More online stores in Switzerland always offer free delivery

It’s not uncommon for online shoppers in Switzerland to pay a shipping fee for their online order. This year, free shipping is, just like in previous years, still the exception. Less than a fifth of the top-selling online stores in Switzerland send orders without any shipping costs.

The ecommerce experts of Carpathia.ch have examined and compared the shipping and return options and conditions of the 50 online shops in Switzerland with the highest turnover.

More online stores offering free shipping

In general, there are now more online stores offering free shipping than a year ago, with 6 percent offering free delivery. But the number of online retailers that always charge shipping fees has also increased, by 2 percentage points, compared to last year.

Fashion retailers often ship for free

The study shows that free shipping can be found most in the online fashion industry. Here, every third online retailer doesn’t charge any shipping fees. But in the product categories ‘Lifestyle & Hobby’ and ‘Body & Taste’, none of the retailers ship for free as a standard. But, there are some ecommerce websites that deliver for free when the order value reaches a certain minimum.

Carpathia also looked at the threshold at which an order is sent free of charge. This is the highest in the Body & Taste sector, at an average of 225 Swiss francs or 194 euros. In the Lifestyle & Hobby category, there is even an online retailer who doesn’t offer free shipping based on a certain cart value, but rather on the category of products shoppers buy.

Return conditions of Swiss online stores

The Swiss ecommerce blog also examined the return conditions from the top 50 online stores. Home & Living is clearly the sector with the longest return period, 81 days, followed by Fashion & Accessories with 21 days.

The study further shows that next-day delivery isn’t really the norm in Switzerland. Only in the Body & Taste sector, delivery on the following day is offered by nearly two-thirds of online retailers. And almost 40 percent of the shops offer click & collect, so consumers can pick up their orders in-store or at another pickup point.