> Until you where you're shipping, the cost is not knowable.

Helpful sites handle this by offering to compute shipping at any point in the order, using my supplied postal code. Rockauto is one.

Less helpful sites make me finalize the order as far as possible. I've seen sites withhold shipping amounts until I submit my payment info.

Crap like this is what drives me back to Amazon and Ebay.

> Helpful sites handle this by offering to compute shipping at any point in the order

Exactly. Some sites have an input field on the product page, under the product price, so you can add your postal code and see the total price

Withholding shipping info after payment is processed? That would be illegal. All Shopify sites will show it to you after entering your address and before payment. It’s hardly a reason to not shop at small business.

> sites will show it to you after entering your address and before payment. It’s hardly a reason to not shop at small business.

This is more complicated than you suggest. It's done to create consent for marketing emails. You can't see shipping costs without signing up for marketing email.

> Withholding shipping info after payment is processed?

I said submit - as in to the site.

I think you're extending too much credit to many of these sites, who purposefully sequence a shipping estimate after four screens (to boost perceived sunk costs and committment) and after requiring your email address (so they can spam you in the future).

If they ask me for email or full address to show me shipping prices, I just close the tab and never go back

Dead on.

They could show a shipping rate to their typical target market (eg. “$5 shipping to continental US + tax”) or use a IP based address estimation.

I've definitively not bought something from sites that didn't offer me the "complexity" of that user experience, and insisted I enjoy the "simpler" user experience of entering an email address, shipping address etc. pp. before getting told what this would cost me.

Maybe the biggest advantage Amazon Prime has for me, is that it already knows my address etc, and shipping cost is a non issue.

Ordering somewhere else has a higher enough threshold that I avoid it.

But you still argue against making it easier to see shipping cost?