Totally agree. I find that process extremely annoying as well. I usually never buy from those sites unless I absolutely cannot find the product at a similar price elsewhere.
Although, shipping prices can vary based on the total purchase since they aren't perfectly linear and it costs less to ship 5 items together in one package than each of those individually. So, I would say that adding the item to your cart is a requirement, but the rest should not be necessary at all. Also, shipping prices vary based on the total distance so the destination zip code matters as well.
I would say that the best solution would be to put an approximate shipping cost for that item being shipped by itself such that the shipping cost covers ~2 standard deviations for the US. If that were done, 95% of the time that cost would be valid or even less. Only in 5% of the cases would the shipping cost increase. In actuality, it would probably be even less than 5% because of the way supply chains work and where they put warehouses and fulfillment centers. This does lend itself to a possible legal issue, though, because people would claim that the stated shipping price as advertised is not what was actually paid. It would have to be explicitly stated very clearly that the displayed shipping cost before you put it into the cart and enter a destination zip code is just an estimate.
as a reasonably smart individual, when doing price comparison shopping, you would obviously compare the final out of pocket cost, selling price + shipping + tax
I'm not sure how this responds to my comment? All I said was that "free shipping" is exactly the same thing as saying "I estimate that shipping is generally below $X, but if it turns out to cost more, I will eat that cost".
the imply was that some retailers will jack up the cost of an item in order to provide free shipping. I'm just pointing out that doesn't really work unless the buyer is stupid and uniquely drawn to the free shipping offer.
Although, shipping prices can vary based on the total purchase since they aren't perfectly linear and it costs less to ship 5 items together in one package than each of those individually. So, I would say that adding the item to your cart is a requirement, but the rest should not be necessary at all. Also, shipping prices vary based on the total distance so the destination zip code matters as well.
I would say that the best solution would be to put an approximate shipping cost for that item being shipped by itself such that the shipping cost covers ~2 standard deviations for the US. If that were done, 95% of the time that cost would be valid or even less. Only in 5% of the cases would the shipping cost increase. In actuality, it would probably be even less than 5% because of the way supply chains work and where they put warehouses and fulfillment centers. This does lend itself to a possible legal issue, though, because people would claim that the stated shipping price as advertised is not what was actually paid. It would have to be explicitly stated very clearly that the displayed shipping cost before you put it into the cart and enter a destination zip code is just an estimate.