Nobody ships anything for free. When a supplier advertises free shipping on commercial fixtures, the freight has been moved off the invoice and into the unit price, and it has been priced for the worst case. Here is how that works, what it costs you on a real order, and the one situation where free shipping genuinely is the better deal.
Where the money actually goes
A distributor advertising free shipping has to cover freight out of margin. They do not know in advance whether your order is one wall pack going to Maine or six pallets going across town, so they cannot price it per order. They have to pick a number that survives the worst order they might get.
That worst case is roughly: a single item, shipped from their warehouse to the farthest point they serve, at published retail carrier rates, with a residential or limited access surcharge in case the address needs one. Build a cushion big enough to absorb that and you land somewhere between 20 and 30 percent on top of the fixture.
Then everyone pays it. The contractor forty miles from the warehouse ordering a full pallet pays the same cushion as the one ordering a single fixture to a rural address two thousand miles away.
The tell is the round number. Freight is never a clean percentage of product cost. It is driven by weight, class, pallet count, distance and accessorials. When shipping is folded into the unit price it stops tracking any of those things and simply becomes margin.
What it costs on a real order
Take twenty 2x4 panels. Assume the underlying cost of the fixture is the same either way, because it usually is. The only thing that changes is how the freight gets recovered.
| Free shipping supplier | Freight quoted separately | |
|---|---|---|
| Fixture price | $100 each, shipping included | $80 each |
| 20 fixtures | $2,000 | $1,600 |
| Freight | $0 on the invoice | $150, one pallet from the nearest warehouse |
| Landed cost | $2,000 | $1,750 |
Same fixtures, same truck, $250 difference. That is 12.5 percent on a small order, and the gap widens as the order grows, because the cushion scales with every unit while the freight does not. Double the order to forty panels and you are not paying double the freight. You are paying for a second pallet on the same truck.
Across the orders we quote, the typical saving lands around 15 percent. Not because the fixture is cheaper, but because you are only paying to move your order to your address instead of subsidising a hypothetical worst case order that is not yours.
Why most orders are not the worst case
The cushion is priced for a shipment crossing the country. Most shipments do not.
The manufacturers we carry hold stock in multiple regional warehouses, and an order ships from whichever one can serve you. For most of the country that is a one or two day transit on an LTL line haul, not a coast to coast move. The distance the pricing assumes and the distance your pallet actually travels are two different numbers, and under free shipping you pay for the longer one.
It is the same logic as a restaurant that includes a bottle of wine in the price of every meal. Great value if you drink wine. If you do not, you are buying it for the table next to you.
When free shipping actually wins
It sometimes does, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest.
- One or two small fixtures going a long way. A single wall pack shipped parcel across the country can cost more to move than the cushion would have been. On tiny orders to distant addresses, included shipping is often the better deal.
- Residential or limited access delivery. Liftgate, inside delivery and residential surcharges are real money, and a supplier absorbing them is absorbing real cost.
- You genuinely cannot handle a variable line item. Some purchasing systems need one number up front. That has a value of its own.
The pattern is simple. The more you buy and the closer you are to stock, the more the cushion costs you. The less you buy and the farther out you are, the more it protects you.
How to check it yourself
You do not have to take anyone's word for this, including ours. Compare landed cost, which is the only number that matters.
- Price the same part number both ways. Same manufacturer, same model, same wattage and CCT. Fixture price plus freight against the free shipping price.
- Use your real quantity and your real address. The comparison changes completely between one fixture and a pallet.
- Ask where it ships from. If the warehouse is a day away, the freight number should be modest. If nobody will tell you, that is information too.
- Check the freight is quoted, not estimated. A real quote comes from a carrier with a weight and a class behind it.
What we do instead
We price the fixture with no shipping cushion in it, then quote you the actual freight from the warehouse that will serve your address, before you pay anything. You see both numbers separately, and you decide.
Two things follow from that. Your price is lower than it would be under an included shipping model. And you can see exactly what the freight costs, which means you can make your own call about consolidating an order, changing a delivery address, or adding a liftgate.
It also means we cannot hide anything in the shipping line, because there is nothing hidden in it. It is what the carrier charges.
Worth knowing: most of our savings come from two places. We drop ship from the manufacturer rather than running a warehouse and a counter, and we have long standing accounts with the four lines we carry. The freight honesty is on top of that, not instead of it. More on that on our why buy from us page.
The short version
Free shipping is a pricing decision, not a gift. The cost is in the fixture, it is sized for the worst delivery a supplier might have to make, and everybody pays it whether their order looks like that or not.
If you are buying in quantity for a job, ask for the landed cost both ways and do the arithmetic. On most commercial orders, paying the freight you actually cause is the cheaper end of the deal.
Want the real number on your job?
Build your order, send it over, and we will come back with the fixture price and the actual freight from the nearest warehouse. No obligation, and nothing to pay until you have seen both.
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