There are plenty of companies touting their free warehouse to store shipping to convert online consumers to in-store consumers and pad in-store sales figures, but few have been brave enough to offer free direct shipping. One mail-order and online company is taking a leap as giant as Jack’s beanstalk with their new effort to compete by offering free shipping on all order to the U.S. and Canada – with no minimum purchase.
This radical new policy comes on the heels of a very successful, and at the time, temporary promotion that offered free shipping sans minimum purchase to consumers signing up for the company’s Visa card. Apparently, it worked so well that they announced in addition to no minimum requirements, there are no end dates and no conditions placed on the offer – “guaranteed.”
While the new policy may seem radical to traditional retailers, in the fourth quarter of 2010, of the 100 leading online retailers, 7 percent offered free shipping on all orders – up 3 percent from the previous year.
In the growing competitive world of online retail, shipping offers are beginning to fall under the marketing category, with more and more businesses moving to gain market share to compete with brick and mortar establishments as well as multi-channel organizations. A change in the attitude of these retailers is proving beneficial to the end consumer and more competitive by the day for online shopping centers.
Source: Internet Retailer, March 2011
