Member Article

How To Offer Free Shipping Without Losing Money

Free shipping is one of the perks that get your potential customers hooked on the idea of purchasing your physical goods. Sadly, that means you have to take the fall for spending extra money on shipping fees. Fortunately for you, there are ways to cope with this setback and still offer free shipping without losing money.

Set minimum price threshold

You can’t offer free shipping without losing money for a product with a $5 price tag otherwise you’ll never be making any profits at all because the shipping costs will increase your expenses and will leave you with no revenue at all. Set a minimum price threshold for free shipping and offer it only for products above that threshold. Marketing trick – people will be more eager to buy the more expensive product due to the lack of shipping charges as oppose to paying for cheaper price tags with shipping costs.

Opt for free shipping on selected items

Don’t go over the top with reducing the charges on your clients in terms of shipping. Make the exclusive offer only for selected items instead of on all products in your inventory. Marketing trick – customers get tempted to buy goods when they seem exclusive and are offering something the rest of the items won’t offer.

Free shipping as a limited-time event

Promotional events are exciting for all potential buyers. Use the free shipping option as a limited-time event for a certain period of time (a week, for example) instead of for an indefinite period. Marketing trick – the more people know about a limited-time event, the more people will try to join the competition for making a purchase due to being pressured by the urge to take advantage of the limited timetable.

Differentiate your offer

Differentiating yourself and your product from your competitors is of intrinsic importance if you want to break into your desired niche. If the competition is already offering free shipping, introduce new perks to your product, which your competitors don’t have. If your rivals are lacking free shipping options, step in and make the offer to your audience. Marketing trick – buyers adore the idea of receiving a new exclusive offer for an already established product just as much as the idea of receiving the same good old offer for an innovative product.

Opt for flat rate shipping

If you can’t afford 100% free of charge shipping, then you should opt for flat rate shipping. This means setting a fixed shipping price on your products. For example, set up $5,99 shipping costs on all items. That’s not exactly free of charge for you or for your customers, but both parties can profit as both you and your customer will split a percentage of the costs. Marketing trick – customers are tempted to take advantage of flat rate shipping for more expensive items or for multiple items at once, because they believe they’re getting them on discount as oppose to cheaper items on the same shipping rate.

Be transparent

One way to offer free shipping without losing money is to always be transparent. Never set cosmic prices on your items just so you can make up for shipping costs. Be as transparent as possible when offering your services to the rest of the world. Marketing trick – all customers value honesty, and being transparent will earn you tons of buyers, who will stay faithful to your brand.

Be bold and straightforward when listing your best features

One of the ways to spend money on shipping goods to your clients while not losing money on such expenses is to make sure your product is among the best choices a buyer can make. And how can you ensure that you’re offering the best? Check out some of the reviews of other companies and take some notes from the features they’re focusing on. Browsing through various product reviews will easily guide you on understanding what’s important for a customer and what features best represent a certain product. Marketing trick – don’t go overboard with exaggeration because buyers don’t like getting cheated with empty promises.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Annabelle Short .