Whether you order online and enjoy flat-rate shipping or order by phone and pay exact shipping, adding the cost of freight to your order instead of building it into the price is sound if you really think about it — and in your best interest. We’ve always felt this way, but recently two things happened making us reflect on this matter once again.
First we’ve recently been asked by a couple of new customers why we don’t include shipping in the price of our products (they were just curious). The second source of reflection was when we received a catalog from a distantly competing biocontrol company and we noted most products touted “shipping included.” But the prices were through the roof.
It made sense that the prices were so high. Shipping costs — especially overnight as required by most of our biocontrols — are quite ridiculous. A forty- or fifty-dollar charge to Someplace Distant, America, is not at all uncommon. If we included shipping in our prices we would have to assume everyone would order one item and one item only, the worst-case scenario, and we’d of course have to cover the cost. Thus, we’d have no choice but to add forty- or fifty-dollars to many of our prices.
That’s all fine and good for our customers if ordering one item, the total ends up being about the same. But many people order multiple items (we are, after all, the “grand consolidators“). Order two items from us and the pricing might stay the same, which is the case when ordered online, or increase by a couple of dollars if paying exact charges. Order two items from someone who includes shipping in their price and you’ll end up paying for shipping repeatedly, for a single consolidated shipment. If you think it sounds like a profit center, you’d be right.
We appreciate the ease of ordering and not having to stomach extra freight, but it’s absolutely not in the customer’s best interest. Sometimes it hurts us (rejecting the extra income potential by not exploiting this potential profit center), but we always try to act on behalf of our customers, treating them fairly and transparently — as we like to be treated when we are the customer.
Anyway, nobody can be too savvy a shopper so we hope this article proves enlightening. If it’s sounds like we’re always defending our shipping prices, it’s probably true. The cost of real overnight transport is embarrassingly high. Many biocontrols, however, require that level of expedited service so they will remain alive and healthy as per our guarantee, so we’re stuck with it as it is. The best we can do is to try and keep the costs down for our customers, be fair, and try to communicate the rationale.
