# Should you offer free shipping?



## andreeaa (Aug 20, 2011)

I have tested different incentives to see what works best in terms of increasing sales on my website and I found that FREE SHIPPING is often the thing that people need to make the purchase.

I am wondering if anyone else has had that experience? I've tried a discount (25% off works best), but Free Shipping always won in terms of getting more customers to buy.

And I was just reading Entrepreneur magazine last night and they had an article that said that 74% of respondents said that Free Shipping is the most important incentive.

Curious to see if anyone else has tried it?

Andreea


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## Austin300 (May 24, 2009)

There was a great thread going here somewhere
about this very topic.

I offer free shipping for a few reasons.


First of all you are including your shipping cost
in the total of the cost of the single shirt outright.

When your customers order more than one shirt
your own costs go down because you can ship
two shirts for the same price as one and this
opens up the ability to offer discounts to 
your customers for larger orders.

A free Priority Mail Tyvex shipping bag is available
from the USPS online store and this also lowers
your shipping cost. You can order them online and
they will ship them to your door.

Larger orders can be shipped via USPS using the
Priority Mail boxes and if it fits it ships so you can
imagine how many shirts will fit (without damage)
inside a box (free box that is) using their Priority Mail
shipping.

Overseas shipping is another story obviously and shipping
can be a pain to some countries.


I think all the places I shop online put a banner at the top
letting me know right away that there is free shipping and
I always shop around before making a purchase.


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

andreeaa said:


> I have tested different incentives to see what works best in terms of increasing sales on my website and I found that FREE SHIPPING is often the thing that people need to make the purchase.
> 
> I am wondering if anyone else has had that experience? I've tried a discount (25% off works best), but Free Shipping always won in terms of getting more customers to buy.
> 
> ...


Just curious - how are you determining "free shipping" always got you more business?


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## 321go (Aug 13, 2011)

My website also offers free delivery on all products, but of course it is included in the price of the item  i charge £14.99 for a shirt including the delivery, the shirt costs about £2, the print costs about £1, the delivery is £1.95 or something with royal mail, so i make £10 on every shirt, the same on the hoodies. alot of other sites sell the T's at 14.99 and then add vat and delivery. that really pisses me off when im trying to buy something. delivery and added vat usually turns me away from the company.

I also dont add the vat at the checkout, my customer pays exactly the first price they see.


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