Pricing shipment for Shopify website

[Hanna Lewandowski]

Greetings, Potters!

 

I am in the process of building a website via Shopify platform.  I have a problem deciding how to price my items: should the shipment be included or should it be added at the checkout? I am located in Canada, and do not intend to ship internationally. Does anyone have experience with this? What are your ideas or comments on this subject?

Hanna Lewandowski, Earthlight Pottery, British Columbia

[neilestrick]

You can do it either way, but people seem to be more willing to buy if shipping is included in the price, even when that price is higher. Plus it simplifies things because they know how much the item will actually cost them before they go through the  checkout process.

[Callie Beller Diesel]

I’ve also found that having a shipping included price on the website eliminates confusion. I never use the words free shipping, because shipping isn’t free, and especially in Canada you can’t afford to just eat any part of it. 

Back when I had my etsy shop, they were beginning the push for all vendors to have “free” shipping. I was annoyed with the whole thing, and thought that people were smart enough to recognize that shipping charges would be extra, and that it wouldn’t affect buying behaviour. I was so annoyed, I decided to run a test in my own shop just to prove it. I made listings for my mugs, some with shipping included and some without. I wound up eating crow, because people absolutely bought the $60 mugs over the $40 + $20 mugs.  

[LeeU]

As a consumer as well as a seller I prefer including the cost of shipping in the price of the items. In a policies section I state that the price includes the shipping fee, at cost (UPS or whatever method). Keeps life simple and it stings less on the buyers end when going to check out. I often think twice when I see the shipping cost, because some of the rates just really irk me--I'm happier not having it shoved in my face.  It's just easier to swallow and if I do comparative shopping on the item, I can do the math and tell right away that the inclusive price is not an inflated price. I also prefer "shipping included" to "free shipping"-no such thing!

[Bam2015]

I agree, include the shipping up front. I've emptied many shopping carts after seeing the shipping cost. 

Betty

Edited September 12, 2023 by Bam2015

[Hanna Lewandowski]

I am still pondering upon the subject. I am shipping from British Columbia, where I have to charge 7% sales tax on whatever I sale. It is incorporated into the Shopify scheme. I pay 7% on the price that includes shipping, and the tax on the shipping itself, when I pay for it at the Post Office.  That seems somewhat counterproductive. I think I will keep exploring the options. Thank you very much for all your replies.

Hanna

[Callie Beller Diesel]

There isn’t a difference in the tax amount on a $40 item with a $20 shipping fee and a $60 shipping included item going to the same place, the way RevCan calculates it. The $20 (closer to $25 in real life) in the equation is the pre-tax cost of shipping and ought to include a little padding for shipping materials and shipping cost variation. 

Since you’re adding this charge to whatever your mug retails for, there should already be some money incorporated into that base price that’s expected to go towards anything you have to do to sell the piece. If you’re not paying for booth fees, travel expenses and wrapping to use at a market,  that money gets put towards your web hosting and helps offset the odd overage in shipping.