28% shoppers abandon their carts when presented with unexpected shipping charges. {source: Kissmetrics}

47% of all online orders include free shipping (source: monetate)

What would YOU do with 47% MORE orders? Or even 28% more?

How would that impact your bottom line?

Today’s #GetMoreCustomers tip is more for people in the retail segment who have a physical product to offer.

And yes, it’s about offering free shipping.

Now as someone who works with a bunch of eCommerce clients, I know that it isn’t possible for small businesses to offer free shipping all.the.time.

BUT how about you offer free shipping for a limited period?

Or free shipping for orders worth X dollar amount?

How do you do that? I’ll show you in a minute.

How to Use Free Shipping to Get More Customers and NOT Lose Money

1. Set Up a Minimum Shopping Amount or Threshold for Free Shipping

Offering free shipping on sales over a certain $$ amount will ensure that you protect your margins and have happy customers too. It’s a win-win.

2. Offer Free Shipping Only on Certain Items

In this case, you offer free shipping only where your margins allow it and you know that you wouldn’t take a loss.

For instance, if you’re a baby and kids store, offer free shipping on smaller items, like clothes and small toys and paid shipping on bigger items, like high chairs and kids furniture.

3. Offer Free Shipping Only at Certain Times

When do you have the most competition for sales? Or what’s your busiest time?

Based on our consulting work with eCommerce clients, we’ve realized that school season and Christmas are the busiest. Offering free shipping on all items, at this time, significantly increases conversions and average order value.

You can even run promos on One-Day Only Free Shipping during your lean seasons to bump up sales.

4. Offer Free Shipping as Part of Your Loyalty or Rewards Program

We’ve already talked about the importance of a customer rewards program for increasing sales. How about you use that to offer free shipping? For instance, get free shipping on your 3^rd, 5^th and 7^th orders or something like that!

So there you have it. 4 easy ways to implement free shipping to boost sales.

Your #GetMoreCustomers Challenge for today is to identify ONE way YOU can offer free shipping to your customers today. My personal recommendation will be to go with the One-Day-Only promo and see how well that converts.

Share with us in The Biz Bistro what you decide to go with!

Missed one of the challenges? Click here to get all the Get More Customers challenges in one place.