flyingrose
Staff
Joined: Oct 30, 2003
# Posts: 3361
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Posted: 2006-Jul-03 00:57
Please take a moment and give me your quick yes or no answer to this question:
Would you buy from a site that asks for your name & address before providing the shipping cost? Yes or No? Thank you!
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JQ
Staff
Joined: Mar 11, 2001
# Posts: 2765
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Posted: 2006-Jul-03 05:43
No.
If you won't tell me what the shipping costs are going to be before you ask me for my personal information, I will simply take my business elsewhere.
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Dinkar
Staff
Joined: Aug 12, 2001
# Posts: 4391
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Posted: 2006-Jul-03 05:52
No thanks! There are more sites on the net.
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philh
Joined: Sep 14, 2001
# Posts: 3050
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Posted: 2006-Jul-03 09:00
I definitely wouldn't.
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dudibob
Joined: Oct 13, 2005
# Posts: 1472
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Posted: 2006-Jul-03 09:13
this is pretty one way already but I wouldn't
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georged
Joined: Feb 28, 2000
# Posts: 553
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Posted: 2006-Jul-03 13:17
Nope, just tell me the price please...
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T. J. Daniels
Joined: Aug 19, 2000
# Posts: 183
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Posted: 2006-Jul-04 01:52
You asked for a quick yes or no answer. NO!
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flyingrose
Staff
Joined: Oct 30, 2003
# Posts: 3361
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Posted: 2006-Jul-04 06:07
I truly appreciate all the replies so far and hope others will continue to post their answers. You are welcome to post reasons as well if you like.
I'm looking for market research on shipping and particularly on how it affects conversion rates. If you have or know of any I'd love to hear about it.
Case studies of conversions before and after changing how shipping is shown on a Web site would be particularly useful.
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Curt
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 3747
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Posted: 2006-Jul-06 08:00
I don't like shipping surprises. There should be a page that I can go to in order to get at least a close estimate without providing my name.
Perhaps the page could take city, state, and/or country and based on those entries figure out what the cost of shipping would be based on amount spent (or however the shipping is figured). There should be a convenient quick way to get a fairly accurate shipping amount.
Web sites and the companies behind them should be upfront with shipping costs without the need to submit other personal information.
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SportsGuy
Staff
Joined: Aug 30, 2002
# Posts: 3603
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Posted: 2006-Jul-06 13:04
I've encountered a few sites which simply ask for zip or postal codes and show you approx. rates based on that - very few and far between, but I've had more trust in them than competeing sites for simply that reason - they showed me the total cost before asking for personal deets.
Shoppers respond well to knowing the full cost of an item and usually don't return after getting suprises they don't like.
How do the current big name sonline handle this issue? Amazon, etc. I cannot recall as it's been a while since I last bought through them (been going to the book store lately), but still. perhaps they're not such a good example as they're a household name and basically "trusted" these days...
A site not willign to show me the shipping fees up front does not get my business - after all, I'm still paying out the money, whether it's profit for the iste or not is not really my concern - overall outlay of cash is my concern.
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Hampstead
Joined: Feb 20, 2001
# Posts: 2061
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Posted: 2006-Jul-07 11:48
I would continue if there was an estimate of cost available. I would happily enter my postcode or select my country from a drop down list.
But I would not be prepared to proffer any additional information.
I also avoid sites that make me go through a lengthy registration process before check out.
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Hampstead
Joined: Feb 20, 2001
# Posts: 2061
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Posted: 2006-Jul-07 12:05
Something else that stops me completing an order:
If I have filled in the delivery details and carefully read all of the check boxes about selling my email address and sending details of offers blah blah blah and then after hitting submit the page is re-presented to me with a missed form field and I see that the check boxes are all set to default again, I leave the site there and then.
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ClickIt
Joined: Jul 31, 2000
# Posts: 746
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Posted: 2006-Jul-07 21:11
A few years ago there was a rather long thread about things sites do to annoy customers. Dumb order forms ranked up there. It may be worth looking at that thread again.
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beth_lk
Staff
Joined: Jun 23, 2004
# Posts: 1308
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Posted: 2006-Jul-08 05:11
No _I hate having to dig around or wait to find my total costs - I usually ( depends on the item ) count the shipping as a part of my cost decission if to buy item or not.....
I also 100% agree with Hampstead
Beth 
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flyingrose
Staff
Joined: Oct 30, 2003
# Posts: 3361
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Posted: 2006-Jul-08 06:11
If the shipping costs were on the shopping cart page but the site wasn't able to add the total and the shipping for you until you checked out would that be a deal breaker for anyone?
Although it would definitely better to see the total, as long as I knew what the shipping options and costs were I think I would go ahead with my shopping. What do you think?
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Hampstead
Joined: Feb 20, 2001
# Posts: 2061
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Posted: 2006-Jul-08 08:22
Rose,
If the shipping costs were apparent, I'd be happy to add it up in my head. I like to see these costs at the time of (or before) adding a product to the cart.
Same thing goes with VAT and sales tax too.
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JQ
Staff
Joined: Mar 11, 2001
# Posts: 2765
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Posted: 2006-Jul-08 09:23
If the shipping costs were on the shopping cart page but the site wasn't able to add the total and the shipping for you until you checked out would that be a deal breaker for anyone?
Why should I have to add an item to a shopping cart to find out what shipping would cost? I know a lot of sites do that, and then they wonder why there's such a high rate of abandoned carts? Yeah, it's a real deal breaker when I find out that $4.99 item I want is going to cost an additional $6.95 for shipping and handling.
At least have a FAQ page that addresses shipping options and costs so I can do the ballpark in my head to see if I want to buy from you in the first place.
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flyingrose
Staff
Joined: Oct 30, 2003
# Posts: 3361
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Posted: 2006-Jul-08 22:22
The shipping costs are in the FAQ and also in the cart; however, they're not on the product pages. That is a good idea and I do know of one site that does a great job of showing shipping options and prices on the product pages.
I do put products in carts all the time to find out how much the shipping is and I'm sure a lot of other people do too. Shipping is probably "the" major issue affecting online sales.
I've seen research that indicates offering free shipping greatly increases sales and is the promotion buyers prefer most when shopping online.
I recently read that some major sites do a lot of testing of "buy now" and "add to cart" button styles, colors, font and wording and found those greatly affect conversions and average sale. Don't recall where I read it though to find it again.
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dudibob
Joined: Oct 13, 2005
# Posts: 1472
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Posted: 2006-Jul-10 09:58
I don't do a great deal of shopping online or manage any online shops, but couldn't you make it so the customer has to sign in to buy stuff? or is this just as annoying as having to enter these details before you see any prices?
Get analytics on it and do the site overlay option on it to see what links are popular and what aren't  analytics is my new best friend
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philh
Joined: Sep 14, 2001
# Posts: 3050
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Posted: 2006-Jul-10 10:44
>> couldn't you make it so the customer has to sign in to buy stuff?
I'd be gone in a heartbeat
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