The wave of retailers offering free shipping is growing as customers become savvier in their online shopping activities. Free shipping used to be reserved for the holiday season or for orders that met a minimum purchase level.  Most retailers offer the purchaser the ability to arrange expedited orders for an additional fee.

Of course, this gives the larger retailers a bit of an advantage, as they can not only purchase large amounts of products at a lower cost, they can also negotiate lower shipping rates based on their volume. These offsets can improve margins for the larger retailers as they absorb the shipping costs on standard shipped items.

Small retailers can overcome the competition from the larger retailers the same way they have had to compete in their brick and mortar stores. Providing their customers with a high level of customer service and quality is something that traditionally has been easier with a smaller operation.  Sometimes limiting the free shipping to special deals, or specific channels, can attract new customers that are willing to pay reasonable shipping fees to do business with the firm.

Planning and cost control is key to success in maintaining margins when it comes to shipping costs no matter the size of the retailer. The overall costs associated with a particular product for sale needs to be constantly assessed to maintain margins. If costs can be cut in other areas, then perks like free shipping can be offered.

Shipping fees for expedited orders are still expected by most consumers, but as competition increases between online companies and brick and mortar operations that are concerned with online competition and are finding new ways to compete, pressure may mount to offer special deals on expedited orders.

In a recent survey conducted by ComScore, over 80% of respondents say that free shipping is important to them. Over 36% in the same survey said that they would not buy online without the free shipping option.  ComScore said in its summary that with numbers like those, free shipping “is just a cost of doing business”.

Efficiency and tracking of these orders becomes important as customers rely on the guarantees of carriers like UPS and FedEx. When deliveries are late, refunds from these carriers can be obtained by Package Fox to compensate for the added costs, and the customer inconvenience.