Why is shipping so expensive?

Not sure where a discussion about shipping rates would go lol.

Nevertheless, ever felt like some places charged way too much for shipping? On Amazon, I'll buy something like a t-shirt for $20 and the shipping is always $4.95 but then if I go to another store online to find the same shirt for $5 cheaper, the shipping is like almost $10. >.>

I think the better question is: why is everything so expensive?

But I take it shipping costs are based on the companies' ability to actually ship the stuff. The packaging costs money, you have to pay the people who deliver it, etc. Then there's the fact that it may be coming from somewhere far away, or there's multiple steps involved in their order processing that eat up more money.

Or something like that.

Whoa whoa whoa. Think about it. You spend 2-3 bucks on delivery for pizza. They drive 20 minutes, usually less, to bring it to you. Meanwhile, products we order online often come from at least halfway across the country, by plane and by truck and then finally by the delivery person that brings it to your doorstep so you never have to even leave your house...and we value that at 'overpriced' when it's 10 bucks?

Shipping is also pretty expensive because a lot of online companies will generally have flat rates based on your country or state/province, even if some places are much easier to deliver to than others. So even if you live right next-door to the post office you're probably slightly subsidizing anyone who lives on a remote mountain in the middle of a forest in the same region. :P Also a lot of places like to lure you in with cheap products and charge more than is necessary for shipping to make up for the lost profit on the item itself, I bet.

Shipping costs do suck though. I remember once I was sending the same size/weight package to a friend in Australia as a friend within my same province and it was several dollars cheaper to send the package to Australia than to my friend a few hours away. Like... what...???? Canada Post is terrible for shipping costs. :'(

Oryx said:

Whoa whoa whoa. Think about it. You spend 2-3 bucks on delivery for pizza. They drive 20 minutes, usually less, to bring it to you. Meanwhile, products we order online often come from at least halfway across the country, by plane and by truck and then finally by the delivery person that brings it to your doorstep so you never have to even leave your house...and we value that at 'overpriced' when it's 10 bucks?

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Because the same item is also shipped to a retailer nearby and when you buy from there you're not paying shipping. That's why shipping's annoying. I can pay more for delayed convenience or just... go over there.

TRIFORCE89 said:

Because the same item is also shipped to a retailer nearby and when you buy from there you're not paying shipping. That's why shipping's annoying. I can pay more for delayed convenience or just... go over there.

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For some things, in some places. :) Plenty of people don't live near a store that sells what they need and that's why they turn to online. If you don't want to pay shipping fees, going to the store is totally your prerogative, if it's an option. I feel even less sympathy for people that are ordering something they can drive to get easily and are then complaining about fees - if you really care, go pick it up! I at least feel a little sympathy for those that can't get the shirt they want in person because it's online-only or convention-only or a specialty store or they live in a rural area.

I actually am surprised how cheap shipping prices are! Half my purchases from Amazon are free, with two day shipping. That seems insanely fair.

Even a 5 dollar shipment cost would be fair considering the distance a package must travel.

This is one service that has really come through for consumers with bulk transportation and highly organized routing with UPS and Fedex. Even USPS has cheap shipment options.

Send no faux-sympathy my way. I avoid/minimize shipping fees whenever possible :P


Anyway, Amazon can offer cheap/free shipping because of their business model and how they handle logistics. They have distribution centres across the continent. This lessens their reliance on carriers to your address for the long haul. Subscriptions to Prime also offset costs

Shipping when lowered on your end is absorbed by the retailer generally. I work in eCommerce. We have many clients who use Canada Post, for instance, but use different rates than the live rate (often lower and flat). Someone still has to pay that difference in the end, even if it isn't you. It's more difficult for a smaller/local/independent retailer to offer that than a mega store like Amazon

Depends how far, the item, and then whatever company it's being shipped under. The starting rates to some companies is higher than others because they can.

Lol also amazon can be a little *****. I've seen items that are a dollar to order, but then the shipping fee is 10 dollars

Shipping rates depend on the country I guess, i.e. how far the seller is from your country.

Amazon is a tricky one. The US website offers free shipping to Singapore for purchases over $125 USD, provided they're fulfilled by Amazon themselves. Otherwise, shipping rates are somewhat affordable (about US$8 - 15) - besides video games if you can even ship them. However, third party sellers are a totally different story. I helped friends ship a US$13.99 Spigen Case for their new iPhones, but the shipping starts from an atrocious US$36 via USPS International.

But all in all, I think we perceive shipping rates to be expensive mainly because the product itself is less expensive than the cost of shipment.

I don't care how much shipping is - if I can get something from overseas that isn't available in my country, well, that's just the wonder of the modern world, isn't it? I'll pay any price to live in that world.