My Case for Big-Box Free Shipping Online

I’ve been thinking about online retailers vs. multi channel companies a lot lately. Online merchandisers spring up faster then zucchini in July. Multi channel retailers have easy access to weed killer, but they let that pesky zucchini persist because they worry about how much that weed killer costs to use.

Imagine way back to 1996. You’re off to make your first online book purchase, and you have to choose between shopping at BarnesAndNoble.com or Amazon.com. You know the book you want to buy, and the price is about the same at both companies, but Amazon will give you free shipping. Barnes and Noble is a trusted brand, but you want to save a few bucks on shipping, so you take a chance and order through Amazon.

Most items you purchase are available at many different retailers. You shop at a store based on its convenience to your geographic location and some brand affinity that appeals to you. Once you are in the store, your option to comparison shop for best prices on similar products requires a great deal of time and effort on your part…this is not the case online. Consumers would rather purchase stuff from a trusted brand instead of taking chances with a new company, but they will take a gamble for perceived ‘extra’ value.

I can’t figure out why more multi channel retailers are not offering free shipping as a means to keep online only companies out of the game.

Look at this article from the NRF. Amazon is listed as #1 in customer satisfaction and they don’t even have a 1-800 number (okay, maybe the do, but it’s not ease to find). An Online company beat out all the other multi channel guys. How did they do this? Clearly, Amazon does a lot to deliver good service, but I also suspect consumers are also considering free shipping in the overall service evaluation.

You lost the sale. Someone else has established a potentially lucrative business relationship with your vendor. The new guy is building a supply chain that can be expanded to include other products without huge additional investment, and established trust with your customer. All this goes on while the online company bleeds large sums of money for the first few years of its existence.

Free Shipping is cheap when you add all these things up. Don’t let another Amazon happen in your garden, someone might take weed killer to you.