In our series on how to grow eCommerce share, we went back to look at an analysis we did when building TempCart.com, a study about pricing. One thing people dread about buying online is hidden fee, people are generally turn off when on checkout the advertise price suddenly change to a higher price.
- You must get the Best price
According to a survey by visibility.tv, the main reason people abandon shopping cart is high shipping cost, about 72%. This translates into the fact that people are chocked that the initial price significantly increases at checkout, it’s a huge deterrent to the confidence of shoppers.
Most web sites will generate the shipping cost only at checkout, which can be perceived as bait and switch by buyers. Most buyers think it is a way for seller to get them, a way for sellers to make big profits than they normally should, and that considerably hinders the growth of ecommerce.
shipping should not be that Expensive
The change of total price at checkout plays against the argument that it is cheaper to buy online. Most people think the advertise price is the normal price of the merchandise they want to buy and make up their mind on buying base on that assumption. Once the price changed to a higher amount, sometimes unreasonably higher, they feel cornered, they feel they about to get ripped off, and most people will just abandon the cart and site altogether.
At TempCart.com, we study the subject of good pricing early on; we decided to make it simple. Buyers can make purchase on TempCart in two ways: Buy naming their price or by buying from the great deals page.
Free shipping in the entire US!
In both case there’s no hidden cost, when the Seller accept the Buyer named price, it includes shipping location and shipping cost, so there’s no surprise there. When naming their prices Buyers provide their location, city and state, the seller knows where the item will be delivered to, so shipping is initially part of the deal and the agreed price include shipping. No price shock at checkout.
Items on TempCart.com great deals page are all free shipping in the US and Canada. We advise our sellers to include the shipping factor up front in their pricing model. We are upfront with our buyers, we encourage them to compare our prices with other sites with shipping included, so they can appreciate the potential money saving that TempCart.com offers.
Shopping sites should be upfront on shipping cost, most shipping carriers offers unique or simple pricing on the continental US and Canada, so it should be easier to evaluate and logically factor shipping cost into product cost. Buyer’s likes clarity, people want to make their mind on the whole picture, by advertising closer to real shipping cost upfront shopping sites will increase shoppers’ confidence.
That is a good Deal!
We believe that 72% of shopping cart abandonment due to high shipping cost can be significantly reduce by adopting better pricing policy. Upfront pricing will increase shoppers’ confidence in the checkout process and bring more people to buy online. Ecommerce will grow its share of retails pie as shopping site will feel less like rip off machines to most people.
TempCart 