Re: Shipping and returns should be free

WenGirl42 · ‎07-05-2012

On 1/14/2015 Firefly901 said:
On 1/14/2015 Tyak said:
On 1/14/2015 Cookie06 said:
I would guess with the prices they charge, they can afford to say "free shipping"??

Zappos has free shipping both ways with prices NO higher than anywhere else. The s&h charges at qvc are ridiculous. Unless someone is completely housebound, I honestly don't understand why anyone would purchase from them.

There are people who look at it differently. Many people view time and money as the same thing. Let's say if you were working and your hourly rate was $25 per hour. On the conservative side, let's say it takes you 30 minutes to drive to the store, park, go in the store select the item and pay for it. That would be $12.50 of your time, and let's say it takes a gallon of gas to get to the store, $2. So $14.50 of your resources would be invested in getting this product. If shipping and handling is more than this amount, then you would be better off going to the store to purchase it. As your hourly rate increases, it makes less and less sense to go to the store to purchase it. Imagine if your hourly rate is $100 per hour. You would spend $50 of your time plus $2 for gas, so $52 of your resources for an item that costs much less than that. So for that person instead of the item being a very expensive purchase costing the purchase price + the percentage of hourly rate used in going to the store + gas, the only cost is shipping and handling. That would be the least expensive option for that person.

This is another good point, but I think the OP was talking about a more apples-to-apples comparison of strictly online shopping through various venues. It does take more time to shop around, but you aren't going to have the travel time/gas component.

Beautymogul · ‎03-09-2010

Why cant the Q just offer 5 dollar shipping or some other reasonable figure for all orders, no matter what it is? especially beauty products/

suzyQ3 · ‎03-09-2010

On 1/14/2015 LipstickDiva said:
On 1/14/2015 Tyak said:
On 1/14/2015 Cookie06 said:
I would guess with the prices they charge, they can afford to say "free shipping"??

Zappos has free shipping both ways with prices NO higher than anywhere else. The s&h charges at qvc are ridiculous. Unless someone is completely housebound, I honestly don't understand why anyone would purchase from them.

This isn't true at all. 9 times out of 10 I can find shoes for much cheaper than Zappos has them for. I 100% think Zappos has the "free shipping and free returns" built into their cost.