3 ms·

I’d assume parent’s point is regarding the “which is ridiculous because e-commerce storefronts should do that in the first place without going through the whole

by hrktb 6y ago

I’d assume parent’s point is regarding the “which is ridiculous because e-commerce storefronts should do that in the first place without going through the whole checkout process.” part. There’s a lot of legitimate case were showing shipping price upfront is just not doable or valuable to the customer. BTW there are a surprising amount of shops for specialized goods that won’t even list the final price at the end. The customer places an order, and they update it with a finalized price after a human looks at the content, and from there the customer is free to pay the transaction or give up the order.

zoomablemind 6y ago
Even the Y2K-style ecommerce stores usually had a separate S&H section for some guidance. These days the H part (handling) seems less in vogue (perhaps still common on ebay), while S part is pretty predictable if not free. It's the T (taxes) part that may be still a tipping point these days, but it's just between vendor and your state,
- hrktb 6y ago
  We are in agreement that there needs to be explanation on what's going on, and not just "we'll set some price yon won't know why". In my experience, the most fluctuations were on international shipping by small vendors. Lego bricks for instance, where it makes a big difference if you request 5 small pieces that weight 20g total and can wait 3 months, or if it's 500+g in a middle sized box and you want it in 2 days. Even with average indication on what to expect, depending on the combination you are requesting the vendor might use a different carrier, different shipping method and so on. They could make it more simple with a range of arbitrary standard fees, but then it costs a lot more to the customer, putting the vendor at a disadvantage price wise. In particular people have visceral reactions to overly high shipping prices.

by hrktb 6y ago

zoomablemind 6y ago

Even the Y2K-style ecommerce stores usually had a separate S&H section for some guidance. These days the H part (handling) seems less in vogue (perhaps still common on ebay), while S part is pretty predictable if not free. It's the T (taxes) part that may be still a tipping point these days, but it's just between vendor and your state,

hrktb 6y ago
We are in agreement that there needs to be explanation on what's going on, and not just "we'll set some price yon won't know why". In my experience, the most fluctuations were on international shipping by small vendors. Lego bricks for instance, where it makes a big difference if you request 5 small pieces that weight 20g total and can wait 3 months, or if it's 500+g in a middle sized box and you want it in 2 days. Even with average indication on what to expect, depending on the combination you are requesting the vendor might use a different carrier, different shipping method and so on. They could make it more simple with a range of arbitrary standard fees, but then it costs a lot more to the customer, putting the vendor at a disadvantage price wise. In particular people have visceral reactions to overly high shipping prices.