I have no problem paying for shipping as a separate item. It is frustrating though when sites make it hard to figure out what the shipping will be. The good sites let you identify down to your city without having to enter other details (like email address, or even credit card details) before you even get to the check-out phase.

I will often play around with the order to try and maximise against the shipping cost. e.g., I use to order protein bars and would order the maximum number that wouldn’t bump me up to the next shipping class, to get the best value per bar.

My biggest gripe, living in the Antipodes, is that many foreign companies have really expensive shipping costs to ship internationally. I suspect we’re often not a big enough market to make it worthwhile for them to fine-tune the costs, but it still sucks when shipping can be 40-60% of the cost of an order.

e.g. I really want to try out some Death Wish Coffee, but ordering 2 lbs at US$38 plus US$27 to ship to Australia, vs US$6 for US shipping, sucks.

Some places feel like they are really gouging you on the shipping costs. (Not saying that’s the case with the coffee above, just that it costs a lot.)