For a well capitalized company that can afford to take well-researched risks, you're absolutely right. But shipping costs for some retailers can be $1 at the fi

For a well capitalized company that can afford to take well-researched risks, you're absolutely right. But shipping costs for some retailers can be $1 at the first percentile and >$100 as low as the 80th percentile. Any shipping pricing strategy that is purely policy or rule based has to have a very well analyzed foundation to it, or you risk wiping out your profitability with even a handful of poorly predicted purchases. Smaller retailers have a hard enough time pricing their products, let alone pricing their products under consideration of all of the possible shipping costs they could possibly face. So in the end they just defer on shipping price by passing it off to the customer.