You could be losing art sales if you have not thought about your shipping costs. There is no question that shipping costs affect art sales.
How Shipping Costs Affect Art Sales
Are you frustrated with customers contacting you about your shipping costs? The reality is that people do not like to pay for shipping. It is very easy for shoppers to research what online store has the best prices and lowest shipping costs.
Can shipping costs affect art sales? Yes! Your shipping costs could affect your sales in a positive or negative way. If your shipping costs are too high you will potentially lose sales. If your shipping costs are too low you might sell more art but you have a chance or it eating away at your profits if you are not careful.
Four Shipping Options To Consider
Here some options to consider when you are deciding your shipping cost strategy. Every artist will have different needs, so find what will work best for your business. Keep in mind that shipping costs affect art sales, so take some time to think what will work best for you.
Calculated Shipping Costs
Calculated shipping costs charge the shopper a calculated shipping cost depending on location. What your shipping service charges for the shipping will be what the buyer will pay plus any shipping and handling fees you might include.
There are plugins for WordPress that will calculate the shipping costs for you. When the buyer goes to the checkout page and types in their address, the calculator will provide the shipping costs.
The farther that a buyer lives from you, the higher the shipping costs will be. The high shipping cost could discourage the buyers that live farther away from you.
Flat Rate Shipping
Flat rate shipping is when you have a set price for everyone to pay. This works well if you live in the middle of the country.
If you live on the East coast like I do, flat rate shipping might not be the best option.
Shipping to California is a lot more expensive than to ship to Boston. No matter what price that I set would not be best for either me or the customers.
For example:
I set the flat rate shipping cost to twenty dollars.
For me to ship to Boston, I would pay the shipping service ten dollars. People from the Boston area would be over priced and this could damage my business name. They would know that they were overcharged and probable would not purchase from me again.
For me to ship to California I would pay the shipping service thirty-five dollars. People from around California would be happy with the shipping costs but it would be lowering my profits.
Free Shipping
Free shipping is what will make your customers the happiest. Everyone loves free shipping.
There are two things that you will need to consider if you offer free shipping.
The first thing that you will want to consider is if you would need to add the shipping costs with the price of the artwork. You need to be careful not to overprice your artwork too much. It will not matter to the customers if you offer free shipping if your prices are too high to begin with. You will need to find the happy medium.
The second thing that you will need to consider is if you are planning on shipping internationally. If you are you might want to state that free shipping is only for US Residents. International orders must contact the artist for shipping costs.
Free Shipping With Purchases Over A Certain Amount
This plan works well for online sites that are interested in receiving multiple sales. Most art collectors will only purchase one item at a time.
Conclusion:
Shipping costs will be the difference between a sale or no sale. You will want to think about what will be the best plan for you and your customers.
Every artist will have a different situation depending on where you live and how much weight that your artwork weighs.
Research other artists that are selling similar products and see what is working for them.
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