not-so-free delivery

Free Shipping Is Expensive For Retailers, Bad For Profits

Free Shipping Is Expensive For Retailers, Bad For Profits

Customers love free shipping, but retailers do not. Well, that’s not quite true: retailers love the sales that the availability of free shipping drives, but it isn’t very good for their profit margins. While customers have become used to free shipping and view it as the default for shopping online, retailers still haven’t been able to figure out how to provide free shipping without losing a lot of money. [More]

(Darrell L James)

Best Buy Delivers Your Appliance For Free, Power Cord For $70

Reader Christopher decided that it was time to buy a new dryer, largely because Best Buy had a great sale and offers free delivery for appliances. It sounds like that might be, indeed, the best buy. Only when he put all of the needed parts in his virtual cart, he noticed something strange. He had to pay an extra delivery charge…for the power cord. [More]