Delivery - Not telling

Where do you deliver? How much does delivery cost? These are two questions uppermost in your customers mind when arrive at your online shop and are deciding whether to buy from you. How does your website respond?

I was checking a site we promote today because the owner had asked us to promote delivery to other countries rather than just in Australia. I eventually found the delivery information hidden away in the help section on the site and it said:

Do you ship to my country?
To find out if we ship to your country, first fill your shopping basket and locate the shopping cart basket on the side column of this site. Within this shopping basket there is a link called “calculate shipping”. Once you click on this link there is a drop down list of countries to choose from, if your country is listed then our online store will ship to you.

Imagine the same conversation in a real shop…
Customer: Do you deliver to this place?
Shop owner: Choose what you want to buy and then I’ll tell you.
Customer: How much will delivery cost?
Shop owner: Choose what you want to buy and then I’ll tell you.
Customer: ………………………………………

It’s not difficult to publish a simple page saying where you deliver and how delivery is calculated, and make a link to that page easy to find from every page on your site.