Which retailers still offer free shipping?
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squatchys_diecast_hangar
Member
Unfortunately shipping costs have gone up worldwide and retailers have to pay those shipping costs when buying from the manufacturers, especially when you are paying shipping from China. That alone nearly adds $4-5 per model in ship cost. So it’s a huge margin hit when offering free shipping, especially a brick and mortar store, like us. If you can get it great, but it’s really becoming a thing of the past, unless you are Amazon.
My two cents: Offering at least free shipping for minimum purchases can entice people to buy models that they are on the fence about, as well as additional models to hit the threshold. I can imagine the costs of doing business are increasing, but so are the cost of models for collectors. Having to pay shipping for every new order can be a huge deterance. And now the models just sit on the shelves losing money to competitors and re-releases. I might be wrong about everything, including this, but don't retailers receive shipping discounts for bulk printing? In any case, I checked your website and the selection is quite good. But again for me personally, the shipping and lack of discount coupons is what's stopping me. Would love to swing by in person though.
squatchys_diecast_hangar
Member
There are no shipping discounts in bulk, it just gets more expensive the more you order, it’s all weight based. Understand, and there are really only a handful of us brick and mortar stores, literally just a handful. So our operating costs are far more than any other online only retailer. So for us to give discounts consistently or give free shipping just doesn’t make sense financially as we run close to margin and our prices are inline with the online only stores. And yes prices keep going up, we just got an email today from Gemini saying that next month prices are going up, so take this as notice as Gemini prices will rise next month across the board, with instructions that all retailers will need to adjust their prices to reflect the new MAP . So with anything in today’s market, whether it be hobbies or not, prices continue to increase, and with that consumer prices will continue to increase. So as stated before, I believe the days of continued coupons and or free shipping are numbered, if a particular retailer wants to stay afloat. I will tell you without telling you what we pay, but the markup is not a lot.
BillFlyTheDiecastGuy
New member
Still offering our usual free shipping on qualifying 1:400 orders of $100+, though the minimum spend likely to go up soon.
