For nearly half of millennials, free shipping turns a maybe purchase into a must. For retailers, it pays off to offer free shipping up front so customers faced with exorbitant delivery fees at checkout don't decide to cancel altogether. More like this:. Food delivery orders in Canada increased substantially amid the pandemic. Click and collect is gaining momentum amid pandemic.

Retailers’ average threshold to offer free shipping rose 13% year over year (YoY), while the percentage of orders they shipped for free declined 9% YoY. Perhaps because higher shipping costs kept order volumes in check, the average click-to-door times for ecommerce orders fared surprisingly well.

Free Shipping Day and Late-Season Shopping. Free Shipping Day, an industrywide promotion with over 300 retailers offering free shipping deals, will occur on Monday, December 14. This year, it will happen amid surging demand and volumes for which the country’s logistics infrastructure hasn’t been stress-tested.

The new loyalty program undercuts the price of Prime membership at $98 annually, offering perks like unlimited free shipping on orders of at least $35, in-store scan-and-go to skip checkout, and discounts on gas.

eMarketer principal analyst Andrew Lipsman and senior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Cindy Liu speak about innovations in ecommerce and how technology is creating a frictionless experience for online shoppers. They discuss the jump from fast to free shipping, what drone deliveries could potentially look like, and dive into the many facets of click and collect. They also explain the downsides of frictionless commerce and how businesses can overcome those hurdles.

As powerhouses like Amazon, Walmart and Target roll out same-day or one-day shipping initiatives, it can be difficult for smaller retailers to keep up. But with the holiday season around the corner, it’s important for retailers to understand that while fast shipping is a key consideration, free shipping is often a requirement.

But free shipping and easy returns are must-haves

Shopify estimated that 75% of digital retailers it monitored in those markets and and five other countries outside Europe offered free shipping between March and September 2020, to maintain competitiveness during the pandemic. But Shopify did note that many retailers and brands now set minimum spend thresholds that qualify for free shipping, or offer it only to members of loyalty programs.

According to a January 2020 survey by Convey, a logistics software provider, the top reason that US internet users shop at Amazon is fast and free shipping (79.8%), even outpacing broad selection (68.9%) and best pricing (49.2%).

Retailers’ average threshold to offer free shipping rose by 13% year over year (YoY), while the percentage of orders they shipped for free declined by 9% YoY. Perhaps because higher shipping costs kept order volumes in check, the average click-to-door times for ecommerce orders fared surprisingly well.

US digital sales of food and beverages from restaurants soared 123.8% last year, per eMarketer estimates. This massive increase was the result of more consumers using delivery services like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub amid lockdowns and restaurant closures.