Discussion: Shipping, an International dilemma

With the recent international shipping and general unrest in the America indie (mostly perfume) community, it's becoming more and more evident that shipping is becoming extremely costly, especially with indie brands (smaller and independently owned), who aren't part of bigger conglomerates that can fund and also bite the differences of expenditure and profit. 

There were two posts that caught my attention on r/IMAM, firstly the discussion in the Poesie price hike, and the general affordability of indie perfumes, and also Luvmilk's decision to stop offering international shipping as an option on the main site. 

Some of the interesting topics touched on is, how much it costs to be interested in indie companies, and why we might be interested in indie perfumes at all.

The biggest struggle is, regarding international purchases, is that buying from indie brands more than 80% of the time means buying from North America. For me personally, it's becoming exceedingly difficult to justify buying indie products - especially with the rising price tags for both products and shipping.

There are a variety of reasons why people decided to buy from indies: perhaps as a decision against BIGCORPS, or even as a way to support local brands, or vegan and cruelty free products, or even buying because indies offer personal and warm customer relations and a close relationship with their consumers.

For me, I personally find that indies are much typically more responsive to their customer base (especially in relation to customer service, advice and other things) and above all, I love that I can find perfumes that smell like food- something that doesn't sell well and isn't typically offered in mainstreams, and most of all - sample sizes that make it easy to try and then buy things you enjoy!

On the last points, having discussed with Jasmine, we agreed on similar things - mostly because we find a whole bottle of mainstream perfume almost painful to finish. Personally, in this case, I'm someone who's willing to pay a bit more for a sample bottle than dropping a lot of money on a huge bottle I won't be able to finish - I have less than 10 full sized bottles that I bought with my own money, and I have not had the chance to finish any of these. It's not that I don't like the scents, as I do, but I find it difficult to even finish a 1.15ml sample EDP because I just like changing up what I wear.

The biggest deterrent for buying from indies for me really, is shipping. Shipping is just an unnecessarily expensive cost, and it really does end up stacking up. Additionally, a lot of brands will have costly prices for international shipments (like NAVA), and those which are weight based (Sugar and Spite, Luvmilk) end up almost doubling the prices of the products due to the cost of shipping. My preferred methods of shipping is bracket based, which allows the customer to choose as much as possible within the weight bracket (500g, 1kg) which goes from around 15USD to 22USD, and is sort of 'flat rate' of sorts (Solstice Scents, Ajevie). The best type, is definitely a flat rate, or free shipping over $50 (anything more than $100 is absurd to me), which is the best choice for me. While you might have to cover a bit more for shipping on a smaller order, a large order is the example of, not sweating the small stuff.

I am definitely more likely to order from a brand which offers flat rate shipping, as I simply feel bad for not being able to pay directly for the product to the company, and to me, it's essentially a lot of money that really doesn't go anywhere (in my personal opinion).

I recently ordered a package from Solstice Scents, and the owner had a rare case of my package being rejected three times at customs at the Miami postal centre, and each time out of her own pocket paying another $22USD for my package each time. There is simply no way for smaller business owners to come away happily from the postal system, especially if they're willing to go above and beyond to cater to international customers - and that is of course a huge deterrent for brands to stop offering International shipping as well = a huge out of pocket loss due to shipping itself. 

Unfortunately, I can't see a good resolution to this issue - as Australian Post is close to having a monopoly on international shipping, and as far as I am aware, USPS is usually the best choice for shipping - as long as a company has that power, there is no choice but for everyone else involved in the equation to acquiesce.

That being said, I believe that it is a wise business practice for other indie companies to look into international shipping as the availability of other options is a great way to make sure that they aren't undercharging for packages, but also offering better deals for all customers.

In the case of Poesie, it seems that the owner has chosen to raise the price of international shipping from $14 to $17, and a similar rise for Canadian orders, and to decrease the domestic price of $3 to free domestic shipping with every order. While the price hike of her own products were more likely to cover smaller, one or two item orders to cover domestic shipping - it also seems unnecessary to not charge for shipping and ask for it to be included in the product cost.

In my own calculations, it does add up - the heavier the product is, the more you'll be paying for more bottles, and that in itself will cover the shipping cost, and also provide a reasonable profit for Poesie. In this case, it seems to make sense - but towards customers, they see a drastic rise in pricing, because they're paying for exactly the same products without any difference. Which, I don't think it fair towards international buyers either, who already have to pay more. I'm happy to pay $15, or even $22 for shipping- but maybe not at the current price hike would I be happy to spend- despite my love for Poesie's blends.

Personally, I have regularly been involved with the Australian post since running my own second hand clothing sell service, I absolutely understand biting the difference - it's hard to manage everything when online resources can only do so much, and the post office will regularly make your life hard (I once had to bite a $20AUD difference, so I know the feeling.)

Additionally, I asked for a package to be shipped to Germany, and had to ask someone to help me post the item - the mail worker told my proxy that the slightly more expensive option with no tracking was somehow, a better deal, and almost cost me the whole exchange - both money and item wise. 

Fortunately, I've never had a package go missing on me, but I learnt so much about the shipping service (mostly how shit it is), and how everything is generally all weight based, and also that shipping rates keep going up (USPS especially). 

As far as I am aware, it is possible for smaller companies to contract with courier services, so that they can get commercial pricing on a lot of their shipments, which in turns makes it much more affordable for the international customers. These are usually also unpriced packages, so if you receive a parcel without the price printed on it, this has not been handled by the post office. When I was selling clothes, they typically provide printed price tags for each package, which is also done in weight brackets in Australia.

At the end of this light perusal of an issue that goes much deeper, far beyond what we can see, in an age where online shopping becomes all the more convenient and easy for consumers, surely there must be a need to fix the issue of international shipping for any non-American consumers who have been inadvertently been marginalised by indie brands.

All information was correct at time of publication.