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The item price is the start of the arithmetic, not the end: shipping thresholds, tax and return exposure decide what an order really costs.
Four lines decide what an order really costs: the coupon, shipping, tax and the cost of a possible return. Comparing retailers on item price alone misranks them almost every time, because each retailer sets those lines differently.
Shipping first. Free-shipping minimums in the US commonly fall between $25 and $50 and change several times a year, so a threshold memorised last season may have moved. Under the threshold, a flat $5-10 shipping charge on a $40 order is worth 12-25% of the cart value — frequently more than a 10-20% first-order code saved.
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Then tax. US state sales tax runs from 0% in a handful of states to about 7-10% once local tax is added; EU standard VAT ranges from roughly 17% to 27% and is normally already inside the listed price. The same basket differs by that much between jurisdictions, which is why a screenshot of someone else's checkout total is no guide to yours.
Returns are the line nobody prices in. Published return windows cluster at 14, 30 and 60 days — 30 is the most common, extended to 60-90 for holiday purchases — and restocking fees, where they exist, run about 10-15% of the item price on opened electronics. A 14-day window with a restocking fee is a materially worse offer than a 60-day free-return window at a slightly higher item price.
These are exactly the costs that kill checkouts: Baymard Institute's pooled studies put the average cart-abandonment rate at about 70%, with extra costs — shipping, tax, fees — cited in roughly 48% of abandoned carts. The full formula is item price minus the code, plus shipping, plus tax, plus return exposure, minus any cashback (typically 1-5%) or loyalty value (about 1%) that genuinely applies. That final number, not the item price, is what to compare.
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