The questionable quality is that the word free is known to induce strong positive emotions, more so than if online retailers said more straightforwardly something like “Prices include shipping.” Yes, we know the costs of shipping are factored into the prices of the products, but it’s essentially a dark pattern to increase a shopper’s emotional likelihood of buying.

As always, though, there are different norms among industries. We don’t think anything is off when we see “Free Shipping” notices online, but if the same practice were elsewhere we’d think it were bizarre. To wit:

Restaurants: Free Dressing with Any Salad

Coffee Shop: Free To-Go Cups

Cities/Municipalities: Free Schools and Snow Plowing

Auto Mechanic: Free Windshield Washer Fluid

Notebook Computers: Free Charging Cord

Credit, though, to coffee shops which do provide a discount if you bring your own mug. Plenty of other businesses could do this and offset the built-in shipping charges they have online. For instance, a shoe retailer may have the same price online (with free shipping) as their local store, but I’ve never seen a setup like this whereby the customer gets a discount for picking up locally.