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Comment by plorkyeran | Hacker News Reader

Honest sites let you enter a zip code at the very start of the shopping process and display an estimated shipping cost as you're looking at items. Dishonest sites make no mention of shipping costs until you're at the very end of the checkout process.

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I think in many cases it's not a matter of dishonesty, but of laziness, lack of care, or not wanting to pay for a better checkout experience.

Also, there’s probably A/B testing that shows orders of magnitude less engagement if you put any blockers in the way of seeing the product.

It doesn't have to block you from seeing the product. Some e-commerce sites let you enter a zip code on any page to get estimated shipping prices, but don't require you to. Some let you enter a zip code as soon as you've added something to your cart. Some don't do estimated shipping prices at all and don't give you any idea how much shipping will be until you're at that step of the checkout flow.

Fair enough. I suppose I'm just used to what I'm used to. Shipping prices only seem to be something surprising nowadays with Amazon. Before that, it was accepted and commonplace. I wonder if that makes it a dark pattern now.

I'll disagree again.

The market price for shipping a table across the country is more than what Amazon charges. They have built shipping into their pricing through different methods.

What does that have to do with what I said in any way? My complaint isn't that non-Amazon retailers charge too much for shipping.

I see your point about shipping costs not available until it's in the checkout line. I guess I disagree that it is dishonest or malicious - they didn't take your money.

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