Shopzilla Adds “Free Shipping” Label to Listings

Our colleague within CPC Strategy made this interesting discovery while browsing for summer dresses over at Shopzilla–who apparently have recently added a label title “free shipping” embedded between the merchant name and their price for merchants who qualify to do so.

What does this mean for merchants?

It essentially gives merchants a great option to make sure that their products aren’t overlooked when it comes to the saturated search terms, such as, summer dresses.

Perhaps you want to promote a special line of products of yours that aren’t converting very well and doesn’t cost too much to ship–why not consider offering it for free? Shipping costs are essentially seen as a tax to a customer that he/she has to pay for the convenience of shopping online, and many consumers are as drawn to the phrase “free shipping” as they would be to say “tax free” at a brick & mortar store.

Merchants that are worried about a loss in their bottom line by offering free shipping may even see an increase in overall sales by raising their prices proportionally to what it would cost to ship an item, as the barrier of shipping costs once overcome may be enough to convince a potential customer to shop with you.

After all, when making a purchasing decision online there are few things that will draw more eyeballs than the word “free”–even if it ends up costing something.

It’s commercialism at its best.