Adding a Little Fat to the Bottom Line

Fruit catalog Cushman’s, for example, has a set fee for each box shipped. “This works very well for them,” says Boyle. “And the fee does not seem so high at $4.95 per box. If they had a total shipping fee, it might seem high to the customer.”

Another option that a few catalogers use, says Boyle, is to include the shipping charge in the total price. “They do this because every product has a different weight, and therefore, costs to ship [can] fluctuate. I think this is very dangerous, because the customer looks at the price and will automatically think it’s high. Most people only think about shipping fees after they’ve already made the commitment to buy.”