E-Stores a postage plea

[wight services]

I have been to several sites this morning looking for different things, not one gives me any idea of postage costs, a couple were quite in my face telling me I would get free postage on orders over £XXX but not one I have visited gave me any idea how much it would be below that, and 3 of the four even adding to basket insisted I would have to fill in all my details before I goto to shipping details. I appreciate it may not be easy, but just a rough guide would help.

Thank you and rant over

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

Ditto. I reinforce your rant.

As an online consumer looking at a new e-commerce site, Before I go to the checkout I will look in the menu for delivery/shipping, I will look in the footer for delivery/shipping. If I find the link I will read the info and progress to the cart.

If I can't find those links off either the menu or the footer, then I will leave that website at that point and go elsewhere.

I will not go through the shopping cart to get to the last but one page to find out what magic number gets added for postage costs.

I don't think that my behaviour is that unusual.......

 

[See Web Solutions]

Thanks for the tip I will get that into my Ecommerce site asap.

Come to think of it I do get annoyed when I get to checkout and they hit me with a massive postage charge.

 

[privateb]

Hi there

I have just checked our website and we do not display the postage cost until you fill in all the gumph. This is not something I have noticed before but will deffinetly get our designer to change it.

We do have our postage clearly laid out in our delivery tab at the top.

website is boobbaby wont let me link it yet

 

[ShortCouture]

it's so basic and so well publicised
- people want to know the full cost before going through the pain of checkout.
- make delivery charges easy and obvious
- don't make me register all my details BEFORE I walk up to the till.

No idea why people make their websites so hard to use - it's almost as though they don't want to sell stuff....

 

[silvermusic]

it's so basic and so well publicised
- people want to know the full cost before going through the pain of checkout.
- make delivery charges easy and obvious
- don't make me register all my details BEFORE I walk up to the till.

No idea why people make their websites so hard to use - it's almost as though they don't want to sell stuff....

Not guilty of any of those sins since day one. If I can't find delivery charges, am forced to register or can't find your physical location on links from the front page I'll move on to another site, simple as that.

Saw this the other day from a twitter post which I thought was good too.
http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/6924-25-reasons-why-i-ll-leave-your-website-in-10-seconds

 

[Sky Racer]

Not guilty on that one... All our product prices include UK mainland delivery.. so much easier for the customer...price you see is the price you pay. simples...

 

[ORDERED WEB]

its ok to be idealistic.. but what if you sell small products - say a sheet of card that fits in a ebvelope, small products - light light bulbs (needs careful packing) through to large heavy products like crates of beer or bigger, through to bulk lightweight products like ceiling insulation

Even if you just shipped in the UK, you would want to know
- what was in the cart
- where in the UK - a courier may charge you double to ship a bulky or large item to the outer Hebrides

In that respect, once you get to shipping a range of products worldwide, giving an accurate price for shipping and tax is extremely hard without knowing the location of the buyer, the shipping address and the chosen products. At best, you can get the user to indicate the location, and do an "estimate" for tax and shipping

 

[J-Wholesale]

Even if you just shipped in the UK, you would want to know
- what was in the cart
- where in the UK - a courier may charge you double to ship a bulky or large item to the outer Hebrides

But most customers will probably fall into one postage band. That's the way it is with us anyway. Our shipping defaults to our standard UK rate, and only changes when the customer selects a different destination country or enters a remote area postcode on the address page. This means that in some cases the shipping charge will rise as the customer fills out details, but for 90% of customers the default rate is the one they will be charged.

The best approach is to satisfy most of your customers instead of satisfying no one.

 

[ORDERED WEB]

But most customers will probably fall into one postage band. That's the way it is with us anyway. Our shipping defaults to our standard UK rate, and only changes when the customer selects a different destination country or enters a remote area postcode on the address page. This means that in some cases the shipping charge will rise as the customer fills out details, but for 90% of customers the default rate is the one they will be charged.

The best approach is to satisfy most of your customers instead of satisfying no one.

Needs vary from business to business.. I deliver what the business wants, its up to them to decide what is important. if the margin is low, getting the shipping price right is imperative

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

website is boobbaby wont let me link it yet

Catchy name. Allow me http://www.boobbaby.co.uk

 

[Mathew]

Great Post!!!

I always try and look for shipping costs and if I cant see them I move to a diffrent website.

 

[gibby]

It is difficult as most shopping carts don't really handle this well but as mentioned it is complicated further if you have more than one rate for weight or size or the issue of rates for Highlands, Islands, N Ireland, S Ireland etc.

We used to have a box with "UK shipping from" & we have delivery info page which is just one click. Many customers complained if they didn't get the cheaper rate on a larger item. Many customers don't bother to read info anyway & just email us with questions on delivery although its there.

I agree we have to make it as easy as possible for customers but you can't put everything on the front page

G