رضا خلیل ارجمندی

With the rapid growth of the Internet and digital technologies over the past two decades, consumer purchasing patterns have undergone a fundamental transformation, and online shopping has become one of the main pillars of modern commerce. Among the various marketing strategies adopted by online retailers to increase sales and customer retention, free shipping policies have received significant attention. These policies are implemented in different forms such as unconditional free shipping, threshold-based free shipping (TFS), and membership-based free shipping programs. Despite their popularity among consumers, the high logistical costs and the complex behavioral impacts of these policies have made their implementation a major challenge for many online retailers. The present study aims to identify and analyze the effects of threshold free shipping (TFS) policies on online shoppers’ willingness to pay for shipping, with a particular focus on the psychological and perceptual mechanisms underlying this behavior. Based on the theoretical framework proposed by Huang et al. (۲۰۱۹), data were collected through an online survey of ۳۸۴ consumers who had experience purchasing from the online retailers Sna  hop and Digikala. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to test eleven hypotheses related to perceived threshold level, perceived value of delivery service, perceived fairness, perceived seller’s motive (profit orientation), delivery time, and consumer suspicion. The results reveal that the perceived free-shipping threshold significantly increases consumers’ suspicion toward the retailer’s motives and negatively affects the perceived value of the service. Moreover, when customers perceive shipping fees as a source of profit for the retailer, their sense of fairness regarding free-shipping policies decreases. Conversely, perceived fairness has a strong positive impact on consumers’ willingness to pay for shipping, while consumer suspicion has a negative effect. Among all variables, perceived fairness and delivery time demonstrated the most significant direct effects on purchase intention.

Overall, the findings highlight the need for data-driven, tra  arent, and context-sensitive free shipping strategies in online retail markets—particularly in emerging economies such as Iran. Online retailers are advised to design realistic and fair threshold values that balance operational costs and customer satisfaction. Increasing tra  arency about delivery fees and improving shipping speed can enhance trust, reduce customer suspicion, and strengthen loyalty toward the retailer. The insights derived from this study can also assist digital marketing policymakers and e-commerce managers in developing sustainable shipping and pricing strategies.

Keywords: Threshold Free Shipping (TFS), Perceived Fairness, Perceived Value, Consumer Suspicion, Online Shopping Behavior, Willingness to Pay for Shipping