On shipping costs

[PaulB]

Many thanks Brian. Greatly appreciate your efforts and considered replys / thoughts.

[peteOcha]

Of course, if we do another Free Worldwide Shipping deal, that WOULD be a coupon code because we have a Free Shipping module in the store which is all about Free Shipping coupons!
Brian

That.

[Brian James Freeman]

Or you could just do a promo code for the Non-U.S. people. I'm sure you double check all the orders once they come in so you'd know when they can be applied or not.

It couldn't be combined with other discount coupons because the system won't allow multiple coupons, but that is an option we could consider! Folks would just have to choose which discount they'd rather have. (Plus there are some downsides when Mindy processes orders -- it would add time when she deals with incorrect orders, which can add up when she's processing 100 to 400 orders in a single day.)

Ideally, whatever we try should be automated. An "every Non-US order for Title XYZ automatically receives $6 off the shipping cost" kind of deal and the discount is automatically calculated by the store.

Of course, if we do another Free Worldwide Shipping deal, that WOULD be a coupon code because we have a Free Shipping module in the store which is all about Free Shipping coupons!

Anyway, I have a couple of different ideas we might be able to try to take the sting off the postage costs for all customers, but I have to run some numbers and figure out which one makes the most sense. I'll let you know what I come up with. Fun stuff...!

Brian

[jester05jk]

Or you could just do a promo code for the Non-U.S. people. I'm sure you double check all the orders once they come in so you'd know when they can be applied or not.

[peteOcha]

Maybe if the actual tweaking of the postage is complicated you could offer discounts on the book itself for costumers outside of the US? Keep the postage the same, but if you order to an address outside of the US you get x% off the book (only pre-orders)? Just shooting some ideas here.

I wish I still lived in NJ.

[Pennywise]

Thanks Brian, appreciate the effort.

[Brian James Freeman]

BTW, all this moaning of me is not at all aimed at CD. You have a business to run and you don't want to lose money because some cheapskate Dutchman doesn't want to pay >30 dollars per book in shipping. There's nothing wrong with that so I'm not "attacking" CD. It's just that I really like the products that you produce but I've reached a point where I can no longer justify the costs, not matter how much I like what you produce. Just wanted to make that clear.

Naw, I didn't think that at all. Postage costs suck for EVERYONE. I'd love to find a way to help our Non-US customers be able to buy more -- that's just good business! What I have to figure out is, how much could we offer as a discount and what are the pros and cons (as a business) of each amount. We definitely want to make it easier for any and all customers to collect more of our books.

What I'm thinking of doing is trying some different amounts on a few upcoming books to see what happens. At the very least, even if it doesn't pan out in the long run, our regular customers outside the US (like the ones who post on this board) would at least see some savings while we were testing the numbers to see what happens.

I'm going to talk to our programmer this week to find out the actual cost of the custom coding. One of the things I've learned this year is that the new website needs a lot more regular tweaking than the old one, so maybe we can combine this coding with the next time she's going to be in there fixing something anyway.

I'll let you all know what we end up deciding. Thanks, as always, for your feedback and input. After all, if you don't share your thoughts with us, how will we know what's working and what isn't for you? (That's my feeling on all companies I do business with. I let them know when things aren't going well AND also when things are awesome because both types of feedback matter.)

Brian

[peteOcha]

I think it was pretty clear that you're not attacking CD. I mean, we all know its not them who choose the shipping costs. And like Pennywise said, we can't expect you to lose money just so you can ship cheaper overseas. I'd pick up more books as well, but I only (try) to limit myself to the ones I really want as shipping adds quite a bit to the overall cost, which again, CD has no control over as the prices are set by the USPS. Just keep the good books coming, throw in a few nice promotions here and there (which you guys do ) and I'll keep on ordering!

[Pennywise]

At the end of the day it is a matter of supply-and-demand. If most non-US customers don't have a problem with paying ~30 dollars in shipping for 1 book, than it is simply me who is out of luck. If there are more, but they only represent a fairly small portion of CD's customer base when compared to the US customers, than it is understandable that CD does not want to offer these kinds of discounts.

I wanted to write some other stuff, but I can't find the right words at this moment. Will get back to it later.

BTW, all this moaning of me is not at all aimed at CD. You have a business to run and you don't want to lose money because some cheapskate Dutchman doesn't want to pay >30 dollars per book in shipping. There's nothing wrong with that so I'm not "attacking" CD. It's just that I really like the products that you produce but I've reached a point where I can no longer justify the costs, not matter how much I like what you produce. Just wanted to make that clear.

[Brian James Freeman]

On a side not, it would be nice if there was some discount on shipping for pre orders, since most get free US shipping. Maybe 30-50% off of shipping for pre orders? But then again, if it requires fancy and expensive software....

Well, the free US shipping is a pretty contentious thing with our accountants because of how much cost we eat every year, so I don't think we could afford to discount Non-US shipping that much for preorders unless we saw a VERY large increase in Non-US preorders for each and every title -- not just the popular ones.

For Non-US shipping, when we charge $36 for shipping (to pick a number mentioned in this thread), it's because the USPS is going to charge us at least $36. So if we discounted the 6,000 or so Non-US preorders a year by 50%, that's another $108,000 in pure cost we have to make up somewhere else... maybe by raising the cover prices?

Brian

[peteOcha]

I guess this is a good time to ask, what is your cut off point for the shipping? I still don't know if we'll be able to offer discounts on Non-US shipping, but it would help to know if the $6 the US customers save would make a difference, etc. It's probably going to require some expensive custom programming to be able to offer those Non-US shipping discounts, so I need to figure out if it will even make a difference, etc, before I invest that money. Thanks!

Brian

Brian, don't trouble yourself with fancy software! Just do a free shipping day!

On a side not, it would be nice if there was some discount on shipping for pre orders, since most get free US shipping. Maybe 30-50% off of shipping for pre orders? But then again, if it requires fancy and expensive software....

[Brian James Freeman]

Well, the latest book offer I got from CD I unfortunately have to pass up. This one would have set me back $36 in shipping costs for one single book. That is just getting to steep for me. Sad but true.

I guess this is a good time to ask, what is your cut off point for the shipping? I still don't know if we'll be able to offer discounts on Non-US shipping, but it would help to know if the $6 the US customers save would make a difference, etc. It's probably going to require some expensive custom programming to be able to offer those Non-US shipping discounts, so I need to figure out if it will even make a difference, etc, before I invest that money. Thanks!

Brian

[Pennywise]

Well, the latest book offer I got from CD I unfortunately have to pass up. This one would have set me back $36 in shipping costs for one single book. That is just getting to steep for me. Sad but true.

[Dan Hocker]

Antmusic, are you sure ? I've got knowing darkness traycase in june 2011 from Jared and he shipped using surface mail... Thing could have changed though

They still offer the M-Bags. But in most instances (at least with our books) it's going to be cheaper to ship it as a first-class package option. As the cheapest M-Bag is $28 and depending on the weight and where it's going to first class is anywhere from $7 to $33, which is significantly cheaper than Priority Mail. The downside is that you can only ship up to 4 pounds via first class.

[th3l0rd]

They definitely don't offer it as an option at the Post Office. Maybe it's still available if you ask for it, but the USPS is trying to maximize its income at the moment, and all the counter staff in my area seem to be trained to upsell you to the most expensive service available.

Same here... There is a discounted shipping method for books send to a national addres (about 1.28€ up to 2000 grams instead of about 7€) but at the front desk no one will admit it exists unless you (the customer) actually explain the employee how to use their software to mark the shipment correctly and point them to the web site page with the details.

What's about sending out by pigeons ? And I mean really big pigeons that can bite your head off if you don't give'em enought seeds when you get the books