CEO Blog

Everybody’s doing it.  Name a heavyweight company and chances are that they are offering some type of free shipping during the holidays.  Nike, Under Armour, Toys-R-Us? They all have a free shipping promotion in place. Many of these shipping promotions are one–day offerings or lead-ins to Christmas to attempt to drive more volume during the holiday season, and for the majority of the big guys, the higher sales realized through these promotions more than offset the small loss in shipping charges they incur.

Keep in mind that large retailers and manufacturers have the lowest shipping rates in the world.  Through their huge volume of shipping, they are able to negotiate far superior rates to smaller competitors and ship at a fraction of what you would be charged by FedEx or USPS.  However, these savings are not always passed along to you, the customer.  After negotiating their rates down, many large companies keep their shipping rates fairly standard, using the margin they gain as a revenue stream.

Basically, when it comes to shipping costs, the playing field is not always even.  Smaller companies pay more than larger companies.  This is perfectly understandable and I don’t believe it to be unfair, but the reality is that it can be a burden for smaller companies like 3N2 when competing against the giants.

3N2 does occasionally receive complaints about shipping costs but they are almost always related to delivering to remote locations or overseas. In any case, it’s always troublesome to us as we have never viewed shipping as a revenue stream.  We offer our customers the very lowest shipping rates we can, which includes the discounts we receive from our shippers. The rates you see reflected on the 3N2 website are automatically fed directly into the site from FedEx and USPS.  They are what they are.

In light of the season, 3N2 is offering free standard shipping on all purchases beginning Cyber Monday all the way through the New Year. This is not a one-day offer and it is not tied to a minimum purchase amount. It’s a simple gift to you and we hope it is well received.

Given we do not receive the deep shipping discounts of a Nike or Under Armour, the pain of free shipping hurts a bit, but we know that everyone is hurting a bit these days and want to do our part to help during the holidays. Enjoy the holiday shopping season and feel free to share your opinions on shipping!

Check back soon – I’ll be introducing our new products for 2011, including revamped baseball cleats and fastpitch softball cleats.