Question and Answer Thread! Ask away! (new posts below)

Too bad about the not shipping to Canada, I guess I'll have to wait until such time that you either do ship to Canada or you work with a vendor that sells in Canada - Top of The Chain seems to be the vendor that carries the widest variety of artisan products that I've seen in Canada and Carmine's service is excellent. I understand your hesitation regarding shipping fees - I know that I've been to some US sites and when its come down to a $40 shipping fee its been a show stopper for me. I've found several US sites that have a $15 shipping option (to Canada) and I have found that a little easier to swallow. The problem is for those that want to buy a few samples even $15 is too much. I personally am not a sample buyer - I figure $15-$20 or so isn't that much to risk. I do have a box of products that haven't been to my tastes but one day I'll move that stuff out, I'm not too broken up about it.

Thanks,

Too bad about the not shipping to Canada, I guess I'll have to wait until such time that you either do ship to Canada or you work with a vendor that sells in Canada - Top of The Chain seems to be the vendor that carries the widest variety of artisan products that I've seen in Canada and Carmine's service is excellent.  I understand your hesitation regarding shipping fees - I know that I've been to some US sites and when its come down to a $40 shipping fee its been a show stopper for me.  I've found several US sites that have a $15 shipping option (to Canada) and I have found that a little easier to swallow.  The problem is for those that want to buy a few samples even $15 is too much.  I personally am not a sample buyer - I figure $15-$20 or so isn't that much to risk.  I do have a box of products that haven't been to my tastes but one day I'll move that stuff out, I'm not too broken up about it.

Thanks,

Marko,

I set up the Canadian shipping several months ago and haven't gotten a single order from Canada! I do have a few "abandoned shopping carts" from Canada which indicate they weren't willing to pay the shipping amount to Canada even though I have the least expensive USPS shipping method available. I'd set up the U.K. and other countries as well but I'm sure I would get the same results!

Hi David, I'm sorry to hear that. Its likely that Canadians are as value conscious as anybody and when we're looking at paying shipping costs plus duty and in US$ (FX isn't great right now) on the one hand and free shipping, no duty in CDN$ on the other hand from vendors like Top of The Chain or Italian Barber it just gets hard to go out on a limb to try a new soap. Things have really improved as far as selection of artisan products in Canada goes. I can remember a few years back when we couldn't get any artisan products and now the selection is almost overwhelming.

Yes but both Top of the Chain (Canadian business) and Italian Barber (US business) have a $60 minimum for "free shipping" which you didn't mention and since the price points in my store are low and I carry mostly products which I manufacture myself then the order size is typically $10-$18 and as high as $36 then I doubt it would make much of a difference to make such an offer!  The problem I have is with my website company who recently switched over their system to a different structure which only gives "the best" shipping rate for Priority Mail not all available shipping rates for Priority Mail which gives the customer less options.  I have been after them for several weeks to correct this and although they are "almost there", it still isn't done yet!

The other problem is the rates for shipping an order to the West Coast from an East Coast company!  I just put one of my Sample Packs in the shopping cart and got a quote to ship to Sacramento California and I got two options. USPS - First-Class Package Service - Retail -- $3.75  and USPS - Priority Mail -- $8.45.  I can see that buying a $10 item and paying $8.45 would not be acceptable but the First Class option Retail is only $3.75 which I wouldn't think would be a problem unless the customer wants it in two days like the Priority Mail option can guarantee.  Also, the Retail is the best lower priced option for First Class mail because it includes free $50 insurance and the other options do not!

So, as you can see, it is quite difficult to deal with these kinds of problems and come up with something that works not only for the customer but works for my business as well!

Just to wish you a Happy New Year and invite you to post here if you have any questions or just want to talk and say "Hi!"! Welcome!