#20 - Ensure That Shipping and Return Policies Are Simple and Easy To Find

This is my series of 30 brief interactive marketing tips. I’m posting each business day at 8:30 a.m. EST. Catch them all by subscribing to my blog or bookmarking the site. All of the posts will be tagged “30 interactive marketing tips” and listed on this page.

#20 - Ensure That Shipping and Return Policies Are Simple and Easy To Find
Prospects may be wary of the hidden costs of a purchase or uneasy about how to return items when they’re unsatisfied. Anticipate these concerns by making your policies easy to find and customer friendly. Here are a few ideas:

1.) Offer a shipping estimator based on zip code as part of your shopping cart. If this is too complex for your site, list your shipping rates below the main part of the shopping cart.

2.) Include prominent links to shipping and return policies in the Help, About Us and/or Customer Service sections of your site.

3.) For returns, clearly spell out all of the important elements: how long the customer has to return the item, under what conditions, how the process works, how refunds are offered and how fast, the amount of restocking fees are assessed, how in-store returns are handled, etc.

4.) If you’re offering free shipping, say so loud and clear. Just remember, not all free shipping offers are created equal.

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• Ecommerce Tip #4 - Improve Your Shipping Policy
• Ecommerce Tip #5 - Write a Less Sucky Return Policy
• Warning: Not All Free Shipping Offers Are Created Equally
• 15 Days to More Profitable Ecommerce
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