Arrow launches free overnight shipment for all products in stock

Simply order in-stock parts on Arrow.com with a minimum purchase of $20 and they’ll arrive the next day without extra cost (no special code needed). With millions of quality components ready to ship, engineers can keep their designs moving forward today, tomorrow and five years out.

Arrow promoted this offer on their blog in March, and now also as a sponsored blog on EETimes, which they acquired from UBM plc in 2016.

From their site –

For a limited time only, receive free US ground and international shipping on all orders placed on www.arrow.com. Orders over $20 USD (excluding tax and after any discounts are applied) receive free overnight shipping (US domestic orders only) or free priority international shipping (international orders). Free shipping will automatically be applied at checkout and includes select carriers and shipping methods. To have order shipped same day with overnight shipping, orders must be placed before 7pm ET for air shipments. Cut-off time for all ground shipments is 9pm ET (hazardous materials excluded). Orders placed after cut-off times, will be shipped on the next business day

As competition heats up, these types of offers can be a valuable tool for driving up numbers in the short term, but they also require a lot of careful management both internally and externally.

There are a multitude of factors that can go in to determining the minimum threshold for orders (in this case $20) and the duration of the offer, but at a glance, it is interesting to look for some sort of buffer that exists to balance the operational requirements with the new customer expectations.  In this case, something that immediately pops out is a carefully managed stepping-down of what can actually arrive “next day”, even if the item is currently in-stock.  Arrow has done well to illustrate at each step that the overnight delivery applies to the estimated ship date, which is not always the same day. A major boon for Arrow is the simplicity and clarity of the shipping method selection that doubles as an indication of roughly how much the customer can assume they are saving.

These companies in this market are all well established, so any play to draw customers away from a competitor will also need to address and manage ingrained customer expectations from availability of stock, to ease of navigation on the site, to lead and shipping times.