​Offering Free Postage Was A Disaster

Posted by Cory List on 23rd Aug 2014

​Offering Free Postage Was A Disaster

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When you open an online business, there are a lot of thing that you need to concern yourself about: the company website which needs to be a fully functional e-commerce page that will take down orders and accept online payments; the website should have a functional checkout system that will accept various payment methods (credit card, debit or the likes of Paypal); and the website should offer safe and secure delivery service because when customers pay money for something, they want to get what they bought delivered to their address.

As a business owner, you have the choice to either charge extra for delivery service or offer the service for free. Giving this service for free is a big decision to make, so it is important that you look at both sides of things.

The Good and Bad of Offering Free Postage

The Good

  • It can boost sales. Since you are offering postage for free, it is a thing that customers will find exciting that they do not have to pay extra for the convenience. With a lot of happy customers, you can expect for sales to go up and revenues to climb significantly.
  • It encourages bulk orders. Sometimes, you can present conditions that will go along with the privilege of free postage. To enjoy the free postage, you can set the purchase minimum to a price, so you will find a number of people who will be willing to spend more money, just so they could enjoy free postage.

The Bad

  • You will encounter people who will try to beat the system. Sometimes, you will be specific with your criteria for free postage, limiting it to your country of origin. This will mean that international orders will be charged a shipping fee. Some buyers will try to beat the system by pretending to be from said country. You may detect this, but with the number of anomalies, the extra work will be a complete hassle.

You will be working with 2nd class postage. To be able to offer free postage, you will make a decision to work with 2nd class postage, whose fees will be delightful but service may be questionable. Since you are going this route, there could be some bumps along the way and this could cause disruptions with the entire process. As a result, you can face multiple complaints from clients for delayed, lost and damaged orders.