Research firm, ForeSee Results, which tracks online consumer satisfaction, put out some additional findings from its holiday shopping survey of “more than 9,000 responses collected from December 1, 2008 through December 18, 2008 from shoppers who had visited the Top 40 retail websites at any point within the prior 14 days.” Here’s the part of interest to me:
According to the data, “when they choose to shop on a retailer’s website instead of in the store, 33% said that the availability of free shipping encouraged them to decide to buy online.”
In order of preference then:
- Convenience
- Price
- Free shipping
. . . motivated people to buy online vs. in stores. What this means is that free shipping and lower margins will be required for most “e-tailers” to remain competitive. Amazon and trusted retail brands may be the exception.
September 23, 2009 at 3:45 pm |
Free shipping will definitely help online retailer to boost their sales. This is one of online marketing strategy.
However, customer must also check the item price because sometime retailer will absorb cost into their shipping expenses which end up customer paying the shipping cost.