How Customers Expect Free Shipping

Shipping can cost a significant portion of online orders. This makes free shipping an appealing feature for eCommerce stores. With Amazon and other major storefronts offering free shipping for many products, customers see it as nearly obligatory. 79.8% of shoppers say they use Amazon because of its fast and free shipping, per a survey of customers in 2020. Offering free shipping is a way to compete for customers’ attention. 

Commonly, free shipping is offered for orders over a certain amount, so the profit to the vendor will outweigh the shipping costs that they must cover. What do customers consider the right threshold? Per a Statista survey, nearly half of Americans in 2020 expected to have to spend from 30 to 50 U.S. dollars to get free shipping. 26 percent thought they would need to spend 20 to 30 U.S. dollars, and very few believed that they should need to spend more than $50. 

The right spending threshold for free shipping can vary based on the product type and the vendor’s shipping costs, but $30 to $75 is appropriate in most cases. This discourages smaller purchases, leading customers to spend more at your store. They may decide to add another small item, so you should always offer low-cost products that are useful and easy to order. Customers may also decide to explore your offerings and find more to purchase based on their needs while meeting a cost threshold for free shipping. 

You can calculate the ideal threshold by finding your average order cost and shipping cost, and then set the free shipping threshold to 10% or more above the current average cost to meet the cost of free shipping. 

Free Shipping for Members and Loyal Customers

Of course, another approach to free shipping is through subscriptions like Amazon Prime that are free regardless of order value. These subscriptions may become satisfying to customers if they order very frequently, and if their orders don’t always have a high monetary value. Another example is Doordash’s DashPass, which gives free delivery for food orders for a monthly fee. This meets the needs of customers who order smaller amounts more frequently. 

Free shipping can also be offered as a loyalty perk for members or as a coupon. While more exclusive, this can be a way of getting customers to sign up for loyalty programs and follow marketing emails more closely. 

Read also: How Small eCommerce Stores Can Provide Fast, Cost-Effective Delivery

Free Shipping Days and Events

Another approach to offering free shipping is to offer it at certain times instead. This could be a holiday sales event or a store-exclusive sale, where any orders during that period get free shipping. This solution is great because it can encourage customers to buy at that time just like a discount on products, but it’s more simple to carry out. Free shipping is also more attractive than a direct discount because customers might try to wait or find a matching deal, but they will want to get free shipping while it’s available.  

This can lead to higher volume at critical times of the year, and luring customers away from the competition. Free shipping periods allow stores to meet the expectations of customers and compete with other stores that offer free shipping without cutting into their costs.

Balancing Shipping Costs and Speed

Mobile commerce apps and websites will initially lose money by having to cover shipping costs. Taking a loss for free shipping requires calculating the profit on the average order to see if it evens out. Also, consider whether bringing a greater volume of customers to the store is worth the cost.

Speed is also expected by customers. Amazon’s 2-day shipping is widespread enough that customers may refuse to use other services that take longer. Try to guarantee shipping within 1 week and improve your supply chain to deliver as soon as possible to stay competitive. 

Final Thoughts

Free shipping is a common strategy among e-retailers. 74% of retailers reported offering free shipping for purchases exceeding a minimum amount, 32% offer it on holidays, and 21% provide it for their best customers, according to Statista research. All of these approaches can be powerful tools to get customers interested in the opportunity to get free shipping. 

The post The Psychology and Effectiveness of Free Shipping Strategies for eCommerce Stores in 2021 appeared first on ElitemCommerce.

Emojis add color to normally-bland text and have been found to significantly increase engagement on social media posts: for instance, tweets with emoji were found to have increased engagement by 25.4%. Younger users especially use emojis more regularly and there is no stigma against using them in professional communication provided the subject matter is not too serious. There are thousands of emojis supported by Unicode that can communicate different ideas or serve as a visual representation of the content being promoted. 

The Value of Push Notifications

Push notifications are a way for brands with mobile apps to directly send messages to their users even when they aren’t using the app. This is a valuable means of communication that keeps users in the loop and engaged with the brand’s latest updates. Push notifications can be tailored to specific subsets of the audience based on metrics collected by the app, enabling communication with particular groups such as the users with the most activity or those who have been inactive for some time and might appreciate reminder messages. 

As push notifications reach users through the same medium where they communicate on chat apps and social media on their mobile devices, receiving messages from their apps using emoji will feel natural to app users. 

Using Emojis in Brand Messaging

Some of the most popular emoji are basic gestures like ?Thumbs Up ,❤️ Red Heart, and ?Pointing Finger. ? or ? can be a simple, attention-grabbing way to point to the key part of a news message. ❤️ can show love and care toward the recipient, while ? indicates excitement at a big, surprising announcement. Face emojis are a long-established way of sharing facial expressions like happiness and surprise. Use ? and other seasonal ones for the right holidays for best effect. Try to make them a regular and casual part of all of your notifications, so they don’t seem jarring. 

eCommerce and mCommerce stores will always have new things to tell their customers, so they can benefit greatly from tailoring their updates with appealing emojis. A food delivery app can find all the emojis they can imagine like ????? to go with their products. Push notifications can be used to announce new products in stock or special discounts, and applying customized emojis that match each product can serve as visual marketing that causes customers to picture an edible food they might want to order.

Read Also: The Must-Have Essential Features of a Food Ordering App

Emojis can also communicate a lot in a few symbols. When you want to avoid overwhelming users with text, they can shorten a message significantly and trim it to the most important words. Use a bell ? to call for attention, one of several clock ? emojis to show that time for a deal is running out, and ? dollar signs to show opportunities for savings. Instead, devote the text to a unique and personal message for your customers.

Depending on the business, it may be possible to create an association between your products or services and a certain emoji or set of them. Carefully choosing and employing them over repeated social media posts and push notifications can have a positive effect and make customers feel connected, building brand loyalty.

Tailoring marketing messages to your customers with emoji can result in receiving a better reception and make them feel a call to action more strongly. Make app users feel like there is thought and care put into every message. Raising customer engagement can lead to stronger relationships and more loyal customers. 

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