Difficult Numbers to Quantify
Donna Feldman, a business coach, also spread the word. It truly became a grassroots community movement, with word of mouth sharing made easier by Twitter.
While 2,582 companies registered on FreeShippingDay.com, there were untold numbers who did not sign up but still participated. Participating through the official website brought small businesses an extra oomph of publicity.
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Love the positive press and let’s hope that some of that money got down to SMBs, not just the big ecoommerce sites.
How big part is the shipping of the total amount of online sales? Do you have a general rule of thumb as a percentage figure? Adlibris is an online book (in the Nordic countries) seller that is giving away free shipping as standard practice. They have done it for a long time, as an extra value included in the general business transaction.
So, did Free Shipping Day help small businesses? I am not sure we will have hard proof of it one way or the other, anytime soon.
It’s hard to tell the exact dollar benefits for small businesses. Large corporations report their sales for a variety of reasons — not the least of which is that some companies are public and so report their numbers for analysts and legal reasons. It’s much harder to get data for a large group of small businesses. I think we’re reduced to looking at blogs and case studies after the fact – to see if any retailers report successes.
Or we’ll see the impact indirectly next year, if this thing grows in 2012.