DATA NUGGET
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March 29, 2000
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Online Merchants Create a Monster
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It seemed like a quick way for Web merchants to attract customers quickly: Offer free shipping. After all, that eliminates a prime reason that shoppers abandon their online shopping carts before completing their orders. But according to a survey by market watcher Forrester Research, consumers are now coming to expect the practice regularly -- and that's a problem as merchants struggle to eke out a profit. Forrester found that 82% of consumers pay a lot of attention to shipping costs when it comes to their online purchase decisions, and 93% pay some or a lot of attention to the cost.
This year, Forrester says, online merchants must wean customers from expecting free shipping with a host of strategies: Offer it only when purchase size is large enough to offset the bottom-line hit, give only frequent customers a free ride, or simply embed the shipping charge into the price.
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| Attention paid to shipping costs
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| A lot | 62% |
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Some | 31% |
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| Very little | 5% |
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| None at all | 2% |
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| DATA: Forrester Research
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