By Steven Page
SHOPPING AND SHIPPING: E-COMMERCE AS A GLOBAL STRATEGY
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icture this: you walk into a department store and you see the price tag on various items you want to purchase; but you have no idea what you’ll actually end up paying at the register because sales tax can range anywhere between five and 25%. For ecommerce shoppers, this scenario is often experienced because shipping costs and taxes vary greatly based on delivery location. At retail, consumers are comfortable with the additional tax they have to pay because it is a fixed rate they are accustomed to. Ecommerce customers, on the other hand, are often left in the blind until the very last step of checkout. After they’ve searched for and finally found the item they really want, put
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in all of their credit card and shipping information, and have moved on to the last step, they finally see the cost of actually getting the item to their doorstep. The customer might abandon their cart at this point and unfortunately this is where many etailers lose hope for conversions. The moment of truth left the consumer blindsided and now they have exited the “store.” They expected to pay one price, with a little wiggle room in their budget for shipping and taxes, but once they saw the true end-cost they realized either that they were not ready to purchase or that they wanted to look elsewhere for a better deal. In order to increase conversions, etailers need to better understand why customers are abandoning their online shopping
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2015 | www.PARCELindustry.com
carts in the first place. Consumers may be spending more time comparing prices across multiple ecommerce sites rather than purchasing from the first one they find, or they are shocked by the shipping rates and decide they want to purchase from a site that offers better rates. Whether the customer is from the US, China, or Canada, they each want to be offered the best rate available for their country’s shipping. This is why it’s of key importance to offer the best rates available to all of your ecommerce shoppers and show what the true cost will be early on rather than waiting until the end of the checkout process. Online shoppers do recognize that they pay for shipping, and whether it is factored into the total cost or as a sep-