Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

DipLady, what you said in your last paragraph about selling through multiple channels was what I thought might be the driving force for how you were handling shipping costs at your web site.  I just did not agree with your original statement, that all people today expect to pay for shipping and handling.  Amazon, eBay, Wal-Mart and many other giants are spending millions to change that concept and things are changing.

One thing for sure, I do totally agree that free shipping is not the best for all retailers.  And it should not be done without a lot of thought.  In fact, I tend to notice most of our customers use flat rate shipping more than free shipping.  In contrast, I have also noticed several companies that have found using flat rate and occasionally mixing free shipping for promotions have yielded in larger than expected sales increases nearly every time.  Companies are reporting this nationally.  This can also be seen by visiting informational sites like InternetRetailer and looking at their press releases and studies.

Just to clarify my previous comments.  I understand your shipping methods are a modified version of a flat rate system which we both agree is one good way to increase sales.  The only issue I see is your charts for shipping cause the buyer to spend a lot of time discovering the fact that you are offering them a deal.   I also feel that if they scan your shipping information page and do not read it carefully, they might mistakenly think buying more increases their shipping cost.  You are relying on visitors to do the math and read the page carefully.  These are not the habits of most Internet visitors.  This is why I suggested what I did originally, just as one idea to combat this issue.  Not necessarily because it was right for your business.  I was trying to say keep the savings message simple.  Another approach to address this issue might be accomplished by adding an additional column on your shipping info page to show just how much they save by buying more.  Then there is no math necessary.  I have always been a strong supporter of keeping the message simple and easy to find.  One other idea might be as simple as saying, “Buy multiple packs and save on shipping!”

I hope I made myself clearer this time and my rambling on helps you sell even more.  Your site has made me hungry, so I am off to lunch…

Cookie, 

I went to your web site and I was wondering, why are you charging for shipping and handling?  Why not just keep it simple and say your product costs $16.00 including FREE shipping and handling?  Physiologically this is more appealing to a potential customer.  In addition, I think you should also offer two for say, $30.00 including FREE shipping and handling.  I will bet your shipping costs will not increase by much (if at all) when they buy two and you will receive the profit from selling two Wedgies without upsetting your dealers by under cutting them.   This sounds like a product that would make a good gift and if you offered a two product deal, someone buying one might buy another for a friend at the same time.  Just a thought…

Bert

Cookie, 

I think your fear is totally unfounded but not uncommon among many Internet retailers. 

Forget about the price of your product verses your resellers for a minute and let’s consider gas at $3.50 - $4.?? per gallon and going up.  Just going to one of your retailers and back to my home could cost me well over $50.00 in gas alone!  Looking at your dealer list, I think you are really limiting your market’s potential size.  I also think adding shipping costs for a single item just complicates the buying decision.  Keep the buying decision simple!  I don’t always think free shipping is the best idea but in your case you should be using FREE shipping to close the deal rapidly.  On top of that you should offer a special for volume purchases along with FREE shipping.  This will increase the number of Wedgies they buy.  If you do it right and your resellers will not care about your pricing since it is higher and your sales will increase because you have increased your market size and customer convenience.  Not a bad thing, so what is there to fear?

On another note, I think you should seriously consider easier ways to buy Wedgies at your site, like adding the ability to use a merchant account like Google Checkout or one of the others out there.  Merchant accounts are very cheap these days and they make it easy for people to make purchases.  I know this is off the subject of this post but I like to see SuN members sell a ton of product and I think this too is limiting your market and sales significantly.

Make these two changes and I will bet your sales will go up even if your price is more than your resellers.  I hope this helps and good luck selling Wedgies!

Bert