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Vintage and secondhand shops are less likely to offer free shipping because they can’t absorb the costs. Are you really saving money if you find an alternative that does? We dig into why we need to change our collective stigma about paying for shipping
Picture this: you’re trawling search engine results, looking for the final piece to complete your collection.
Maybe it’s a Pyrex Gooseberry mixing bowl, or a unique brass animal, or the missing book in a beloved childhood set.
Whatever it is, you suddenly spot it in your search results. Yay! You add the item to your cart, already picturing where you’ll display this item for all to see. You hit the checkout button, enter your address, and … a shipping fee appears under your order total.
This shipping fee might cause you to pause for a minute. You might even abandon your cart and return to the search engine to hunt for a similar item from a seller who offers free shipping. If so, you’re not alone: 2024 data released by FedEx shows that 57 per cent of shoppers prioritize free shipping when buying online.
The concept of free shipping isn’t all that far removed from the toxic cycle of fast fashion.
The idea that heavy boxes full of stuff could be mailed across cities or even continents for free promotes mindless overconsumption, drives down wages and generates waste.
And unfortunately, the relentless desire for free shipping is damaging to buyers and sellers alike.
Today, we’re uncovering the truth about shipping costs, because it’s time to rethink our “free shipping” mentality.
Amazon launched as a bookseller in the mid-1990s and emerged from the dot-com boom of the late ’90s as a fully-fledged online retailer of everything from batteries and diapers to flat-screen TVs and video game consoles.
Other big-box retailers launched online platforms around the same time: Target launched their online store in 1999 and Walmart premiered walmart.com in 2000, all with the goal of reaching as many customers as possible, regardless of whether they lived near a store or not.
In 2002, Amazon introduced Free Super Saver Shipping for orders over $99, which quickly dropped to $49, then $25. The concept of free shipping quickly caught on, and consumers soon became accustomed to shopping online and receiving their items quickly and cheaply without ever having to set foot in a store.
The psychology of free shipping is straightforward: if a consumer believes that they’re saving money, they are more likely to buy an item, even if the price of that item is artificially inflated to account for the shipping costs.
A whopping 81 per cent of shoppers are willing to add items to their order to meet a shop’s free shipping minimum.
Shoppers will overlook a range of negative consequences when opting for free shipping, because there’s no perceived glory in paying for shipping when free shipping exists.
“The challenge that we have in the 21st century [is that] we’re celebrating not how much we spent, but how little we spent,” says Paco Underhill, environmental psychologist and author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping.
According to Shopify, one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms, “Customers expect free shipping and super-fast delivery, and if those perks are not on offer, they’re happy to walk away.”
Companies aren’t offering free shipping out of the goodness of their hearts: it’s a calculated move designed to entice shoppers to spend more money while believing that they got a good deal.
Let’s consider the labour involved in getting a package from Point A to B. A partial list might include:
Free shipping is pushing this supply and logistics chain to the breaking point.
It’s simple: all of the workers listed above have to get paid, and the money to cover costs has to come from somewhere.
Free shipping drives down the wages across the shipping industry, because there’s less money to go around.
Meanwhile, if the shipping cost isn’t paid up front by the consumer, then it’s coming out of the retailer’s bottom line, so the store will increase their prices to pass the cost on to the customer.
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Vintage and secondhand resellers put an immense amount of time, money and effort into curating their collections.
When you purchase a vintage item online, the item cost usually includes a markup to cover the costs of running a small business, including:
For a vintage seller to offer free shipping, this markup also has to include secondhand shipping costs, such as:
In most cases, it’s impossible to fully absorb the cost of shipping into the price of the item, meaning that small business owners have to dip into their profits to cover these costs. Lower profit margins = less cashflow to buy new inventory, pay website fees or keep the lights on.
It’s not just affecting small businesses, either: prices are on the rise across the board, from parts for the car you drive to the groceries you buy to feed your family. If your wallet is hurting these days, “free” shipping may be to blame.
Beyond the financial cost, free shipping also has a huge environmental impact:
Free shipping is clearly taking a toll on our wallets and our planet. With all of this in mind, what can we do to get out of the free shipping mindset?
According to 2022 Statistics Canada data, more than 50 per cent of Canadian businesses have fewer than four employees.
When you shop vintage and resale, you’re supporting small businesses that employ local folks, pay good wages and put money back into their local economies. In the end, isn’t that what we want?
It is possible to practice mindful consumerism in a world that is constantly dangling the carrot of cheap goods and free delivery. The next time you’re buying from a small business and spot a shipping fee at checkout, pause and ask yourself these questions:
If you’ve answered YES to these questions, then congratulations: you’ve successfully reframed your free shipping mindset. Proceed with your order and display your new purchase with pride!
If you need a little more convincing, we get it. Check out this post for a deep-dive on the cost of shipping vintage items: Shipping 101: Six Things to Know When Online Vintage Shopping.
And if you’re a reseller, fear not: with a little creativity, it is possible to reduce your shipping costs and pass these savings on to your customers. Read more about that here in our article 15 Ways for Resellers to Reduce Shipping Costs.
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Sarah Israel is a freelance writer and vintage seller in Ontario.
