Most of the time when a company makes a major change, it's very complicated, and it's almost impossible to explain without practically writing an instructional book, which is exactly how it normally works with our company. However, this time the answer to the most common related questions or concerns over the last 7 years from our customers was very easy to answer. The problem was did Management have the conviction or guts to change or fix it. Our team had endless meetings many of which became very heated because the change being discussed was so risky and extreme to the business; but we eventually agreed, if we could have a broker acquire a domain name that directly answered the question for a reasonable price, we would proceed with the change.
Of course like most things in life, even after we acquired the domain name, our team had heated discussions about making the change and if we could survive it or not. In the end not only did our team agree to make the change, our team decided if we're going to do it we're going all the way. Not only would we answer the main question our customers presented to us over the last few years, we would take the time to address other issues as well, basically go all in, so to speak.
First, the answer to the most common related questions we had over the last 7 years, which is, "What is the Shipped Price" or "What good is having low prices when we have to pay shipping." Of course the easy answers from a company perspective is either, "You will find the shipped price when you add the items you want to your shopping cart and press checkout" or "The reason you have to pay shipping is because we have to pay shipping, and we're offsetting the actual shipping cost to make it more attractive to you." While those answers may be logical, our customers did not want to hear it most of the time. So despite our Shipping & Handling Costs were skyrocketing, which is the main reason for all the heated conversations, we needed to proceed with the solution to solve the problem.
Second, our customers wanted a lower minimum order and faster base shipping. We originally had a minimum order of $35 and we offered Free Economy Shipping or Free Standard Shipping when a customer spends $75 or more. This was the second issue that caused lots of heated conversations because how in the world could we offer faster shipping without minimum orders and possibly do it for FREE. What made it even more complicated is the fact that we're a discount outlet retailer plus inflation and supply chain issues were eating our breakfast, lunch, and dinner literally.
Lastly, what we hope ends up being the good news from both perspectives. We decided to solve all of the issues in one massive swoop, which is the birth of ShippedPrice.com an Exclusively Online Outlet Store with Free Shipping on Everything @ https://www.shippedprice.com. Not only is it Free Shipping on Everything, it's Free Standard Shipping on Everything, so instead of our shipping period being 7 to 14 business days, it is 4 to 7 business days. Also instead of a $25 to $35 minimum order we have only a $9.95 minimum order. We know you wonder how can we offer Free Standard Shipping on a $9.95 order when the cost of shipping & handling will most of the time equal or exceed $9.95? The simple answer is we can't from a profit position! However we're willing to take the hit to give our customers the absolute best service we can, and hopefully they will make it up to us with checkout tips and/or spreading the word of what we're trying to do. We understand there is two sides to every coin, not only are we getting punched in the gut with inflation and supply chain issues, our customers are as well.