One of the biggest costs is shipping expense, especially for products that are “heavy” such as soap and lotion.

In today’s world, it is a challenge for all small businesses to compete with Amazon’s “prime” free shipping. Due to their size, they can negotiate rates that the rest of us cannot compete with. So we have to try to help our customers in other ways.

Most times, we ship by Priority Mail. Over the past 3 years, there have been steady increases. However, even with the increases, the cost to ship is far lower than using Fed-Ex or UPS.  We are constantly on the lookout for shipping savings and we try to pass them onto customers when and where we can.

We absorbed the 2.0% package increase in 2017, and then absorbed the 3.9% increase in 2018. The new postage price increase for 2019 took effect this past January and increased yet another 5.9%. Effectively, our shipping expense is often 20 – 25% of the finished product price, which is unsustainable.

So, a strategy adjustment is needed to still bring your savings on premium products:

1).  We will continue to fight price increases on our products. We will raise price only where the acquisition of organic materials ends up costing us significantly more than current contracts. The demand for organic ingredients continues to sky-rocket and our suppliers notify us quarterly of cost increases and even shortages.

2). We will continue to offer customers “points” to accumulate online which they can use for discounts on the website.  We will also offer periodic “double point” days so you can acquire more points, faster.

3). We will continue to offer two FREE SHIPPING days per year.  One in the Spring and one in the Fall where we ship for free no matter the size or cost of your order.  Watch Facebook and our Newsletter for details so you don’t miss out.  The next one is Sunday, May 5th, 2019.

4). We will do FREE SHIPPING flash days, 4 hours here, 2 hours there.  These are pop-up surprises for you to enjoy and take advantage of.

5). We will continue with Subscriber Specials found in our Newsletter. Every little bit helps!

6). Effective, May 1st, we will be raising the Free Shipping limit to $60 from $50 to help cover the increased shipping costs we are experiencing nationwide, particularly when shipping west of the Mississippi.

7). Lastly, we will hold tight on the $8.95 shipping fee that is charged if you order under $60.00.

We continue to strive to make our website and our products “value added”. We appreciate any and all customer suggestions and ideas.