would say, “You see that guy driving the truck. Well he’s gotta be paid then there’s the cost of the truck, the cost of insuring the truck and the cost of insuring the load and oh yeh the cost of fuel. How can all that be free???”

 

We’ve all seen the spend this amount of money get free shipping advertisement if you’re an online shopper. Most of us go into shopping and we remember we need a minimum threshold to be able to get free shipping but have we all really examined the idea that it’s a gimmick to spend more. You can still buy what you want and be less than the minimum threshold plus shipping at be a total less than the necessary “needed” amount. We all have failed at paying attention to that and been blindfolded. But let’s examine that more…

There is actually some psychology behind this “free shipping if you spend X amount” – You are bombarded with “Free Shipping” everywhere from big brands to small businesses like us. It’s usually the first thing you see. Some brands even promise a next day or two day time frame of delivery (and

we’ve gotten addicted to that with the “instant gratification” spin). Retailers feel that “free shipping” is the easiest and more effective way to reach out to customers and quite honestly majority of online shoppers agree. But what is free shipping and how can you tell you are not getting wool pulled over your eyes?

 

  1. Free Shipping – with no qualifications – buy anything from the eCommerce business and get it shipping for free to you no limitations 
  2. Free Shipping – if you’re a member of their “club” then you can get free shipping (sometimes with a monthly/yearly subscription charge and/or email sign-up)
  3. Free Shipping – if spend the right amount of money. Spend the minimum threshold (before taxes) then you get it
  4. Free Shipping – if you buy the right items that are specified to get it.  
  5. Free Shipping – during the right time specified you get it in that time frame. 

As a retailer, the price you set a product at has to be determined in order to offer free shipping. You must and have to determine this price to factor the price of shipping in the cost of the product. So what most retailers do: The cost of the product ($10) plus shipping ($5) then advertising the suggested retail price ($89) but the sale price the customer pay at ($39.99 with Free Shipping). Though there is no shipping added to the checkout portion there’s still shipping in the total cost and most of the time as a consumer you don’t bat an eyelash at it because it is not specifically stated out.

Well known places, we won’t mention names but you know who they are – offer two day(soon to be one day) shipping for a membership. Notice that they do charge you a monthly subscription to be a member of their offer at greater than $100 a year or $9 a month. This holds their business and carries their shipping charges. Though they may be the only ones that offer close to free shipping, you have to take into account how large they now are. They can move a lot of product and store a lot of product in their own warehouse. We are not that large. The business press says that some mega retailers make a good percent of their yearly gross margin off the club dues. 

The shipping situation is for ever changing. At the beginning of 2019 the shippers were slammed and  had trouble getting drivers and did not have enough rigs. But at the end of 2019 they found themselves with too much capacity and some went under from the overhead. Then there is the monster Amazon who has gotten into shipping big time hurting UPS and Fedex.

 


HOW ARE WE DIFFERENT? We do offer Free Shipping on many of our smaller items where we know what the weight will be every time. The heavier items are different especially shipping from Florida where the rates change drastically throughout the year due largely to the amount of produce being shipped We charge you what the freight or shipping company would charge you and DO NOT make a profit off of it. The cost it takes to come from us and arrive to you is what our freight charge is and that’s it. We do not like hidden fees and up charges. We like to be transparent with our customers.

 

Thank you to https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/free-shipping/ who gave us some valuable information and a different spin on the information 

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