Should You Offer Free Shipping or Fast Shipping?

Posted May 13, 2020

Should You Offer Free Shipping or Fast Shipping? Let’s figure it out.

Free Shipping AND Fast Shipping should be the priority for any eCommerce Business. If you are selling any product online, you need to be able to mix and match shipping services as well as shipping carriers so that your customers can pick and choose how fast or how much they want to pay for their product’s shipping. You need to know which shipper to use for which service type. It’s a lot to handle, but you can successfully handle shipping variety by using an order fulfillment service.

TLDR; The choice of Free Shipping OR Fast Shipping should be ideally left to your customer to make. If they cannot wait, then they will pay for fast shipping and receive their product fast. On the other hand, if they can wait for a few days, they could opt for Free Shipping and save.

Most importantly, having the option in your online store helps retain your current customers as well as get new customers.

In many customer satisfaction surveys, about 87% of shippers said Free Shipping is better than Fast Shipping!

Some surveys suggest that consumers expect to get their packages on their expected schedule and they also expect Free Shipping.

Over the years as more and more consumers shop online, cybersecurity threats and online data theft do not overly concern the majority of online shoppers. They have been rightly assured online retailers and they have also educated themselves on good online transacting habits. This is also probably because online retailers understand that payment technologies have advanced to a much higher level now. Online information saved on different distributed systems makes it increasingly difficult for hackers to put stolen data to much use as the stolen partial data may not make any sense by itself. Everyone seems to be doing their part in enhancing security and promoting good online selling and buying habits.

Everyone Wants FREE SHIPPING!

Shoppers see Free Shipping as the top perk that would attract them to an online store or to buy more. Most shoppers would make a purchase if an online store offered free shipping. Many customers expected more:

87% of respondents said that Free Shipping is a better perk than Fast Shipping
60% of respondents said that they could after around December 17th and still receive their packages by Christmas time.
Shoppers expect free shipping but if they had to pay to expedite their packages, they were only willing to pay about $5.00.

Mobile Shopping is a necessity for some.

With the rise of Mobile Shopping, consumers are able to keep tabs on new product trends, and also research and compare products and pricing. They are increasingly doing comparative shopping because everyone has smartphones or tablets and that allows anytime anywhere online comparison shopping.

Most shoppers have done their research and made up their mind on what to buy even before they step into a brick and mortar store or an online store.

Here are a few interesting points from aggregated consumer surveys:

57% of shoppers say that they already know exactly what they wanted before going shopping.
76% of shoppers with smartphones are active on social media.
82% of shoppers plan to do their shopping research online.
70% of shoppers responded that they plan to buy local as that would support their local small businesses.
54% added that they shop local businesses in order to get unique or one of a kind gifts that weren’t available anywhere else. This represents another opportunity for craft sellers to heavily promote their one of a kind products online and on social media.

Bottom Line

Clearly consumers equate their time to money. When it comes to shopping online and shipping from online stores, consumers prefer (and expect) free shipping and they want cheap options to get their products shipped and delivered fast too. With consumers being able to research prices and products online, they will be looking out for online retailers that offer just a little bit extra like Free and Fast shipping. If you can offer that little bit extra, your online store will be a hit no matter the season!

Click here to Read about the Steps We Are Taking to ensure Business Continuity for Our Customers and Our Team.

Elite OPS has been a leader in Shipping and Logistics for over 25 years. Contact Us to find out how we can help you Save Time and Money on Procurement as a Service, eCommerce Order Fulfillment, and Kitting and Assembly.