Retail in Asia

In Trends

Free shipping for its books – a first in Singapore and Malaysia

Acmamall.com declares no shipping charges in Singapore and Malaysia for its books, regardless of amount starting from November 2009. 

“It is a daring move that we have decided to take, boldly going the way that other big e-Commerce companies have done,” says Henry Tanaka, Books Product Manager, Acmamall.com. 

It has been a long and drawn out discussion with Acmamall.com logistics partners, but Acmamall.com has convinced its partners to lower the shipping charges till year-end. 

“We told our logistics partners that if they lower the shipping costs, we will absorb the cost and provide free shipping to our customers, there will definitely be an increase of orders,” explains Cindy Low, Chief Operation Officer, Acmamall.com. 

Providing free shipping is a big request that customers want. Currently, Acmamall.com charges a SGD5/MYR8.50 (USD3.54) shipping fee to Singapore and Malaysia customers, but waives the fee above SGD80/MYR200 (USD56.66) spent on books. 

Free shipping is commonplace in Acmamall.com as it already provides free shipping for its beauty and floral products. 

“Shipping fees gives a negative perception to customers. They want to see the final price without any hidden charges. Now, when you buy a book in Singapore or Malaysia, the price you see is the final price, unless you have a discount code to further lower that price, but there is no longer any shipping charges to consider,” says Tanaka. 

Acmamall.com will begin talks with its logistics partners in other countries to work on reducing its shipping charges in due course. 

(Source: acmamall.com)