As designers, you need your supplies shipped to you. And shipping costs can drastically affect the designs you make and the customers you serve.  

Your Retail Price = Cost of goods + Markup. 

Cost of goods includes the price you pay to have the product shipped to you.

For example, if a $10 box of 10 stems cost $1 to ship, the cost of each stem is no longer $1, but $1.10 when you do your retail price calculation.  

The more you pay for shipping, the less you might be tempted to take in markup in order to maintain a retail price point that is good for your customers. But the less you pay in shipping, the more markup and profit you could make! Shipping is your single largest controllable expense.  It is possible to reduce shipping as a percentage of your supply purchase.  

This is one of the reasons we are very clear with customers, telling you how much you will pay to ship before it leaves our warehouse. We understand that you need to know shipping costs because it affects your pricing strategy. However, when a company offers “free” shipping, the shipping cost is in there somewhere, and you have no idea what the goods actually cost as compared to shipping. You have more options when you know.  

Serving event, gift, and floral professionals is our mission, and that service includes helping you to spend less wherever possible without you having to ask. All orders go through a shipping review to get you the best rates. 

The reality of shipping product is that it will always cost money to pick something up and deliver it, whether across the street or across the country. Both parcel shippers (like UPS, FedEx, and USPS) and freight lines take into account labor, vehicle maintenance, fuel, and more. They also enact rules regarding delivery location, size, weight, and more that affect your costs.  

You don’t have time to be a logistics expert and learn their daily-changing policies. We do. You need to work with suppliers who understand these logistics, negotiate the best rates, and have solutions for you. We have become shipping experts, with four decades of history, because we know it affects your success.  

Today, freight shipments on pallets are almost always the least expensive option (as a percentage of the product). 

As an example, shipping a single box with a parcel shipper like FedEx or UPS can cost $40, even locally. But once the designer placed an order to fill a pallet (eight boxes), not only did they get our volume price discount for the product itself, but they received eight times the amount of product for only $140 shipping!  

How do you know whether shipping parcel or freight would be right for you? The chart below explains key differences: