Threshold free shipping policies for internet shoppers

Wen-Hsien Huang and Yi-Ching Cheng

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2015, vol. 82, issue C, 193-203

Abstract: This study examines how consumers evaluate and respond to two economically equivalent but different forms of threshold free shipping (TFS) policy: piece-based or dollar-based (e.g., Regular: $25; free shipping on orders of “4 items” as opposed to “$100”) offered by an online store. We first demonstrate that a piece-based TFS will result in a higher intention to shop than a dollar-based TFS. However, this effect is attenuated when information about the shipping charge is present (e.g., “$4.99 flat rate shipping. Free shipping on orders of ___”) or when the time restriction for the TFS policy is short (e.g., “today only”). Finally, the effect of the TFS policy on intention to shop is shown to be mediated by the consumer’s evaluation of the offer. The observations have important implications for internet retailers.

Keywords: Threshold free shipping; Numerosity heuristic; Shipping charge; Time restriction; Offer evaluation; Intention to shop (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856415002499
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:transa:v:82:y:2015:i:c:p:193-203

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2015.09.015

Access Statistics for this article

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice is currently edited by John (J.M.) Rose

More articles in Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().