Free shipping isn’t free!

The cost of shipping is inevitable, someone has to pay it. So, if “free shipping” is part of the deal, the shipping cost is generally:

  1. included in the item price, 

  2. is compensated for through additional charges such as handling fees, unjustified extra weight fees, etc., or

  3. is conditioned on a large order. 

As businesses must remain profitable to sustain themselves, certain margins must be maintained to cover monthly fixed costs (rent/mortgage, utilities, salaries, etc…), and to recover the cost of manufacturing or importing the products they wish to sell.  To account for those margins, a company will choose one of two pricing methods:

  1. Apply a fixed margin and add the shipping cost to the customer’s invoice, or

  2. Apply an inflated margin and claim “free shipping”. 

With online shopping having taken the world by a storm, more and more online platforms are utilizing the “free shipping” model, while ensuring their shipping cost is embedded in the advertised price, and is recoverable with every purchase.  Furthermore, these companies are making profit on the recovered shipping costs, when the customers purchase and ship additional items from the same platform.  Here’s an example: 

If a $30 item costs a company $10 to ship, the company is going to list it for $40 with “free shipping”. Buying 2 of that item or another item with the same value is going to cost you $80 including shipping ($60 cost and $20 shipping), but for the seller, shipping the 2 items on the same transaction only costs $14, so you end up paying an extra $6 in shipping that could have been avoided if shipping was not included. 

Why Apex Elegance has no “Free Shipping”

From day one, our company has been transparent and committed to offering the lowest prices without any gimmicks.  We put a lot of effort in packing each and every order, combining items in the same box and packing smaller items within larger items.  We take extra care in packaging jarred items, and literally tailor special size boxes to fit certain products so as to reduce the box dimensions and minimize the shipping cost to the customer.   

We price all products competitively and offer a lowest price guarantee*.  Please consult with us if you have any questions or concerns regarding your order and shipping cost.

Here are a few guidelines to help keep your shipping cost to minimum:

  1. There’s a minimum per shipment that any shipping company charges, so shipping more boxes on the same shipment actually saves.

  2. If you’re thinking of placing multiple orders, plan ahead and combine them to one so they can ship together. The saving is significant.

  3. Depending on your business needs, in most cases, shipping freight on a pallet gives the best pounds per dollar spent on shipping. 

  4. When selecting items to ship, if you know your shipping rates are generally high because of the address you’re operating from, try to select items that stack well. For example, if you’re shopping for baskets, try to select ones that nest well and have no fixed top handle.  Shipping is based on the higher of: weight or dimensional weight, so in the case of baskets, shipping cost will be determined by dimensional weight because it will be higher than actual weight.

  5. Certain postal codes are extremely expensive to ship to.  If you’re able to pickup at a more central location, the shipping cost is usually significantly less.

  6. Generally, the larger the order, the less the shipping-to-order ratio is.  For example, if an order is for $250, it may cost $50 to ship (a ratio of 20%), but a $2000 order to the same customer may cost around $150 to ship (a ratio of 7.5%).

Lowest price guarantee: we will match any local wholesale supplier’s prices on in-stock & identical products (baskets, gourmet food items, pull bows, cellophane, etc.).Free shipping isn’t free!

The cost of shipping is inevitable, someone has to pay it. So, if “free shipping” is part of the deal, the shipping cost is generally:

  1. included in the item price, 

  2. is compensated for through additional charges such as handling fees, unjustified extra weight fees, etc., or

  3. is conditioned on a large order. 

As businesses must remain profitable to sustain themselves, certain margins must be maintained to cover monthly fixed costs (rent/mortgage, utilities, salaries, etc…), and to recover the cost of manufacturing or importing the products they wish to sell.  To account for those margins, a company will choose one of two pricing methods:

  1. Apply a fixed margin and add the shipping cost to the customer’s invoice, or

  2. Apply an inflated margin and claim “free shipping”. 

With online shopping having taken the world by a storm, more and more online platforms are utilizing the “free shipping” model, while ensuring their shipping cost is embedded in the advertised price, and is recoverable with every purchase.  Furthermore, these companies are making profit on the recovered shipping costs, when the customers purchase and ship additional items from the same platform.  Here’s an example: 

If a $30 item costs a company $10 to ship, the company is going to list it for $40 with “free shipping”. Buying 2 of that item or another item with the same value is going to cost you $80 including shipping ($60 cost and $20 shipping), but for the seller, shipping the 2 items on the same transaction only costs $14, so you end up paying an extra $6 in shipping that could have been avoided if shipping was not included. 

Why Apex Elegance has no “Free Shipping”

From day one, our company has been transparent and committed to offering the lowest prices without any gimmicks.  We put a lot of effort in packing each and every order, combining items in the same box and packing smaller items within larger items.  We take extra care in packaging jarred items, and literally tailor special size boxes to fit certain products so as to reduce the box dimensions and minimize the shipping cost to the customer.   

We price all products competitively and offer a lowest price guarantee*.  Please consult with us if you have any questions or concerns regarding your order and shipping cost.

Here are a few guidelines to help keep your shipping cost to minimum:

  1. There’s a minimum per shipment that any shipping company charges, so shipping more boxes on the same shipment actually saves.

  2. If you’re thinking of placing multiple orders, plan ahead and combine them to one so they can ship together. The saving is significant.

  3. Depending on your business needs, in most cases, shipping freight on a pallet gives the best pounds per dollar spent on shipping. 

  4. When selecting items to ship, if you know your shipping rates are generally high because of the address you’re operating from, try to select items that stack well. For example, if you’re shopping for baskets, try to select ones that nest well and have no fixed top handle.  Shipping is based on the higher of: weight or dimensional weight, so in the case of baskets, shipping cost will be determined by dimensional weight because it will be higher than actual weight.

  5. Certain postal codes are extremely expensive to ship to.  If you’re able to pickup at a more central location, the shipping cost is usually significantly less.

  6. Generally, the larger the order, the less the shipping-to-order ratio is.  For example, if an order is for $250, it may cost $50 to ship (a ratio of 20%), but a $2000 order to the same customer may cost around $150 to ship (a ratio of 7.5%).

Lowest price guarantee: we will match any local wholesale supplier’s prices on in-stock & identical products (baskets, gourmet food items, pull bows, cellophane, etc.).