The Real Cost of Free Shipping for E-commerce Sellers
"Free shipping" is never actually free. Someone always pays for it, and too often it's your margin. In this article, cost analyst Mohamed Amin breaks down the hidden costs behind free shipping offers and shows how to price them into your products without scaring away customers.
How to Price Shipping Into Your Products
Start by calculating your true average shipping cost per order, including packaging and a realistic return rate. Then build that number into your product price or set a free-shipping threshold that protects your margin, such as offering it only on orders above a certain value. Customers love the words "free shipping," so the goal is not to remove it, but to make sure it is quietly paid for before the order is ever placed.
