When you shop online what is the main sticking point that prevents you from ordering from one site and another with the same identical items. To me the biggest thing is the shipping costs. They can really vary by location where the primary seller is located and where the consumer is located. And it also depends upon the various kinds of shipping options available. This is what I call the make or break deal while shopping online. Some of the websites have instituted flat rate shipping no matter what you buy and where you buy. Some have created shipping membership whereby you just pay a subscription fee for the shipping for the whole year and you can order anything as long as the membership is valid.
Sometime the shipping is free from the seller to the buyer but you have to pay for shipping if you have to return. Sometimes it is free both ways (being paid by the seller). It maybe free to the buyer but the seller sometimes absorbs those fees as part of the selling cost in terms of lower margins or to attract buyers and retain them with more incentives to buy. Sometimes there is a minimum you have to buy in order to avail free shipping. But for websites who are just starting or who don’t have the means or who are just small enough, it can be frustrating to compete. But here again if you have a unique product you can charge higher fees while absorbing the shipping charges or just charge additional fees in the form of either shipping fees or more appropriately but deceptively handling fees. But I do really care if the site is offering free shipping because it is these additional costs that can send me to another site even while I may be ignoring the fact that the prices charged also include some shipping fees.
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