Free Shipping Is A Lie

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If you want to get all technical, the term "free shipping" should be "free for ME shipping." And, as the customer, that's all anyone cares about when it comes to free shipping. That said, I personally shop lots of places online that don't offer free shipping and most of the "free" shipping I do get is because I pay for Amazon Prime.

Still, someone has to pay the cost of shipping. If customers or investors aren’t footing the bill, e-commerce companies could easily lose money on every free shipment. That’s sustainable if a new round of financing is coming; otherwise it can plunge a retailer or e-commerce company, especially a smaller one, into financial oblivion.
 
Well, of course someone has to pay for it. However, that's a problem for the merchant and not the consumer. If they can't afford to do free shipping then they need to find another way to compete and draw in customers. A customer doesn't need to be concerned with the bottom line of a company, only which company provides us with the best options, prices, and over-all buying experience.
 
Free shipping just tells me they will do other things to make it look like a deal. Nothing is free. As soon as I see free shipping my spidey sense starts tingling and I start looking for other places because there is probably a catch.
 
Free shipping is a lie because it's always factored into prices, however when comparing prices it's nice to know what the actual cost is without having to go all the way to checkout just to find out that they want $15 for shipping on something that costs them $3 to ship.
 
DrLobotomy said:
Free shipping just tells me they will do other things to make it look like a deal. Nothing is free. As soon as I see free shipping my spidey sense starts tingling and I start looking for other places because there is probably a catch.
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It depends. If there is "free shipping", then the shipping is built into the price of the product.
 
I don't care if I "pay" for shipping as long as the cost is lower with shipping that something with "free" shipping.
 
DrLobotomy said:
Actually the customer pays for it because the prices are .03 higher that day.
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Did the customer pay for it or did the customer's employer (or whoever gave them the money) pay for it? I mean if the food at the store was .03 cheaper then they could get away with paying you .03 less in wages right? #DeepThoughts
 
GaryJohnson said:
Did the customer pay for it or did the customer's employer (or whoever gave them the money) pay for it? I mean if the food at the store was .03 cheaper then they could get away with paying you .03 less in wages right? #DeepThoughts
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If you were signed into Fakebook and have your whole life tracked then maybe. Else they wouldn't know you were going to the store and you were going to take a free sample.
#DeeperThoughts
 
Just like if you pay with cash or some other non-credit card medium with rewards/point/cashback, you're losing in on built-in price. Bottom line, I always look for lowest price + shipping and my second consideration is reliability of service. Better to spend $24 for X item at Amazon Fulfillment than $23 dollars for XYZ Chinese maybe in 2 to 3 months webstorefront and no real support.
 
I'm not surprised at all, every time I ship something I wonder how the retailers can afford to do this. There is no way they're getting that great a volume discount. I'd be ok if they raised the limit for "free" shipping. But if they charge too much for shipping I'll just buy local and they'll lose out on the sale entirely.
 
I run an eBay store. Free shipping is a funny thing. When I shop for multiple related items I look for NOT free shipping, as a combined shipping price will be much lower than with free shipping. But as a seller everyone wants free shipping. People do not want to pay $3 first rate or $6 priority. They think that is outrageous. I guess they would rather spend $12 on gas. But same product with shipping price rolled in and "free shipping" no problem. Those same buyers dont bother finding a single source for multiple items, dont try to find sellers from a nearby state. Free shipping is just too easy. Online sales is a game to be tailored to the lcd. I would much rather sell to well informed buyers but if I limited myself to them i would starve.

free shipping on anything returnable ie. clothes is . If the customer returns the product you will be out the original shipping price.
 
DrLobotomy said:
Free shipping just tells me they will do other things to make it look like a deal. Nothing is free. As soon as I see free shipping my spidey sense starts tingling and I start looking for other places because there is probably a catch.
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Usually, if they do NOT advertise free-shipping, that is the catch.

They will make you jump through ten hoops, register on their site, create a password, enter your shipping and billing info, proceed to checkout, and only then do you see it was $10 cheaper than the free shipping place originally, but thanks to $15 shipping charge its now $5 more expensive and you wasted all that time.

Free shipping to me is an honest way of advertising what the product will actually cost me to my door (because it does no good if its 800 miles away in a warehouse somewhere).

Not to mention that with many of these large warehouse businesses, it practically IS free shipping, as they get insanely good rates from UPS/FedEx in exchange for their high volume business.

Stuff that would cost you $10 just to ship with UPS, they can sell you for $10 shipped and still make a profit because their UPS rates are so low!
 
If it's 19.99 at Amazon with free shipping and 19.99 at local best buy, that's free shipping in my book.

If it 14.99 at Amazon then I really DGAF.
 
The article assumes that companies pay the same cost of shipping that consumers do. They don't. Someone ordered me underwear for my birthday. $22 for a 6 pack. Wrong type, I'm not a boxers kind of guy. Cost to return the item was $11 Parcel Post shipping. You can get a better idea of the actual cost of shipping by the seller by comparing the same items by other sellers, or even additional listings by the same seller... like on eBay. Case in point, I saw two listings of the same item by the same seller. One was a USB Wifi dongle for $7.91 with free shipping. And again the same thing for $6.59 with $1.29 shipping. My cost to return the item at the post office would be about $3.
 
If you guys will pay attention to Amazon you can clearly see where the customer actually pays for the 'free' shipping. This is very easy to spot.

How? Look at all the pricing for items on Amazon. There are many sellers selling the same items for cheaper. If you add in shipping, it magically becomes nearly the same price with Amazon Prime. This is not by mistake.

Free shipping is no different than when you see something has been marked down 50% ... it's all bullshit. You really think it's been marked down 50% no, they got a great price on it and they use 'on sale' strictly as a marketing gimmick. And no I am not talking about the clearance rack in the corner loaded down with all the shit no one wanted. I'm taking about that brand new display up front. 30% discount my ass. hahah

Don't be naive.

Also, Fedex, UPS, etc etc, have deep discounts for companies that ship hundreds of, thousands of packages a day. 30% - 40% - 50% type discounts.

Not all retailers pay the same price for products. Walmart is going to get a better deal that say a smaller competitor.

This is all very basic information. The more you educate yourself, the clearer it is to see all the bullshit around you. And trust me, when you get to be in your 40's like me, you see ... a lot ... of ... bullshit.

This last part I'm going to mention is a gray area but still legal. Find yourself ( very difficult ) a 'shipping co-op' for a small monthly fee, you can do your shipping via a small business / cooperate account and enjoy those huge discounts. I've been doing this for years.

You can do this for phone service sometimes and there are even 'food co-op' services for Sysco, US Foods and other national food supply services of which I'm also apart of. All legal.

I basically get true wholesale pricing with food and shipping.


Dig deep, educate yourself, save a lot of money.




"I've been in this game for years, it made me an animal
It's rules to this shit, I wrote me a manual
A step-by-step booklet for you to get
Your game on track, not your wig pushed back"

Biggie Smalls
 
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Steve said:
If you want to get all technical, the term "free shipping" should be "free for ME shipping." And, as the customer, that's all anyone cares about when it comes to free shipping. That said, I personally shop lots of places online that don't offer free shipping and most of the "free" shipping I do get is because I pay for Amazon Prime.
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Prime is mostly a lie too.

It is not a coincidence that listings with Prime are usually more expensive than listings for the identical item without Prime. So with prime you get the luxury of paying an annual fee, and still paying more for prime shipping at checkout. :pompous:
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Prime is mostly a lie too.

It is not a coincidence that listings with Prime are usually more expensive than listings for the identical item without Prime. So with prime you get the luxury of paying an annual fee, and still paying more for prime shipping at checkout. :pompous:
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Not sure where you get the "paying more for prime shipping at checkout". I have prime, and anytime I order something, 2 day shipping is always free. On the chance it's something offshore from china, it's still free, but might take 5 or 6 days vs 2. One slight perk for me is here in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX I'm right between two large amazon facilities so I get a lot of stuff the same day I order it and pay nothing extra.

I sat down and did the math on my Prime subscription. With as much stuff as I've ordered in the past year, it works out to be my shipping "cost" per order is about $1 For 2 day, and sometimes free same day delivery that's not bad IMO.

I got a deal on the Prime subscription for $79, and after a year with it, I'll happily renew at $99 just because it makes it so much easier/quicker to get what I need and not have to worry about shipping. I don't partake of the other benefits they offer either (Streaming/books/etc). Although, I will be watching the hell out of the new "Grand Tour" with clarkson and crew on Prime :)

In the past before prime -- I'd always have to wait to order the smaller things I wanted. Instead of ordering it when I need it, I'd have to wait a week or two or three to get an order with enough stuff to justify paying whatever it was.
 
Not giving a fuck about "small struggling e-commerce" sites. I'm the consumer, and if I'm getting the exact same product you're not going to have something like "personal attention" like you can with a B&M store to counteract the lower prices that an online store has. So make it cheap, in any way possible. Is there a MAP rule in effect? Then you better give free shipping to lower that price.
 
rat said:
The article assumes that companies pay the same cost of shipping that consumers do. They don't. Someone ordered me underwear for my birthday. $22 for a 6 pack. Wrong type, I'm not a boxers kind of guy. Cost to return the item was $11 Parcel Post shipping. You can get a better idea of the actual cost of shipping by the seller by comparing the same items by other sellers, or even additional listings by the same seller... like on eBay. Case in point, I saw two listings of the same item by the same seller. One was a USB Wifi dongle for $7.91 with free shipping. And again the same thing for $6.59 with $1.29 shipping. My cost to return the item at the post office would be about $3.
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This. It also changes depending on location sent from and to.
E.g. it costs me about 2/3rds less sending via company account in EU to NZ, than from company account in NZ to EU.. talking 50-60kg freight pallet loads.
Flying is the same. It's almost half the price buying the same flight routes from EU than NZ.
 
Just feels better to see that free shipping option than the: pay 16 dollars in shipping. When you add tax on top of that, it's a lot of pocket change.
 
Prices in grocery stores factor in two things that most people forget about because they think they're so minor. Spoilage and Theft. They even have a nice nifty term for it. It varies by store, and location, but for one of the stores I worked for, the % was huge. Around 40% (of the price of an item).

Online retailers may get around theft (I doubt it. They still have employees), but their spoilage has got to be much higher. Shipping kills stuff. I've seen tire tracks on items.

Someone else already addressed free shipping. The price is built into the overall cost, just as it is for spoilage and theft.
 
I order Amazon stuff on a Saturday and get it delivered Sunday. I dare not tell the guy its a £2 item that probably would have cost £30+ to ship on a Sunday.
 
You save money with Prime, but the shipping is hardly free. It's just built into the price for the most part. I'm still way better having it overall.
 
Yawn. If you don't want to offer free shipping, then don't. I'm still going to add the price, shipping and tax and buy from whoever has the lowest total, all else equal. This is just whining that you can't beat a certain business model.
 
free shipping may be difficult to compete with. I use to like overstocks 1 $ shipping... however overstock like amazon is full of fake chinese products that have fake reviews so it isn't a credible place to shop. What I do not like and will never shop at sites again are places that charge 10-15$ for an item that costs 1-3$ to ship. Give me honest shipping prices and I'll shop at your store... however if something is 50% off but the cost of shipping is 500% more.. its often a rip off.
 
"free" Two-day shipping is where it's at. I've seen the prices being the same for "free shipping" on an item on Prime and then the same item not on Prime with shipping being the same... the difference was that Prime was 2nd day and the non-prime item was just standard shipping. which is still pretty awesome when you're talking about an item that weighs 50+ lbs.
 
GaryJohnson said:
Did the customer pay for it or did the customer's employer (or whoever gave them the money) pay for it? I mean if the food at the store was .03 cheaper then they could get away with paying you .03 less in wages right? #DeepThoughts
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Everything is paid for by the customers. If the money coming in from the last person at the end of the food chain is less than what was spent on promoting making, transporting, selling, storing that product then someone is going to go out of business.

Maybe not by The Customer, but other customers of the businesses involved in the chain.
 
DrLobotomy said:
Free shipping just tells me they will do other things to make it look like a deal. Nothing is free. As soon as I see free shipping my spidey sense starts tingling and I start looking for other places because there is probably a catch.
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cyclone3d said:
It depends. If there is "free shipping", then the shipping is built into the price of the product.
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And the fact it is built into the product isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Some places I deal with are just small places running off the shelf shopping carts. "Free shipping" sounds pleasing, but more importantly allows them to get around the limitations of the shopping cart on calculating shipping. I much prefer it to the places where the cart's shipping is essentially made up, or punitive for certain small items.

Then there's amazon, where I like prime not because it is "free" most of the prices for prime items add in shipping to the price, but because it allows me to cross shop across the 3rd party vendors more easily. I know that the low price isn't coming with surprise $20 shipping.

You could sell me on it jsut as easily by saying "shipping included", but others prefer the word free.
 
raz-0 said:
I much prefer it to the places where the cart's shipping is essentially made up, or punitive for certain small items.
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This is still a problem. Take the Raspberry Pi Zero. You can get it for $5 if you're close to a Micro Center. If you buy online you'll pay $5 for it + $9 shipping and handling at atleast one place I know. @ $5, drop in 1st class US Mail, and I'll take the risk of damage. Should be like $2 shipping & handling. If you can't carrry a $5 product without making it up in a gouging shipping cost, don't carry it especially when there's a high degree of exclusivity on who sells them.
 
Free shipping lol. What is that? That thing I see advertised all the time that I can't get? Add to cart ----> Oh, you're in Canada?!-------> No free shipping for you! Here is your new total price Canadian scum!
 
TechLarry said:
You save money with Prime, but the shipping is hardly free. It's just built into the price for the most part. I'm still way better having it overall.
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Spread across millions of customers.

Free shipping from Mom & Pop's Gaming Express site will mean prices will be higher, as those costs will be spread across hundreds of people (maybe thousands).

I love Prime because I really do get a good benefit. From the streaming to the free shipping. I buy enough stuff on Amazon to really get a good value from the cost of Prime.
 
This is sort of related, if you have shopped for a really expensive item online, like I am now looking at the Acer X34 monitor and the ASUS ROG Swift 34" monitor. They have the same panel but there are differences.

What I have come to notice is that it really doesn't look like there are very many companies that sell this monitor or that are competitive in their prices at least. I see Amazon who I always think of as a collection of e-tailers, cycle the price through about 3 or 4 different prices. First it's $1,299, then it's $1,248, then it drops to $1,1849 and it then bottoms out at $1,148. And I keep waiting for a real price drop and it just keeps cycling between these same four prices. It just makes me wonder if it's just a pricing game and they expect enough people will eventually settle for the cheapest price and some will buy at whatever is current on impulse. Anyway, it feels contrived to me.

So when it comes to free shipping, it makes me feel like most businesses have already wrapped the costs of shipping into their pricing and as we actually already know, free shipping isn't free, and if you are paying for shipping, then you are really paying for shipping twice.

I suppose all the matters is that you get the lowest price for the entire deal shipping included, whether it says free or not.
 
Ur_Mom said:
Spread across millions of customers.

Free shipping from Mom & Pop's Gaming Express site will mean prices will be higher, as those costs will be spread across hundreds of people (maybe thousands).

I love Prime because I really do get a good benefit. From the streaming to the free shipping. I buy enough stuff on Amazon to really get a good value from the cost of Prime.
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Oh, it's totally worth it. I just don't agree that shipping is actually free.
 
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