Pricing - Include Shipping and Handling?

[b4004040]

A few questions:

1. From a conversion standpoint, is it better to include S&H costs into the listed price or not? Example: I have a product with an MSRP of $9.99, but we sell directly from our site at "$11.99 with free shipping". Would it be better to list it at "$9.99 + $2.00 S&H"? Or maybe not even include the S&H cost? Any insight is much appreciated.

2. Should price be directly on the homepage? A user must go to our products page to find the price, but I'm thinking maybe it's best to be explicit on the homepage. However, as I am not well versed in all facets of CRO, I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[bradkrussell]

Hi,

Does your site sell 1 product or a lot of different products? Just trying to understand your site better in order to answer your questions.

If it's only 1 product, you could strongly consider adding the price to your homepage, but again that would be on a case-by-case basis.

If it sells a lot of products I'd ALWAYS make it very clear to the customer exactly how much the final cost will be. It's hard to tell exactly what would work better for your site, a set price plus shipping or a slightly higher set price with free shipping. This would be a great thing to test on your site!

Anyway, a little more info and I'm happy to help:)

[b4004040]

Brad,

Thanks for the response. I sell an animal baby bottle cover that comes in six variations (six animals). They're all priced equally.

I personally like final price when I'm shopping online, so that's why I'm inclined to include the price w/ S&H. But I'm wondering if there's any research on this topic.

[WilliamCarr]

1. ) I would include the S&H in the price. People don't like "paying" for shipping. You might also consider having a coupon code for free shipping instead.

2.) Price should be on the homepage.

3.) You might find the ConversionXL blog very useful.

[BizDetox]

With E-commerce sites it really matters on the product you are selling. As you explained and what i understood there is 6 different products you are selling or 1 product 6 different styles or prints.

So to begin a basic few questions.

1. Do you manufacture this product.

2. Do other people sell this product and at what costs ( your resellers or if your a reseller )

I have always found it helpful, that FREE SHIPPING is king. Most customer dont care about anything else sometimes and i have tones of stats and A/B testing to prove my case here .

What i have found helpful specially if someone is reselling the product is to stay at or under the MSRP & offer free shipping and then cover my ass different ways.

• Offer faster shipping server for above and beyond my cost. 2nd day air $15 Overnight $19

*  Offer gift wrapping and gift card services for a small charge $1 to $4 bucks

• Offer upselling by including another product for X amount more

I mean you can get creative.

and if you do free shipping make sure you ADVERTISE that with a HUGE BANNER. Remember most people take 8 seconds when they visit your page whether to stay or leave. Make sure your call to action and message are loud and clear with no other distractions around it.

I would highly recommend going through the checkout process of some of your competitors and see what they are doing. You can always copy them or reverse engineer the process. There is nothing wrong with that .

As for the pricing YES on the homepage since its 1 item if you have more than 10 items ( then no room ).

Hope this helps.

Best wishes,

Hampig M

BizDetox

[bradkrussell]

I would definitely include free shipping on all your items and promote this heavily on your homepage (along with the price).

Here's two articles (old data I know) I found from one of my favourite ecommerce blogs:

• http://www.getelastic.com/free-shipping-vs-discount/
• http://www.getelastic.com/promote-free-shipping/

Bottom line is this is something you should really test and do significant research on, but I think most people would agree that you should go down this path.

Cheers