It's Crunch Time - A Look At Fulfilling Christmas Orders
Posted by Brad | Filed under fabric, Christmas, shipping
The holiday season is always our busiest time of year. A good portion of our business comes between September and December. Building furniture is a complicated matter, especially when you have dozens of styles and over 200 fabrics. We can only really make an educated guess as to what particular combinations will be popular. One of the key aspects that we focus on is making sure we don't promise something that we cannot deliver and as the Christmas approaches this can become next to impossible.
You'd think in this day and age that computers could automate much of this, but as we've learned over the years that only human ingenuity will do. Luckily, the staff at Carrington Court have become experts in what I like to call "fire fighting." Most customers will never know the lengths that these people go through to get their orders to them on time. I'm truly grateful that we have people that will go the extra mile.
Most of what we face has very little to do with production (the actual building of furniture). With the necessary materials on hand we can get most orders built in a day or two. What causes us the most headaches is ensuring we have all the pieces. Consider this: we have many different styles of frames and our fabrics come from over a half dozen manufacturers. Add to this the vagaries of shipping and it is pretty easy to see where things can fall apart.
Our number one hurdle is usually fabric. We try to keep everything in stock, but in reality this is very hard to do. There are often long lead times and there are inevitable gaps where we run out of fabric while waiting for the next roll to arrive. Over the last few years the textile industry in the U.S. has suffered tremendously. I can't tell you how many times we get an shipping date on a fabric that gets pushed back and then pushed back again, only to get a notification that the mill has decided to drop it.
At the same time we have a customer patiently waiting for their order, anxiously looking forward to having family or friends over for the holidays. So how do we handle this type of situation? We have to beg, borrow or barter.
To be honest we put a lot of pressure on the mills. It's not like we are a multibillion dollar giant that has a lot of sway, but the squeaky wheel gets the oil. If we exhaust our options with the mill, we try to find other manufacturers that may have ordered the same fabric and try to buy it from them. This takes a lot of leg work, but it is something that we occasionally do. If we hit another dead end, the next step is scouring through retail fabric shops trying to find anything we can. This is something that we don't particularly like to do. It is very time intensive and paying retail prices for fabric will pretty much kill any profit from an order. Our final option is to call the customer and try to move them into another fabric. Once at this step we've often discovered fabrics that are similar to the one ordered and nine times out of ten this is something that the customer has no problems with.
The other problem we run into with holiday deadlines is shipping. We ship by many different sources including FedEx, common carriers and home delivery services. We pick the the fastest, most affordable way to get a particular type of furniture to you. FedEx Home Delivery is often the fastest route and we can reliably estimate the arrival date. Unfortunately, anything larger than a standard sized parsons chair or dining chair is too big to ship. The weather can play havoc on FedEx. A snow storm can delay a shipment a day or two and at Christmastime this may be a day too long. Home delivery services are frequently used for oversize items or very large orders. These services have a longer transit time than FedEx and we can never be sure exactly when a truck will be in a customers area.
The closer we come to Christmas, the more we must focus on shipping. When using FedEx, we always build in a day or two extra time in transit just in case there is a delay. With home delivery services we work closely with the shipper to ensure that the customers order gets on a truck in time to be delivered. Frequently this means one of our employees loading up their SUV or pick-up and rushing down to the shipping company to get on the "last truck out." One other option that we use is common carriers. They are fast like FedEx, but only offer curbside service, unlike a home delivery company. Using a common carrier takes a lot of research. You have to find one that actually ships to an area where the customer lives. In addition not all do residential deliveries. On top of that, pricing a transit times vary greatly.
Carrington Court has been selling directly to the public from our website since 1997 (in business since 1984). With each passing year we get better at this complicated ballet. While no year goes off without a hitch, we will continue to do everything possible to make our customers experience as smooth as possible. I know that some may not be interested in knowing what goes on behind the scenes, but I just wanted to take the time to acknowledge and thank all of our team for their hard work.
The Myth of Free Shipping
Posted by Brad | Filed under wing chairs, shipping, tips
What is it about the "idea" of free shipping that is so attractive. I, myself have been lured by this phrase many times. But how can this be? UPS, FedEx and the USPS don't work for free. Does it really matter? At least we're saving some money.
A retailer throwing in the cost of shipping as an incentive for buying their product is believable enough. For instance, on Amazon.com if you spend over $25 you often are eligible for free standard shipping. Since a lot of the items that Amazon sells is books, CDs and DVDs one could see how eating a dollar or two is possible--especially since Amazon is such a huge seller. It's not like they are paying the same shipping rates as the average Joe on the streets. They get deep discounts and they play the averages to know that in the end, they won't lose money.
Where you should be suspicious about free shipping is on large or heavy items. Things like refrigerators, tires, auto parts, big screen TVs and furniture are extremely expensive to ship. It doesn't matter how large the company selling these items is. They are not going to be able to negotiate the price down enough with the carrier to give away free shipping. The cost is going to have to be made up somewhere.
So, how do retailers offer free shipping on these larger items. There are several ways, but here are the most common methods:
- They hide the actually cost of shipping in the price of the item. This is an especially effective tactic on expensive items. For example, let's say that a big screen TV is priced at $3000. The retailer may pay something like $2500 for it. If the big box retailer is a big shipper, they may be able to negotiate a shipping rate of $150. So they offer "free" shipping to spur interest. In the end the retailer is still making $350 and has probably charged a higher retail price to cover those charges.
- Another particularly effective method is the use of "standard" shipping. Let's take the example of the big screen TV again. The retailer may offer this TV for $2700 with a cost of $2550. Once again the actual cost of shipping is $150. Of course if they offer free shipping, they won't make any money. So how can they do it? They offer free "standard" shipping. The customer is told that the order may take 2 to 4 weeks for delivery, but if they wish to receive it within the next few days they can use an expedited shipping method and the cost will be $200. Of course many customers will be anxious to get that new TV so will go ahead and pay the extra shipping charge. The retailer actually makes an extra $50 on the transaction and this helps defray the costs of the customers that accept the free method. It's just a matter of averages.
This same principles apply to low cost shipping. The lesson here is that shipping is always charged and you may not see it. Once again, you may think, "big deal, at least I'm saving money one way or another." The problem with this mindset is that the true cost of the product is hidden. Let me give one more example to illustrate my point, this time from an industry that I'm more than familiar with: furniture.
Furniture Co. offers a wing chair for $450 with free shipping. The chair price is a steal in itself, but free shipping takes the cake. Now lets say that shipping the chair costs $200, which is not an unreasonable amount. That would put the cost at $250. Now think about this for a second. A wing chair for $250. Is this a rational price? Think about the cost of manufacturing. In that price is the fabric, frame, springs, cushions, finishing, upholstery, sewing and all the other parts and labor in addition to the profit to be made. Can you really make a quality chair for this price? One other thing to consider is that if this is sold retail (not direct from the manufacturer) there is a 30% - 50% markup.
I'm a strong advocate to showing customers the true price. That is one reason why Carrington Court breaks out the shipping price. We want you to understand that we are not hiding anything. Along those same lines we don't treat shipping as a profit center. Our goal is to break even on shipping. There are times that we lose a couple of dollars on shipping, but we never overcharge. We're in the furniture business not the freight business.
There's a lot more to be said about shipping. I know some may think this is a boring subject, but when you're purchasing furniture, it is a subject that is important to be informed on. I also don't want you to think that everyone offering free shipping is trying to rip you off. There are good deals to be had, but it is in your best interest to reflect on all the costs of your purchase. In the coming weeks I'll be posting an article detailing all the ins-and-outs of furniture delivery, the costs involved and different shipping methods available. Let me know if you have any questions.