News from Earth and Fire -- March 16, 2009


 
Tell me what to do here, folks...
 
Can we talk here for a moment? I hope so. I need to hear from you. I need to know what you're thinking. Especially those of you who haven't ever (or haven't for a long time) purchased anything from the gallery. I need to know why not.
 
I was trying to ponder this over the weekend.
 
When I picked out the pots for the show that I picked out, I tried to get a very broad range of pots, including some at very affordable price points. I was especially excited about the guinomi I got from Kent Harris, and the tiny little bowls from Aaron Sober.
 
Kent Harris -- Guinomi


 
2" tall X 3" in diameter
4 available $14/each

 

Aaron Sober -- Small Bowls A, B, C and D


 
1 1/2" tall X 4" in diameter
$15/each

 
At $14 and $15 each, I thought these were just wonderful. Why, you could put your rings in them at night. You could set used tea bags in them. You could put chinese mustard in them when you ate egg rolls. You could put olive oil and balsamic vinegar and dip your bread in them. Heck, you could even drink TEA from Kent's guinomi. The possibilities are endless!
 
So why are they still here?
 
I tried to imagine I was a first-time visitor to my website, or even someone who had been reading the newsletters for years, but had never actually purchased anything from me online. I imagined that I had decided to maybe take a chance on one of those little bowls for just $14. Why wouldn't someone be willing to do that?
 
I realized that someone who clicked the BUY NOW button would immeditely see a shipping charge of $12 on a $14 item. Ouch. That could have been a real road block right there.
 
But what can I do about that? There is just no way I can program in actual shipping charges to the shopping cart. I could probably do it on an individual item basis (i.e., inflate the price of the small bowls to include shipping, and then NOT charge shipping), but if you ordered multiple items, the shipping would be too high on all of them together. If you ordered this vase from Sam Taylor
 

Triangular Vase


 

 
11" tall X 5 1/4" in diameter
$250

 
and also one of the small bowls, I would just pop the little bowl into the package and it wouldn't cost any more to send it along.
 
The problem is.. the shopping cart doesn't know whether you ordered four of Aaron Sober's little bowls (which would probably cost about $8 total to ship), or this vase and three of of Sam Taylor's plates (which would probably cost at least $15 to ship). I've done the best I can to estimate shipping charges, but I'm never going to be able to get it right all the time, simply because the weight of the pots varies so much.
 
The shopping cart has always said that your final shipping charges could be less, and I have always done that -- revised the shipping charges down when I wrote up the order to reflect a more accurate estimate for the actual order. When the actual charges have been more, I've shrugged and gone on. I've gotten pretty good at coming very close.
 
I realize that I can do more. I can charge ACTUAL shipping charges. I can put the order together, and box it up for shipping, and jump through the UPS.com hoops and get the ACTUAL shipping cost BEFORE I make the invoice and run your credit cards through. That I can EASILY do.
 
So that's what I'm going to do from now on. The shopping cart will show an estimate, and be clear that it will never be MORE than that, but that it will be actual charges, and in most cases that will be less.
 
But you need to tell me what ELSE I can do.
 
The bottom line here, folks is that if I have to ship these pots back to Sam and Sequoia and Aaron and Kent and Willem and Ray and Michael at the end of the month, I doubt they will ever send me pots again. Why would they? They have paid to ship them TO me. They won't keep doing that if all they get back from me are the pots.
 
Click here and tell me what to do. Please.
 
One thing I would specifically like to know is.. "How frequently would you welcome a newsletter?" If you send me an email with an answer to this question, or a suggestion, I will reply with a voucher code worth $5 on your next order.
 
Here for the rest of the month....
 
March Forth
- The Next Chapter Begins -

 
(That is not a typo, it's a pun.:)
 
Click here to see the show
 

 

 

 
Have a good week.
 

 

 

 
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