Slight offshoot to promoting

[stitchit]

What do you advise clients to do with repect to shipping and handling costs, ie on a page with a shopping cart??
I have seen a number of methods with pros and cons to all of them.

Some methods;
(1) Bury an average shipping cost in with the price of the item being purchased,
(2) State that shipping cost is extra and i.e. $4.99 for items priced at $5 to $25, etc,

With method (1) the client has less hassle and could advertise free shipping but savy customers know it isn't free.
With method (1) the client could get burnt if customers located at a distance start to exceed the number of customers located closer.
With method (1) the client's customer could ask for an adjustment on a large quantity purchase because shipping costs per item should be lower.
With method (2) the client's customers that are closer are subsidizing customers that are further away.
With method (2) the client could get burnt if customers located at a distance start to exceed the number of customers located closer.

Inquiring mind would like to know,

[treetreasures]

The actual shipping costs are integrated into our shopping cart system. The customer has a choice of shipping methods and the system (from Canada Post) shows cost and delivery time. Our shipping module is part of our web hosting package and is available from several Canadian hosting companies.