Do you like free delivery websites?

[Stereo]

I have mentioned on here before that I run a retail company selling tools through our website and you guys would be in our target audience. Again, no intention to plug and I will not reveal the site as this is not intended to be spam. If this question is against forum rules, please feel free to let me know / remove it etc.

 

We are looking to revamp the site and are thinking about offering free delivery on everything. The upside of this to the customer is a very simple pricing structure ie. the price is the price delivered to the door.

 

The downside is that prices are higher and you pay more for multiple item orders (so a courier delivery is built into a drill but it wouldn't cost us twice as much to send a grinder as well.)

 

The other downside is that there would have to be a minimum order amount of say £10 as we can't build shipping costs into small items such as spanners / sockets etc without having silly high prices on them.

 

So, do you look for fair pricing and fair delivery charges? Do you like the idea of a site where postage is free on everything (as eBay and Amazon are going these days). Or do you go for a fair basic charge with a 'free over £50' type of deal?

 

Thanks for your answers if you can spare the time.

[plippy]

isnt that just a way of lifting the price when we all know that you as a company save money on miltiple parcel drops, i have a mate who does parcel deliveries and he aint on much per parcel, infact i was quite embarassed for him when he told me how much he earns per parcel, this isnt a personal dig at you but nearly every company does free delivery on items over £50 which is very reasonable, perhaps do something like b and q do with the milage radius thing

[Stereo]

It does mean we would make more on multiple item orders, yes. I'm not going to deny that. We are not trying to rip anyone off. We just want to offer what people want.

[bob]

I would not expect free delivery on everything as that makes you dear if I bought a lot

Either by having an account which when spent over 200 everything was free postage as a loyal customer or as said orders over £50 free postage

 

 

I am a regular buyer at 1 company and i now just get free postage on everything.

Usually i clump stuff together but sometimes small order and not worried as to postage costs but overall we both seem to do ok out of it:thumbup:

[plippy]

It does mean we would make more on multiple item orders, yes. I'm not going to deny that. We are not trying to rip anyone off. We just want to offer what people want.

i understand,

personally if it aint broke, dont fix it, you may find that folk look at ya site and even though it says delivery built in people will not notice it evereytime and go elsewhere and see it as a cheaper price, i suppose that the normal routine is that you go on line, put it in the basket then delivery is added on at the end

[Stereo]

I guess it comes down to what you expect in terms of service. If I go to my local hardware store and buy some Draper tools, I will expect to pay list price. But I can see them, touch them and talk to somebody about them. On the web, you expect to pay less (maybe up to 40% less) because there is more risk as a buyer, even if you can send it back, it's a hassle.

 

The problem with this is that everyone wants the lowest price and expects shop style service (or is this not the case?). It's an endless dilema for us. People want us to pick up the phone in 3 rings and sort everything there and then but they also want us to match Amazon's prices and think we are trying to rip them off when we explain that the it costs big time to have a person sitting on a phone all day and that a non dedicated phone service means that someone elses order isn't going to get packed that day.

 

To be honest we've always majored on price as a way of getting sales. It's a one way street though, a race to the bottom as they say. What I want to know is can we have that person on the phone all day and will customers be prepared to pay a bit extra for that level of service?

 

I like your idea Bob about accounts for high spending customers. We don't mind if we take the odd loss on an order for a good customer as long as they are happy and we make enough overall to pay our staff and keep the bank manager at bay.

[firewood]

I prefer to see prices exc delivery.

 

I expect to pay for delivery if order value is below say £50. but above that figure I would expect delivery to be free.

 

use the "£50" threshold as a selling tool to drive up your sales.

 

if you need to have an advice line use a premium rate no service to get a cut of the call revenue to offset against your staff cost.

[Rob D]

I'm opening a new website soon and it'll be free deliveries on orders over £100-00 ex vat.

 

I think if you do something like this system it needs to be well advertised on the site.

 

Ref pricing it depends what you're selling. But I would say that quite a few people will call you and chat for 10 minutes to get info on a product then search the web for the cheapest.

 

I think you need to offer something different especially entering in market with lots of competition. Why not have a person on the phone but just out of hours i.e. 5pm to 9pm? And have this service 7 days a week all year. Most of us are working in the day and it's the evening you have to buy your bits and pieces. And have your phone hours well advertised on site.

 

Personally I wouldn't price match. If they want to buy off Amazon why not let them.

 

How about offering more bundle deals i.e. buy a circular saw get 2 spare blades for £10 or whatever. Perhaps you don't make anything on the blades but do better on the circular saw and the total is cheaper than competitors.

 

Also if we're your target market how about an exclusive discount for those registered on arbtalk?

 

Also maybe a tiered discount system whereby the more you spend the larger the discount earnt on your next order.

 

A few ideas for you anyway!

[Bolt]

I don't mind delivery charges, but I really hate where the charge is hidden deep in the website, and you can't find it out untill you are in the latter stages of paying.

 

Keep 'em up front, it stops the charges feeling like a sharp practice ripoff

 

Have an "orders above £~~ are free" as your customers feel like thay are getting something for nothing (and it encourages them to spend more)

[Raywood]

Based in Northern Ireland, and the biggest pain in the ass with websites is that the majority of them do not deliver to Northern Ireland.

 

There are very few online retailers here in Northern Ireland, and it is very hard to get various items delivered from retailers across the water. I don't mind paying extra for postage, but for alot of companys to rule out delivery here is very fustrating.

 

For example, I am looking for a Luytens bench for my fathers birthday. Great offer of £250.00 for a flat pack teak bench. Proceeded to online checkout only to be greated with 'We do not deliver to Northern Ireland. Grrrr.