Classics: Free Shipping Every Order vs. Codes & Promos

Originally Published 8/30/11

The case for Free Shipping:  Why would anyone NOT want free shipping?  It’s the cherry on top of a good deal or sale.  It eliminates that extra couple of bucks that along with tax, makes your order that much more before you finalize your purchase.  It’s certainly the direction the online retail industry is heading in.  Nordstrom just announced a new every order free shipping policy this week.  LL Bean changed their shipping rules earlier this year.  And Bonobos, well Bonobos might be the leader in this department.

The case for Codes & Promos:  I know it sounds completely insane, and I’m no economist, but from what I understand my UPS guy, Mailman, and FedEx driver don’t work for free.  Somebody has to pay for that package to get to your doorstep.  Maybe the every-order-ships-free retailers are absorbing those costs.  Maybe they’re going to somehow quietly pass along that expense to their customers.  With codes and promos, free shipping is a way to reward loyal customers who have given them an email address or follow them through social media.  Thus, those people are more easily accessible, easier to sell to, and perhaps that softens the blow of eating the shipping costs.

Now there are plenty of Econ guys in the audience, and from past threads it’s obvious there’s a lot of passion there.  Let’s keep it friendly and simple so those of us who majored in something less useful stay on board.  What would you rather see?  The continuation of promos and codes?  All “free” shipping?  Or a mix of the two?  Leave it all below.

Top pic via Nordstrom.  Follow Barron: @effortlessgent as well as effortlessgent.com  Hat tip @harold_f for also mentioning the Lands’ End Canvas free shipping code and pin, which by the way expired last evening.