Some retailers require you to start the checkout process find how how much shipping (and possibly tax) will cost. When I am shopping around for something, I'll

Some retailers require you to start the checkout process find how how much shipping (and possibly tax) will cost. When I am shopping around for something, I'll often go partway through the checkout process just to get a cost I can compare with other retailers. Even worse, some retailers (occasionally Amazon) require you to add something to your cart to see the sale price, which presumably they aren't allowed to "advertise." I'd bet that very few of these lost sales are really lost sales. Either some other retailer got the customer's business or the customer decided not to purchase from anywhere.