|
About 30% of shopping carts are
abandoned when the customer finds out what the shipping will cost
be. We'd like to keep that from happening if possible with us
by explaining our shipping system.
Online vendors have a myriad of ways to
calculating Shipping and Handling. After much
research, we decided on actual online
USPS
Priority 2-3 Day Mail rates plus a minimum handling charge
which covers the things that would be identical whether we're shipping 1
plant or many, many more.
The following
information reflects changes made 2-22-10. The changes
simply effect the way we split up plant costs with those of handling
costs and packing costs, bringing us more in line with the industry
standard. Your order total will remain the same (or even go down
slightly if you're ordering the more expensive plants).
The Handling Charge covers: Office time
to download, process, print, and file the order, office supplies
(maintaining printers, printer toner, paper etc) labor for paperwork,
filing, printing shipping & care labels,
and plastic shipping pouch. These items/costs are virtually the
same regardless of whether you order 1 plant or many. Handling charges cover 5 color labels, shipping label and plastic pouches and folks to apply them and the 5 USPS labels which,
while free, still have to be applied. Each box has a total of 10
labels applied outside, 1 inside and a shipping pouch! In this
case 'Handling' requires lots of 'Handling' spinning the box around and
around to get on all those labels!
The Packing Costs covers - boxes,
stakes, rubber bands, spaghnum moss, plastic bags, labor to pull, wrap
and box the orders, apply labels, weigh the box, generate and apply
postage, carry boxes to the postal trucks, etc. are covered in the price
of the plant. For years we kept that separate when we still
allowed customer pick ups and not all plants were shipped but since all
plants are now shipped, those 'packing' costs are covered in the plant
cost as most vendors do. $1.00 of the Plant Price
covers packing costs.
Effective 2-22-10
we've changed our $1.35 handling charge per plant (which also covered packing
costs) to .35 cent per plant handling and moved
the $1.00 packing costs into the plant price as most vendors do.
SMALL ORDERS
Small orders still aren't, nor will ever be,
cost efficient from S&H standpoint per plant for the buyer OR for the
shipper but we still allow the purchase of as little as one plant. If
you only want 1 plant, even with the minimum $7.10 Handling cost, it's still
less expensive than being forced to buy 2 or more plants or place a minimum monetary
order ($30 or
$40 minimum isn't unusual in the trade).
Sliding Handling Charge for 5 plants or
less - again, this is still identical for the Order TOTAL as it was
before. This includes the 35 cents handling built into every plant
plus a minimum handling fee based on number of plants as follows:
1 plant $6.75 Handling
2 plants $5.40 Handling
3 plants $4.05 Handling
4 plants $2.70 Handling
5 plants $1.35 Handling
6 plants or more 35 cents per plant flat
rate for handling
Many vendors force you to
place a minimum plant order. $30 or $40 isn't unusual.
We don't force you to purchase any number of plants or spend any dollar
amount on an order, but obviously we can't lose money shipping just a
few plants with insufficient handling funds to actually process and ship
the order.
2. A quart plant,
BOXED and PACKED
weighs an average of 1.7 pounds. (1.5
pounds for Sempervivums which are in 3 1/2" pots)
The true weight varies some by plant and season. In summer, our plants weigh more because
we have the soil totally saturated before shipping. Some plants
have more foliage, some have more woody stems and weigh more.
After weighing many, many orders, we arrived at 1.7 pound per plant
boxed on the average. Obviously plants weigh less when they arrive
-- plants use up some of the moisture and some simply evaporates in
transit, especially in summer.
|