{"id":246702,"date":"2014-09-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stamps.com\/?p=246702"},"modified":"2024-11-07T20:37:09","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T20:37:09","slug":"ecommerce-holiday-shipping-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stamps.com\/article\/ecommerce-holiday-shipping-survey\/","title":{"rendered":"Survey: 64 Percent Say Free Shipping is the Most Effective Promotion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>For e-commerce retailers, the holiday shopping season is the most important time of the year. To increase profitability, many are recognizing the value of shipping practices and promotions.<\/p>\n\n<p>In its latest survey on e-commerce shipping practices, Stamps.com found that 64% of respondents report that free shipping, with or without minimum spend, is the most effective promotion they can offer to drive sales during the holiday season, and 53% will be offering free shipping on more products this year compared to last holiday season. More than half (52%) of the survey respondents who use free shipping with minimum spend report their average order size increases by at least $4.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stamps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/ecs_1a.jpg\" alt=\"ecs_1a\" class=\"wp-image-961\" title=\"ecs_1a\"\/><\/figure>\n\n<p><strong>Free Shipping Is Seen as Most Effective Sales Promotion<br><\/strong>According to 64% of the respondents, free shipping\u2014with or without minimum spend\u2014is the most effective promotion&nbsp;an e-commerce merchant&nbsp;can offer to drive sales during the holiday season.&nbsp; Coming in&nbsp;second place was another shipping-related promotion.&nbsp;26% of the respondents chose discounted shipping as&nbsp;an effective tool to drive sales.&nbsp; Note:&nbsp;&nbsp;survey respondents were allowed to choose multiple answers.<br><strong><br><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p><strong><br>Merchants to Offer Free Shipping on More Products This Year<br><\/strong>More than half (53%) of the merchants surveyed report that they\u2019ll offer free shipping on more items this holiday season than they did during the same period in 2009.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stamps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/ecs_2a.jpg\" alt=\"ecs_2a\" class=\"wp-image-932\" title=\"ecs_2a\"\/><\/figure>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p><strong><br><\/strong>In fact, 43% of those surveyed will offer free shipping on more than half the items in their product catalog.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stamps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/ecs_3aa.jpg\" alt=\"ecs_3aa\" class=\"wp-image-941\" title=\"ecs_3aa\"\/><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p><strong><br>How Much Do Customers Have to Spend to Get Free Shipping?<br><\/strong>For merchants who require minimum spends in order to qualify for free shipping, 66% of the respondents required an average order size of $50 or more for consumers to get free shipping.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stamps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/ecs_4a.jpg\" alt=\"ecs_4a\" class=\"wp-image-954\" title=\"ecs_4a\"\/><\/figure>\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n<p><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Free Shipping Increases Average Order Size<br><\/strong>When using free shipping with a minimum order amount, e-commerce merchants can expect to see their sales increase. More than half the survey respondents (52%) report that free shipping increases their average order size by at least $4.00. 37% of the respondents claim to see their average order size increased by $7.00 or greater.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stamps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/ecs_5a.jpg\" alt=\"ecs_5a\" class=\"wp-image-953\" title=\"ecs_5a\"\/><\/figure>\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n<p><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Most Merchants Ship Using Regular Delivery<br><\/strong>When offering free shipping, 82% of the respondents send their merchandise using regular 3-5 day delivery.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stamps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/ecs_6a.jpg\" alt=\"ecs_6a\" class=\"wp-image-952\" title=\"ecs_6a\"\/><\/figure>\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Social Media is Being Used for Sales Rather than Customer Service<br><\/strong>More respondents are using social media to drive sales to their site (54%) rather than customer retention (43%) or customer support (39%).<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stamps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/ecs_8aa.jpg\" alt=\"ecs_8aa\" class=\"wp-image-967\" title=\"ecs_8aa\"\/><\/figure>\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Seller Reputation Is Still King<\/strong><br>Although shipping cost and speed are both important factors in driving sales, many merchants believe customers are influenced most by the seller\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stamps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/ecs_9a.jpg\" alt=\"ecs_9a\" class=\"wp-image-947\" title=\"ecs_9a\"\/><\/figure>\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n<p><strong><br>International Sales Add Up<br><\/strong>The international market appears to be a good method to grow sales for e-commerce merchants.&nbsp; 82% of the respondents project that at least some of their holiday revenue will come from international purchases.&nbsp; And&nbsp;10% of respondents anticipate international sales to account for more than a quarter of their holiday sales.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stamps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/ecs_10a.jpg\" alt=\"ecs_10a\" class=\"wp-image-946\" title=\"ecs_10a\"\/><\/figure>\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Low Cost International Shipping Is a Must<br><\/strong>Nearly half of the respondents (48%) report that low cost is their main consideration when shipping to international destinations, although package tracking and delivery speed are also important concerns.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stamps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/ecs_11a.jpg\" alt=\"ecs_11a\" class=\"wp-image-945\" title=\"ecs_11a\"\/><\/figure>\n\n<p><br>This survey was sent to current Stamps.com customers that operate an e-commerce store.&nbsp; The survey was conducted from October 21-28, 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For e-commerce retailers, the holiday shopping season is the most important time of the year. To increase profitability, many are recognizing the value of shipping practices and promotions. In its latest survey on e-commerce shipping practices, Stamps.com found that 64% of respondents report that free shipping, with or without minimum spend, is the most effective [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":246703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[41],"class_list":["post-246702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ecommerce","tag-ecommerce"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.1 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Survey: 64 Percent Say Free Shipping is the Most Effective Promotion - Stamps.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Survey: 64 Percent Say Free Shipping is the Most Effective Promotion For e-commerce retailers, the holiday shopping season is the most important time of the year. 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