Can you see shipping estimates prior to entering personal information?

Consistently cited as a top peeve of online shoppers, not being able to see the total cost of an order before entering personal information is an important tactic to evaluate. Before collecting data, this tactic was high on our radar as we firmly believed retailers who are forthcoming deliver a better user experience and should be rewarded with a higher conversion rate.

We were surprised to see within the high ticket item group a 1.6% lift in conversion rate where shipping estimates were not available until after personal information was collected. This is a very counter-intuitive finding and the sample sizes for each were even, so the number has increased validity.

Overall, 67% of Top 100 retailers allow shoppers to see shipping estimates prior to entering personal information. Most interesting - 100% of retailers in the High Tech & Office group allowed shoppers to see estimates. Perhaps it is an indication of the importance shoppers in this space put on knowing the total cost involved with a major purchase.