Free Shipping Day is Coming Up. Is Your Store Ready?
For online sellers, offering affordable and fast shipping is one of the best ways to attract new customers and retain existing ones. This is doubly true around the holiday season, when shoppers are frantically trying to buy presents and get them delivered on time, an idea that led to one of the biggest shopping days of the year – Free Shipping Day.
Since launching in 2008, Free Shipping Day has turned into one of the premier holiday-season shopping days throughout North America. This year’s Free Shipping Day, set for December 14th, will feature more than 1,000 major retailers and online sellers expected to generate over a billion dollars in sales revenues.
The premise behind Free Shipping Day is straightforward – participating stores offer free shipping for one day in mid-December and guarantee that all orders are delivered by the day before Christmas. It’s a simple idea that’s caught on with last-minute holiday shoppers. Continue reading to learn why Free Shipping Day has become such an important holiday and why shipping policy should rank high on your list of priorities.
Catching Last-Minute Holiday Shoppers: The Origins of Free Shipping Day
Internet entrepreneur, Luke Knowles first conceived of Free Shipping Day back in 2008, after noticing that online shopping slowed down dramatically towards the middle of December. Figuring that this was because last-minute shoppers were fearful that their holiday purchases wouldn’t arrive on time, he started National Free Shipping Day, which in its first year featured 250 merchants generating $764 million in sales.
Since then, Free Shipping Day has turned into one of the leading holiday-season shopping days, rivaling Black Friday and Cyber Monday in terms of sales revenues. While Free Shipping Day’s success is clearly tied to the holiday season, it also points to the significance of having a reliable shipping policy year-round to give your customers the best possible shopping experience.
Attracting the 90% of Shoppers Looking for Free Shipping
When it comes to bringing in new customers to your store, one of the first things you should look into is your shipping policies and how easy it is for shoppers to both receive and return their orders. 90% of shoppers say that free shipping is their first incentive to shop online, while 77% say they have abandoned a purchase due to unsatisfactory shipping options.
But free shipping isn’t just about bringing in new customers. Orders with free shipping are typically 30% higher in value, meaning that providing this service will be good for your bottom line as well. So, how should you go about adjusting your store’s shipping policies? It turns out, you have a few options:
- Blanket free shipping – Offering free shipping store wide might seem like the easiest way to bring in new customers, but it comes at a cost. Paying to ship every order on your site will undoubtedly eat into your bottom line, meaning you’ll need to conduct a thorough cost/benefit analysis before offering this option.
- Minimum threshold free shipping – Establishing a minimum purchase amount to qualify for free shipping can help mitigate your added expenses while incentivizing your customers to spend more.
- Free shipping on certain products – Running promotions on your site that includes free shipping on certain products can help incentivize shoppers to purchase specific items that you’re interested in offloading.
- Free shipping on holidays – Offering free shipping over the holidays, such as Free Shipping Day, can help increase sales during peak shopping seasons.
- Store memberships – Paid subscriptions to your store featuring exclusive discounts and free shipping are a great way to build brand loyalty and attract new customers.
This Free Shipping Day, Manage Your Store’s Payments with Payoneer
With Free Shipping Day quickly approaching, now’s the time to get your store ready for one of the biggest shopping days of the year. To do so, however, you’ll need to effectively manage your incoming and outgoing payments to ensure your store runs smoothly throughout the holiday season and beyond.
That’s where Payoneer comes in. Sign up for a Payoneer account today to take advantage of:
- Local receiving accounts – Get paid like a local worldwide. Local receiving accounts allow your customers to pay you via local bank transfer in a variety of currencies.
- Currency conversions – Quickly convert your payments to a variety of currencies at applicable market rates with no hidden fees.
- Store manager – Manage all your marketplace stores from a single location, allowing you to easily track your payments, analyze trends and revenues and more.