Free Shipping Promotions to Boost Holiday Sales

Posted On December 4, 2018 by Anca Iusan
Blog

Everyone is focusing on increasing the holidays’ sales as much as possible, so we thought we could share some tips on how to do that efficiently by creating free shipping promotions for your eCommerce store.

Studies show that users love free shipping, in fact, three out of four shoppers think that having a free shipping promotion on the checkout page is a decisive factor in the buying process. Moreover, more than 2 million searches on Google include “free shipping” in the United States. Approximately 88% of shoppers believe free shipping is more important than fast shipping, so this is definitely something worth offering on your website!

One important aspect is to think about how you will be presenting these offers to your customers. Create appealing banners, add them to your homepage and use email marketing to inform your clients about your promotion.

Let’s take a look at some free shipping promotions you could use to attract more shoppers!

  • Leverage memberships – turn guest shoppers into loyal ones

This is one of the best strategies to develop a long-term relationship with your occasional customers. By offering free shipping in exchange for signing up as a member of your online store, while mentioning other benefits of the membership, in the long run, you stand a really good chance of creating a member’s database which helps you with all your future sales. You can also use this strategy for newsletters subscriptions.

membership

  • Free shipping on all orders within a specified timeframe

If you feel like free shipping is something you can manage only during the holidays, considering the costs involved, then you should go for a campaign that offers this benefit to your customers for a limited period of time. You can advertise this through banners, emails or promo messages on your homepage. You can even think about emailing your customers that abandoned their cart to make them aware of the new benefit you are offering.

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  • Free shipping for a certain amount

Setting up thresholds to qualify for free shipping is widely popular, the amount of the order is larger in this case, helping you with the shipping costs. According to Statista, around 50% of shoppers in the USA are willing to add an item to their cart to benefit from free shipping.

Try to set the threshold to around 40% more than your average order amount. A good example of such an offer is the promo banner appearing on the homepage, as well as the landing page explaining the shipping process, to make sure there is no confusion on the shopper’s side.

Free Shipping Promotions to Boost Holiday Sales 2

https://www.sophiasstyle.com/shipping

  • The second item gets free shipping

In order to encourage customers to get more items, you can use this method to stimulate them into buying more of your merchandise. This is beneficial for shoppers who plan to stack up on products. For one item you would charge a certain amount for shipping, for 2+ items, you offer free shipping.

  • Free shipping on next order

This strategy focuses as well on the longer term, persuading your customers to come back and buy again from you. You can use coupons for free shipping in the order confirmation email or simply use a follow-up message to inform the customers.

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  • Free slow shipping

Offer your customers the possibility to choose the preferred shipping method. For example, offer free slow shipping, but give them the chance to pay for fast delivery as well. Free shipping usually helps the conversion rates, so it’s something worth trying.

If you need help preparing for the hot sales days, don’t hesitate to contact our experts and they will guide you to a successful and profitable season!

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