Here is a scenario:

You have 2 or more drop ship suppliers delivering products for your website. A customer comes to your ecommerce website and places 3 products in the cart. Every product is from a different supplier. Each supplier charges you for shipping. The three products are low cost products about the same as to ship them.

CART:
PRODUCT 1 COST: $5 / CHARGED: $7 / SHIPPING : $5
PRODUCT 2 COST: $10 / CHARGED: $14 / SHIPPING : $8
PRODUCT 3 COST: $8 / CHARGED: $10 / SHIPPING : $6

TOTAL COST TO YOU: $42

TOTAL SHIPPING TO CUSTOMER: $19
TOTAL PRODUCT TO CUSTOMER: $31
TOTAL COST TO CUSTOMER: $50

As you can see paying $19 dollars for $31 worth of products is not worth it. You make $8 dollars on the order, you can't really cut into your low margins to give shipping discounts. How do you stay competitive?

Discuss.