Quote Shipping Cost and Sales Tax Upfront to Boost Conversion
Allowing customers to determine shipping and sales tax before clicking checkout eliminates surprises and has been proven to increase conversions by up to 40%. This also increases online shopper satisfaction and encourages repeat customer business. Do not frustrate shoppers by waiting to disclose the shipping and sales tax costs until the final page in the checkout process. As a merchant, your goal should be to inform customers about shipping and handling costs as early as possible so that they feel comfortable ordering from your site. You should also ensure that all relevant shipping policies are placed in a prominent location in your store so visitors can review these policies anytime.
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For Existing Nexternal Merchants:
By default, Nexternal’s ECommerce Platform is configured to quote upfront shipping cost and sales tax in the onscreen shopping cart. If you system is not currently configured this way, you can enable that feature in Settings/Edit Boolean Options/Check Cart Calculator. You can also plug in your shipping policy by navigating to Settings/Edit Policies, Addenda and Disclaimers/Shipping Policy.
After receiving a degree in Industrial Engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Alex began his career as a technology consultant with Accenture. In 1999 he left Accenture and founded Nexternal – a cloud-based eCommerce Platform company. Alex is passionate about eCommerce and online marketing. He is now a Senior Vice President of HighJump, managing the Nexternal business unit.
