If there's one question that comes to an on-line shopper's mind after "How much does it cost?" it's likely "How much will it cost to ship?" Of course, those questions are really the same: what's the cost to make this purchase? Total Blue System's Cart module now attempts to answer that question for shoppers -- only knowing the items to be purchased.
Shopper concerns about shipping costs prompt some merchants to offer free shipping. But often that's only a temporary promotion, and if not, then shoppers can conclude the shipping cost is baked into the product's price. Since a "free shipping" pricing scheme isn't often practical, some e-commerce sites will attempt to meet the shopper's craving by offering to forecast shipping costs. The answer is given after asking the shopper for his or her zip code. That's one route to take, but it's not optimal because it requires input from the shopper that slows the buying process. It also doesn't necessarily work for merchants selling into the United Kingdom and Western Europe.
In response to this situation, E-business Coach developed a proprietary algorithm for estimating shipping costs. These are communicated to the shopper without asking any information about the shipping destination, and before the cart check-out process begins. In collaboration with the merchant, the algorithm can be tuned so that what the shopper sees is higher or lower than actual estimates, depending on the selling psychology that's preferred.
For now, access to this feature is on a limited by-request basis. We'll be watching this beta test closely in the coming months, in particular measuring the impact on shopping cart conversion rates as a result of this new information given to shoppers.
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