But clearly if I'm buying from an online shop I need shipping. And for a $5 item, shipping of $3 and shipping of $25 lead to very different purchase decisions.
/s (mostly)
Let's say I sell shirts for $5 and offer free shipping with a $25 minimum. The shirts would be $4 if I charged for shipping. Shipping 5 shirts will cost me $5 and shipping 40 shirts will cost me $10. If someone buys 5 shirts, $1/shirt goes to shipping and I get $20 after shipping - just like $4 shirts plus $5 shipping. If someone buys 20 shirts, $0.50/shirt goes to shipping - I'm making an additional $0.50/shirt because someone decided to make a larger order.
But this is why a lot of stores do coupons when you hit thresholds. Free shipping at $25, 10% off if you spend $100. That way if you spend $100, you're actually charged $90 and so you're only paying $4/shirt + $10 shipping.
> Tell me ONE price — inclusive of everything — up front
Do coupons that require you to hit a spending level fit into this metric? I think they do in a lot of ways. You see the price and if you just want the price you just get the price while large orders get the discount. But it can also be hard when you see a bulk discount and feel pressured to spend more.
I kind of felt guilty, because I genuinely wasn't trying to game anything.
For example, I've got zero qualms about buying something I merely might want because it's a on a good sale, and then making the actual decision over the next 30/90 days. And if I've already got a pending return somewhere, then doubling down with more speculative buying is essentially free. Holiday shopping season is basically an extended project season.
Or when items arrive damaged, I'll optimize the presentation of my complaints such that I'm less likely to have to actually return them to get replacements. This saves me the time of doing so and makes up for having to deal with the situation in the first place.
Baking free shipping into the price of every individual SKU most likely means that a retailer will either set a price higher than Amazon or earn negative profit on many orders. In both scenarios, the long-term consequence leads to far fewer small or independent retailers and your only remaining choice being Amazon and perhaps a few other megacorps.
I don't want that. I don't pay for prime and I don't pay for shipping, I'll wait for weeks or longer until I need however many items it takes to reach the slower free shipping threshold. I don't want my option to save that money to go away.
Note that this is RAMPANT on eBay these days.
I remember some online store forum bragging about how much extra money you make with it. This was circa 1999-2001 era online shopping.
Free shipping means the price is the price you pay. It's a lot more transparent.
However, I can see how major retailers get to negotiate superior relationships with Fedex and UPS and USMail.
Even for a small business, opening an account will get you double digit percentage discounts on retail shipping rates.