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We're building a tool that discloses shipping prices AND delivery dates up front, as soon as you add a product to the Cart. Here's a popular site that uses it:

We're building a tool that discloses shipping prices AND delivery dates up front, as soon as you add a product to the Cart. Here's a popular site that uses it: http://store.hufworldwide.com/ http://store.hufworldwide.com/ Let me know what you think...

mdrzn 10y ago
Very cool! It fetches Geolocation from the IP. But the site says $15 (Intl), your shipping price says $29.60
- prakster 10y ago
  Should be fine now. I think they were making some changes around the time you saw that aberration.
ggggtez 10y ago
What, no. Tell me before I add to the cart, right in the product description page. What kind of draconian world do I live in that I would need to add to the cart to compare prices.
- nimish 10y ago
  Shipping costs are not linear so they can only really be estimated from the entire cart
  - teej 10y ago
    Then figure out how to bring the cart context to the product page in order to be able to say "Shipping will be +$2 if you add this to cart"
    - greenshackle2 10y ago
      I imagine this could slow down the page noticeably, if you have to hit the shipper's api for every product. EDIT: sibling comment pointed out, the origin warehouse may be unknown until you have the full order. so now you're figuring out which warehouse you'd hypothetically ship from if the customer bought each product on the page.
- paulmd 10y ago
  Shipping(A+B) is typically less than Shipping(A) + Shipping(B). In most cases shipping is a cost that's associated with an order, not with the item. It makes sense to show it in the shopping cart.
  - rhapsodic 10y ago
    > Shipping(A+B) is typically less than Shipping(A) + Shipping(B). In most cases shipping is a cost that's associated with an order, not with the item. That's true, but they could provide the marginal shipping cost of an item before it's added to the cart: Shipping(currentCartContents + thisItem) - Shipping(currentCartContents) In many cases the marginal shipping cost would be 0.
    - Programmatic 10y ago
      I think the solution would be to create a system where: 1) we have a minimum amount to hit before the marginal shipping cost is $0, 2) build the shipping cost into our margins, and 3) advertise that the marginal cost is $0.
      - Jemmeh 10y ago
        So basically Amazon's free shipping deal. Prime items if you're not a prime member over a certain $ amount gets free shipping.
        Programmatic 10y ago
        ;)
    - paulmd 10y ago
      Well, that's confusing too. If you show a shipping cost on the item, your average consumer would expect that they could buy just that item for that shipping price. After all, doesn't everyone hate the Amazon Add-On Program for exactly that reason? It's Prime but not really Prime. What if you have multiple tabs open? If you add another product in the meantime then the shipping cost quoted would be totally inaccurate. Could be too high, could also be too low depending on how your order crosses the weight/size thresholds. Also, that would mean that you have to total up the weights and hit the shipping API for every single page request. Right now you usually only get an icon that tells you "3 items in cart", sometimes not even that much. If you have multiple warehouses this gets even more complex, you essentially have an NP-complete optimization problem. That may not even be possible to do in real time, let alone on every page load. I just disagree in general over the value of the feature here. There is a lot of potential for misinformation and confusion, and consumers are already trained that they go to the shopping cart to get the shipping price. The shopping cart (the order) is the quantum used for shipping costs and it makes sense to put it there. Again, to echo others, I hate sites that make me log in and go through the checkout process to get a shipping cost. But there's nothing wrong with going to the shopping cart and typing in my ZIP.
- StavrosK 10y ago
  Look at the actual flow, it's not too bad, and it calculates shipping on your entire cart, not just the one item (which is what users want).
fnbr 10y ago
That's a fantastic tool. As a consumer, I love that. Good luck- I'd love to see that on the sites that I shop on.
pravda 10y ago
I think anyone who pays $32 for a T-shirt, whether free shipping or not, is an idiot. But then again I might not be the target market.
- wnevets 10y ago
  I must be an idiot then.
  - pravda 10y ago
    Didn't mean to offend, but you can find them for orders of magnitude cheaper! https://www.amazon.com/Fruit-Loom-6-Pack-Tucked-T-Shirt/dp/B00VTV7E5S https://www.amazon.com/Fruit-Loom-6-Pack-Tucked-T-Shirt/dp/B... 6-pack for 12. That's $2 each, which is 4 (log 2) orders of magnitude less then $32.
    - joe5150 10y ago
      I wear these types of shirts under other shirts, and I think they're priced correctly for basically being underwear, but I would be very surprised to find a $2 t-shirt that's good for more than that.

mdrzn 10y ago

Very cool! It fetches Geolocation from the IP. But the site says $15 (Intl), your shipping price says $29.60

prakster 10y ago
Should be fine now. I think they were making some changes around the time you saw that aberration.

ggggtez 10y ago

What, no. Tell me before I add to the cart, right in the product description page. What kind of draconian world do I live in that I would need to add to the cart to compare prices.

nimish 10y ago
Shipping costs are not linear so they can only really be estimated from the entire cart
- teej 10y ago
  Then figure out how to bring the cart context to the product page in order to be able to say "Shipping will be +$2 if you add this to cart"
  - greenshackle2 10y ago
    I imagine this could slow down the page noticeably, if you have to hit the shipper's api for every product. EDIT: sibling comment pointed out, the origin warehouse may be unknown until you have the full order. so now you're figuring out which warehouse you'd hypothetically ship from if the customer bought each product on the page.
paulmd 10y ago
Shipping(A+B) is typically less than Shipping(A) + Shipping(B). In most cases shipping is a cost that's associated with an order, not with the item. It makes sense to show it in the shopping cart.
- rhapsodic 10y ago
  > Shipping(A+B) is typically less than Shipping(A) + Shipping(B). In most cases shipping is a cost that's associated with an order, not with the item. That's true, but they could provide the marginal shipping cost of an item before it's added to the cart: Shipping(currentCartContents + thisItem) - Shipping(currentCartContents) In many cases the marginal shipping cost would be 0.
  - Programmatic 10y ago
    I think the solution would be to create a system where: 1) we have a minimum amount to hit before the marginal shipping cost is $0, 2) build the shipping cost into our margins, and 3) advertise that the marginal cost is $0.
    - Jemmeh 10y ago
      So basically Amazon's free shipping deal. Prime items if you're not a prime member over a certain $ amount gets free shipping.
      - Programmatic 10y ago
        ;)
  - paulmd 10y ago
    Well, that's confusing too. If you show a shipping cost on the item, your average consumer would expect that they could buy just that item for that shipping price. After all, doesn't everyone hate the Amazon Add-On Program for exactly that reason? It's Prime but not really Prime. What if you have multiple tabs open? If you add another product in the meantime then the shipping cost quoted would be totally inaccurate. Could be too high, could also be too low depending on how your order crosses the weight/size thresholds. Also, that would mean that you have to total up the weights and hit the shipping API for every single page request. Right now you usually only get an icon that tells you "3 items in cart", sometimes not even that much. If you have multiple warehouses this gets even more complex, you essentially have an NP-complete optimization problem. That may not even be possible to do in real time, let alone on every page load. I just disagree in general over the value of the feature here. There is a lot of potential for misinformation and confusion, and consumers are already trained that they go to the shopping cart to get the shipping price. The shopping cart (the order) is the quantum used for shipping costs and it makes sense to put it there. Again, to echo others, I hate sites that make me log in and go through the checkout process to get a shipping cost. But there's nothing wrong with going to the shopping cart and typing in my ZIP.
StavrosK 10y ago
Look at the actual flow, it's not too bad, and it calculates shipping on your entire cart, not just the one item (which is what users want).

fnbr 10y ago

That's a fantastic tool. As a consumer, I love that. Good luck- I'd love to see that on the sites that I shop on.

pravda 10y ago

I think anyone who pays $32 for a T-shirt, whether free shipping or not, is an idiot. But then again I might not be the target market.

wnevets 10y ago
I must be an idiot then.
- pravda 10y ago
  Didn't mean to offend, but you can find them for orders of magnitude cheaper! https://www.amazon.com/Fruit-Loom-6-Pack-Tucked-T-Shirt/dp/B00VTV7E5S https://www.amazon.com/Fruit-Loom-6-Pack-Tucked-T-Shirt/dp/B... 6-pack for 12. That's $2 each, which is 4 (log 2) orders of magnitude less then $32.
  - joe5150 10y ago
    I wear these types of shirts under other shirts, and I think they're priced correctly for basically being underwear, but I would be very surprised to find a $2 t-shirt that's good for more than that.