E-commerce: Lessons Learned From Cyber Monday

It may be time for all multichannel retailers, including catalogers, to offer free shipping to their online customers to get in line with consumers’ expectations. Our research indicates that transactional costs, not product costs, are the source of dissatisfaction. Many retailers find (through analysis) that they can raise prices, give away free shipping, and still increase revenues while maintaining the same profit margin. Catalogers usually have lower overhead costs than their brick and mortar competition and they might consider lower discounts to offset free shipping. Although some catalogers resist free shipping, from a customer satisfaction point of view it may be better to charge more for the product and offer free shipping anyway.