For the second consecutive year, UPS and comScore have teamed up to release the “UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper” [PDF] study. And if there’s one takeaway from this year’s study, it’s that shipping costs plays a huge role in influencing online shoppers’ attitudes and behavior. When asked their top drivers of positive recommendations for an online retailer, a leading 68% of respondents cited free shipping, easily the top answer. And when asked their top drivers for negative recommendations, a leading 59% cited shipping costs being too high based on the product price. Not only do shipping costs drive recommendations, both positive and negative, but they’re also the leading culprit in shopping cart abandonment.
This year, 88% of online shoppers said they have abandoned a cart, up from 81% last year. Among those shoppers, the top reason given for abandoning their cart was that shipping costs made the total purchase cost more than expected (54%). In fact, when considering the options they consider important in the check-out process, 76% of respondents overall (who were required to make a minimum of 2 online purchases in a 3-month period) cited free shipping options. That was (predictably, at this point) the top response. Read the rest at MarketingCharts.
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