Free shipping ?

[Former_Member]

Hi all, I am thinking of offering free shipping for the holidays but am not sure.
I would appreciate your input/ advice.
Do you offer free shipping?
Does it impact your sales?
Do you have a minimum spend required to qualify for free shipping?
How do you promote free shipping ?
Thanks!
-Suzi

[lipmeister]

It depends on the size of your items (and weight). With International, it could cost you a lot if it's really heavy. You could put it in your shipping policies. You can promote it on the different promotion teams, you can put it in the item description too.

[Former_Member]

I did free US shipping over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend last year, and got quite a few sales (for me). It was my first holiday season on Etsy, so I'm not sure how much had to do with Free Shipping and how much had to with so many people buying then. I didn't offer it the rest of the season and didn't make any more sales. I thought it would impact my profits more than it did. This year, I'm considering doing free shipping for longer, but I'm also doing four craft shows and so need to be mindful of my inventory. You can add it as a tag and put it in your banner, as well as advertise on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

[WilliamsGiftshop]

As a buyer I am not attracted to free shipping. Because, let's face it, we all know shipping is not for free and the costs will have to be paid somehow (item price). It just makes me feel like the seller is trying to fool me.

[Davs]

I love free shipping. And no free shipping does not automatically mean someone is trying to fool me. I know this because I used to offer free shipping on everything in my shop and I was not adding the shipping into my prices. I only stopped because of a few international shipping costs that burned me. But I know free shipping sweetens the deal in my mind, when it comes to online shopping. Not that I won't pay for shipping but it's nice when you don't have to.

To promote free shipping just put it in your shop announcement, and announce it in whatever social networks you use to promote your shop.

[WilliamsGiftshop]

I know that it is NOT about fooling me.
I tried to explain that is what it feels like though.

(I'm usually not getting the free shipping anyway, since I'm in Europe...)

[Former_Member]

If you're trying to run a sustainable business, you'll have to either eat the cost of shipping or increase your prices to account for it. If you don't charge anyone for shipping, how are you going to pay for it in the long run?

Shipping costs, and people's perceptions of them, are important enough that the Online Labs recommends adjusting them based on your item price. For instance, if it costs $6 to ship an item priced at $3, the admin folks recommended changing the prices so that the item was something like $7, and shipping was $2. I'm still working on this balance in my own shop...

[Former_Member]

Athena, I like your point about shipping cost vs item cost. I've really been struggling with setting my shipping costs, and I did end up increasing some item costs to allow me to lower shipping costs across the board.

To the OP, I've got my shipping costs low enough now that I think might try to do a free shipping promotion over Black Friday / Cyber Monday. I bought a lot of things last year off of Etsy in part because of free shipping promotions, so I figure I'll give it a shot. I'm wary of doing it for any longer, though, in case I end up pricing myself out of profitability!

[Former_Member]

Thanks so much everyone! Lots to think about...

[RivendellRocksSedona]

We offered free shipping last year. Do not know if it helped sales, but we were burned on several sales.

It still costs us more for shipping than we charge - partly because we do not use padded envelops for our jewelry. We box everything - since someone is paying for a quality piece, we believe we should present it in a quality way. But that does add to the costs.

We are thinking about what to do this year - hate to raise prices to cover "free shipping" as a sales promotion. Being small has many advantages, but some disadvantages, too.

Would love to read more comments and suggestions on this thread.

[Former_Member]

I read an article from The Online Seller about free shipping for the holidays. It says there is a national free shipping day, check that out. It was really in favor of free shipping. I'm offering free shipping if someone orders more than one item. However, I offer knit items that are as light as a feather to ship, so free shipping doesn't hurt me much.