Free Shipping and Online Shopping Statistics

The following statistics are related to free shipping and may help you write a story about free shipping or FreeShipping.org.

• 61% of consumers will likely cancel their entire purchase if free shipping isn't offered.
• 49% of transactions in 2010 included free shipping.
• 23% increase in traffic for retailers offering free shipping promotions.
• Transactions including free shipping rose from 45.6% in 2009 to 55.1% in 2010.
• 57.5% of merchants offered free shipping without conditions during the 2010 holiday season.
• 7% of the top 100 retailers offered free shipping at some point during the 2010 holiday season, up from 4% in 2009.
• 23% of shoppers said "high shipping costs" discouraged them from making online purchases.
• 78% of online customers said prohibitive costs of shipping discouraged them from online purchases.
• 75% of people prefer to shop with online retailers that offer free shipping, compared to 61% in 2007.
• 43% of shoppers abandon their shopping carts because of unexpectedly high shipping charges.
• Nearly 60% of respondents said free shipping was a “very important” factor in their decision to shop online.
• 61 of the largest 100 online retailers offered free shipping as of the week of Monday, Nov. 10, 2008.
• 60% of respondents indicated that free shipping was a reason they were more likely to shop online.
• 90% of respondents said free shipping offers would entice them to spend more online.
• 72% of consumers said that if an e-commerce site eliminated free shipping, they would use another e-commerce site that did offer free shipping.

Sources:

• Comscore, May 2011
• Internet Retailer, 2010
• Consumer Reports Survey, February 2011
• E-tailing Group, 2008
• Forrester Research, 2008
• Paypal, comScore, 2008
• BIGresearch Survey
• Harris Interactive Survey, 2008
• The Conference Board Survey, 2008
• comScore Survey, 2008