Free Shipping Day-Friday 12/17

It’s not too late to shop online for Christmas!

On Monday (12/13) I wrote about the importance of free shipping and that a heavier percentage of transactions include free shipping. E-Retailers need to offer free shipping to stay in the game.

FreeShippingDay.com promises that on Friday, December 17, more than 1,500 participating merchants will offer free shipping with delivery by Christmas Eve in the continental United States. The site instructs that “All Free Shipping Day offers will be revealed on this website at 12:00am EST on Friday, December 17, 2010.”

Just a few of the e-retailers offering free shipping on Friday, 12/17

Free shipping AND delivery by Christmas Eve?

That’s another day I can procrastinate my shopping!

Free Shipping Matters More Now Than Ever

Pedestrian shoppers everywhere might be walking a bit slower today as they are mesmerized by the FedEx “white space” arrow in their logo as more branded trucks, uniforms, and planes cover the grid.

Can you spot the arrow?

FedEx expects TODAY (December 13, 2010 to keep your reading enjoyment scroll-free) to be the busiest day of the year, projecting 16.0 million shipments delivered! That’s about a 1 in 7 chance your household will get a visit from FedEx today. (Appropriate door-answering attire appreciated).

Number of Shipments (in millions) since 2005.

It’s interesting to note that since 2006, the date of the largest volume has been getting earlier every year.

Have we stopped procrastinating as shoppers?

Did we shop sooner when Cyber Monday arrived early this year?

Maybe we’re enticed by free shipping deals offered the past few weeks.

Andrew Lipsman on comScore looked into the role of free shipping plays with online transactions.

The results were very compelling:

The percentage of U.S. E-Commerce Transactions Including Free Shipping in 2010 and 2009

In the first three weeks of November, the percentage of purchases including free shipping in 2010 mirrored 2009′s, but once Cyber Monday (November 29th this year) hit and recorded the heaviest U.S. shopping day ever, the percentage of transactions including free shipping were ten percentage points higher in 2010 than they were in 2009. Translation: Free shipping mattered more this year.

E-Retailers are following suit of the success of AmazonPrime and realize they need it to stay in the game. When’s the last time you gleefully paid for shipping?

When Returning Products Demonstrates Confidence

Cyber Monday is coming back.  Only this time, it’s a Thursday.

Maybe you burnt a bridge with someone who you purchased a gift for, maybe whatever you ordered no longer fits because in addition to layering your clothes for cold weather, you’ve also been layering your meals with a block of cheddar cheese…or maybe you just flat out purchased in haste and made a mistake.  Whatever the reason, ‘Boomerang Thursday’ is in recognition of your mistakes.

Yesterday Bizreport.com announced that one in 20 people who purchased gifts on or around Cyber Monday expect to return at least one of their purchases prior to the Christmas holiday.  This coming Thursday, December 9th, is typically the kickoff day for those returns.  Hence the apropos ‘Boomerang Thursday.’

The high number of returns is no cause for alarm though, it actually demonstrates increased consumer confidence in online retailers’ ability to have consumers’ replacement items in stock and ready to be delivered prior to Christmas.  But just like Ebenezer Scrooge, your holiday mistakes could come back to bite you.  With wintry weather and the holiday season comes increased delivery time expectations as well as a high volume of consumers who may have made the same kinds of ordering mistakes you did (minus the gluttonous layering of cheese).

That being said, if you think that you may end up having to return a product that you ordered recently, it’s best to look for a retailer that has an easy to understand and clearly outlined returns policy.  It may also be best to look for one with free return shipping and affordable, speedy delivery rates.  If you’re on the lookout for retailers with excellent shipping and delivery policies and practices just in time for the holidays, look no further than our Holiday Guide.  These retailer’s policies will leave you so pleased that you’ll be returning from whence you came, just like…a planet in orbit?  a dog playing fetch?  a sailor returning to port?  Either way, you get the idea.

Black Friday Has Passed, But the Best Is Yet To Come

Blame it on the bedbugs, fear of fake Santas, or the stomach bug that’s been circulating, but 2010  Black Friday sales were up 15.9% from last year. This bodes VERY well for Cyber Monday.

You know what else you can blame? The presence of online deals equally as impressive as those of brick and mortar stores, or the free shipping offers (Think STELLAService Excellent-rated “The Big Big O” Overstock.com) that led to a 12.1% increase in average order value, to $190.80 from a 2009 average of $170.19.

Another perk to shopping online: you can do it in your skivvies.

You can also blame the free returns policies of certain sites, especially ones that include a pre-paid return shipping label that make post-office trips obsolete. (To view a list of these sites, click here!)

Or, you can attribute it to gift-wrapping that e-retailers will do for you, saving you a trip to the loved ones in Hartland, CA.

Perhaps you were banned from a store or can’t control your kleptomania, but e-retailers do not judge.

The best of online holiday shopping is yet to come with Cyber Monday a few days away-to view where to get the best Cyber Monday deals, visit here.

Free Shipping Membership-Loyalty for the Lazy?

Move over, Amazon Prime. There’s a new guy in town, his name is ShopRunner, and if you pay him $79 a year, you will get all the free 2-Day Shipping and Returns you want. Sounds like a DEAL, but what’s the catch?

Retailers team up against Amazon Prime in the fight for Free Shipping Memberships

Customers avoid paying for shipping at all costs. In fact, high shipping costs is the number one reason for shopping cart abandonment. This is often addressed by sites offering free shipping with a minimum purchase order, and at first glance of ShopRunner’s partners, many already do! But what if you could pay a premium up-front and reap the benefits of free 2-Day shipping AND returns all year?

Here’s what happens. You buy the $79 subscription to ShopRunner. You then shop almost exclusively at ShopRunner’s participating stores to justify your $79 membership, even if your products are cheaper elsewhere (and with thousands of online stores, they probably are). Your fabricated loyalty to those stores have made you a lazy shopper and one that is more likely to make impulse purchases. Retailers will love your lazy impulsiveness! It’s almost an oxymoron, but, the again, so is paying for something free.

Sloths are cute, but they are not wise shoppers.

Let’s also consider the price tag. It is rare that you don’t get free shipping from a coupon code or by meeting the minimum purchase requirement. When you do pony up for shipping, it must happen more than 10 times per year (at a conservative estimate of $7.90 per order) to equate the cost of membership. Carefully planned purchases prevent the need for returns-in 2005, most retailers had a return rate between 3 and 5%. However, the fickle or indecisive consumer will certainly get their money’s worth from a ShopRunner subscription. From an e-retailer perspective, companies have the opportunity to acquiesce customers that would not have otherwise shopped at their site, lured by the free product transit. If the e-retailer takes advantage and provides superb customer service, the secret “staying power,” they can gain a considerable amount of regular customers to their site.

To sum it all up, consumers should carefully evaluate both their personality and their wallets before subscribing to ShopRunner.

You can view the ShopRunner press release here.