Black Friday Specials may be changing this year.
AdAge has a great article Published: September 22, 2008 regarding Facing Rising Costs, Online Retailers Likely to Attach Strings to Holiday Promos titled No Such Thing as Free Shipping?
Here are the main points from the article.
Transportation costs have skyrocketed in the last year with 50% increases in diesel prices year after year
UPS & FedEx have doubled fuel surcharges to 10.5% for ground packages and 34.5% for air packages.
In 2007, 37% of online retailers offered free shipping without conditions.
71% of online retailers offered Free Shipping WITH CONDITIONS
Online Retailers likely to add strings attached to online promotions to preserve margins.
Raising minimum-purchase requirements
Limit free shipping to customers that have retailer’s credit card.
Local in store pick up.
Customers will have to earn free shipping promotion.
Online Promotion Make Over
Retailers could change 25% discounts to 20% Off plus free shipping
Consumers prefer free shipping over coupons, buy-one-get-one-free promotions, free gifts, gift cards and early-bird specials
The Shop.org study shows 35% of consumers said they would spend more online because of free-shipping offers, while 13% said they would spend less because shipping charges were too expensive.
Mr. Cohen of NPD said “If you take free shipping out of the equation, you’re going to lose an awful lot of traffic if you’re going to try to compete with someone who is [offering] it,” he said. “Let’s put it this way: It’s an expense that they’re going to have to incur.”
JCPenney will continue to offer and currently has a free shipping promotion to customers if they spend at least $49 and have the item shipped to a local store.
It will be nearly impossible to take away free shipping, now that shoppers are in the habit of not paying for shipping costs,
Shoppers are hunting for bargains and look to lower their own fuel expenses and are seeking out free-shipping offers more than ever.
More than one in three holiday shoppers report they begin holiday shopping before Thanksgiving and Black Friday, according to new data from Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI).
We will see how the Economic Rescue Plan affect the economy and the 2008 shopping season.
