Because you’re an artist on the Art Storefronts platform and you’re selling items that you must fulfill, you’re going to have to think about shipping.
This can be one of the trickiest and time-consuming parts of setting up your website, however, we have a solution for you that will also double as a marketing tool for you.
To get the ball rolling and get your site live ASAP, we strongly suggest that you just offer free shipping on your products on your site. We know it sounds crazy but hear us out! Calculating the cost of shipping for your items is so difficult. Dimensional shipping is tough to calculate and you’re never going to be able to get it 100% right, so instead, just offer it as free.
You may be asking, “How do I offer free shipping and avoid taking a bath?” The answer is simple. Do what Amazon does and offer free shipping.
First, “Free Shipping” is one of the most powerful marketing weapons there is.
Amazon has used this weapon better than anyone to build a company that is approaching One Trillion in market value. The idea of “Prime” and free shipping came from a lengthy customer study that Amazon conducted that showed that the number one thing that bothered customers was being charged for shipping. Eliminate this, and you get customers happily coming back for more.
If you offer Free Shipping, you can (and should) display this loud and proud all over your website and everywhere else you sell where customers can see it. If you have a retail storefront, or you sell at art fairs, make sure this is loud and clear.
Second, it is dead simple to manage. Just figure out what percentage you want to charge for shipping and apply it to your prices.
If you are new to shipping, you may need to do some tweaking over a couple of months to find your sweet spot percentage that you want to apply. But overall, we believe that the combination of simplicity, saved time and headache, and the marketing benefit is the most powerful approach you can take.
So, keeping all of this in mind, you may want to know what the easiest way to advertise your free shipping is. An Announcement Bar at the top of the site is the best and easiest way to do this, so we’ll show you how to set one up.
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Use the Announcement Bar
Make sure you are logged in to your Art Storefronts Control Panel. This is sometimes called the back-end of the site or the Site Manager. All three of these mean the exact same thing.
When you’re sure you’re logged in, find the tab labeled HEADER & FOOTER and then go ahead and click on it.
After you’ve clicked on HEADER & FOOTER, you’ll be taken to a new page and there’s a tab titled ANNOUNCEMENT BAR that you need to click on. If you don’t click on ANNOUNCEMENT BAR, you won’t be able to complete this process.
The first thing on the page is Display and you need to go ahead and set it to Yes.
Should Appear After this Delay (in Seconds) should be set to 0, because you’re going to want this to appear immediately.
Should Remain Fixed at Top (Except on Mobile) can be set to Yes or No. This is something you want to decide about on your own. If it’s set to Yes, the Announcement Bar will scroll down the page as the customer scrolls. If set to No, it will remain stationary.
The Content box is up next, and here, you can put in messaging that says something like “FREE SHIPPING ON EVERY SINGLE ORDER!”
Once that’s done, click the Save. DO NOT CLICK THE BACK BUTTON. You’ll lose the changes you made, and you’ll have to restart.
Troubleshooting
My page won’t save.
You may need to use an approved browser. If you’re using anything other than Firefox or Chrome, you should stop and use either Chrome or Firefox.
If you’re using an approved browser, you may need to clear your cache. Check out how to clear the cache by using the article on How To: Clear your Cache.
What do I do next?
You’re just about ready to go Live! The last thing you need to do is set up a Custom Domain. Make sure you’re ready for that and check out How To: Enable a Custom Domain to learn how to make it happen.