Charging for Shipping?!?!?

[Frag Mortuus]

I don't know why, but I have a serious issue with paying for shipping when I'm ordering from a major company. Most big companies get dirt cheap rates since they do so much business with couriers and can probably write it off as a business expense. So, why charge your customers for shipping? Make them happy and let them get their items for the price they have in their head and be done with it.

A lot of places are doing this, so why doesn't everyone? I just tried to order a Final Fantasy III (DS) from the Square Enix store because they have it on sale for $9.99, then I canceled my order when I saw the shipping was an additional $6.75. Dude, that is 67.5% of the price of the game! If it were just $2, I may have gone ahead and bit the bullet. But, that price is a little outrageous.

Maybe I've been spoiled, but I will pretty not much order an item online form a retailer if I have to pay shipping. I don't mind paying shipping to an individual like on this site, but a big company can afford to give free shipping to their customers.

/soapbox

[ZenErik]

I factor shipping costs into the price. If a game is $12 shipped somewhere, that is a better price than $9 + $5 shipping. No need to rant about it, IMO. Just do a little addition?

[isiolia]

They have free shipping on orders over $100

It really varies though. That said, SE uses Digital River, who are not exactly great. Last time they had a sale like this one, last year about this time, I put in a modest order. Some items were backordered. It shipped in May, or thereabouts.

[Luke]

You are paying for a convenience, and yes shipping is a MAJOR part of overhead.

It's not just shipping, it's the pick and pack that also adds money.

For example: A skein of yarn costs $3.99, giving some imaginary company about a fifty cent profit on each skein sold. Then there are labor costs associated with picking the item, packing it, and then shiping it. Well, that can be a huge loss if shipping costs aren't covered.

This is why budgeting, price points, and break even analyses are so important. Most online companies take a HUGE gamble with promotions. It's also why it is not uncommon to see a bunch of ads stating "Free shipping on orders over $50". That's because to break even on the sale, only orders over $50 will work for the bottom line.

To me the title of this thread may as well be:

"You mean I have to drive to a store and stand in line? Ugh".

[Hobie-wan]

Maybe I've been spoiled

Even if a large company does get a break on the shipping because of their volume, the bigger they are, the bigger their warehouse is and the more people they're paying to receive, sort, pull, pack, and send your merchandise. That would be the "& handling" portion of shipping and handling. Packing a single item to send out is more of a pain in the ass than 10 because while those 10 items take longer to pull, they're potentially going in 1 box with 1 shipping label. They only have to be double checked on a single invoice and so on. This is why (non-prime) Amazon is free shipping on $25 or more of qualified stuff that all comes from the same warehouse.

So yup. Spoiled.

/thread

[the King]

Is this for real?


You know the companies that do free shipping just factor that cost into the price of the product, right?

[MrPopo]

When I was at Amazon we definitely looked into the variable cost per unit that our department could drive down by improving the processes in the warehouses for pick and pack. A lot of the stuff Amazon only works because they're doing such fantastic volume that their strategies can actually be more efficient than the naïve implementation (for example, multiple pickers picking an order because the items are spread through the warehouse). It's not the size of the company that matters, it's the size of their distribution business. The Square Enix store probably doesn't ship that many orders compared to other online retailers and the efficiency (and cost) of their processes reflect that.

[Hobie-wan]

It's not the size of the company that matters, it's the size of their distribution business.

Right, I should have said: "the bigger they are their sales are, the bigger their warehouse is."

[Ziggy]

This is why (non-prime) Amazon is free shipping on $25 $35 or more of qualified stuff that all comes from the same warehouse.

FTFY

[Frag Mortuus]

I factor shipping costs into the price. If a game is $12 shipped somewhere, that is a better price than $9 + $5 shipping. No need to rant about it, IMO. Just do a little addition?

I'm pretty sure that most people do that automatically. However, I only really consider that when shopping on stores like Ebay (where shipping usually isn't free), Amazon when I'm not buying on Prime, etc. I will check multiple places and add shipping into the price. However, most places have a line that says "plus shipping" or it will blatantly tell you what the shipping price is or if its free. They don't wait until your ready to check out before they hit you with shipping.

Is this for real?

Absolutely.

You know the companies that do free shipping just factor that cost into the price of the product, right?

Yep, i know that. Which is fine because when I see the price, I know what I will pay. I don't expect to pay $10, then get to the end and see the final price of $17.