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Welcome to the Free Shipping section. There maybe a few other items online that do not appear here. We are not really into the “Free” concept. As it is a Gimmick. Spoiler alert so please jump to the next paragraph if you do not wish to know more….. There is no such thing as ‘Free’. Free Shipping. Free Money. Free, well anything that is a product.
The last generation knew this. They told us “Nothing in life is Free”. But then along came ecommerce and put up “Free Shipping” and we wanted to believe it. Because it is nice. It is nice to believe. But the reality is it is not free. Every cost in every business that sells a product online, or through a Brick and mortar shop from a Car to a square foot of tile has to be covered at the sale of the product. That cost can be debt (which we have removed), multiple links in the supply chain (which we have removed). Employees salaries (they will not work for free and would not expect them too and neither would you so that is a cost we cannot eliminate and we should pay people well, it is important).
Other costs can include fixed costs such as a building. Even the cost of the physical shipping. That is generally shipped via UPS, FedEx or USPS. I can assure you. The driver of the UPS truck did not say to his supervisor “I no longer wish to be paid. I am going to work for free, in fact I am even going to pay for the gas that goes into my vehicle with my own money. I know I have 2 children and a mortgage but they will be perfectly fine hungry and with no home”.
That is just not realistic. Given all this. It means that Free Shipping is an illusion. A creation of marketers. It can be created only a few ways. 1. Lower the product Quality (pay less for the products and then use that money to fund the shipping costs and other related costs). 2. Increase the product price, this is the most popular method. So if we are selling a product, like our Carrara Venato 3x6” Subway Tile which is $7.00 a Square Foot and wished to make it “Free Shipping” we could: 1. Lower the Quality (bad idea, would lead to negativity and issues) or 2. Increase the product price say to $9.00 a square foot, then offer “Free Shipping”.
But it is not Free.
In fact Free Shipping is actually a negative for the consumer. On a larger purchase lets say two hundred square feet, at $7.00 a square foot it would cost $1,400 plus shipping (around $260) would equal $1,670.
Now let’s look at the free shipping item for $9.00 a square foot again two hundred square feet. Now that is $1,800. So the company offered free shipping actually made an additional $130.00 at your expense. You think “Yippee! I got free shipping”. Nope, No you did not you actually paid the company more. You have to look at the total cost.
Free Shipping plays on consumer ignorance and for the last decade has become an incredibly powerful tool, so much so that people rarely even do the math anymore and simply assume that Free Shipping must be the best deal, statistically they are 40% more likely to buy with that little logo of Free Shipping on it. However this is not an iPhone case purchased by a teenager, this is an expensive and well planned out home improvement project that you want to add value to your home. Not to the company of which you are buying it from.
Free Shipping however does have its place. We offer it on certain mosaics and products that are new entrants into the market. New collections. We simply cut our margins and not impact the price. We are doing this because we want to ‘grow’ market share. This is a key objective for a company that is just over a decade old. Market share is what we want, we want our brand in the market and we are willing to pay your shipping on certain products to promote it for us. We hope all will go well, you will tell friends. That is marketing. Word-of mouth. As we have a no frills marketing strategy.
So please help keep our Free Shipping items Shipping for Free for 2018-19. If we do a good job and you are happy, send us a picture of the installation. Let us show your skills of selection, design and wonderful looking backsplash or bathroom. If you have a blog we can link ours back to yours. We have a lot of visitors, DIY blogs are created so you can drive traffic to your website. We can help with that process with the most important of customers, those looking to remodel which is your target market of your advertisers on your blog. For you it is financially beneficial for us it provides our customers with more knowledge and that is crucial in the decision making process, even if they buy elsewhere, we will have helped to send them to a good blog with relevant articles on Home Improvement.
The items above are free shipping for marketing benefit of gaining market share. Once that is achieved to a level we are happy with the promotion will end. Congratulations if you purchased a Free Shipping product during this marketing phase which can last 2-3 years. Again please help us with a picture.... Hint, Hint :)
I am sorry if I have burst anyone's bubble about the “Marketing of Free Shipping” but it is not free and what our Grandparents and Parents told us really is true….. Nothing in life is free. There is always a purpose. Without one then they have used option #1 or #2 explained above.
Equally I apologize if this dialogue comes over as too direct or candid. I am told it should be fluffier and more marketing fluff in my approach. But I say "Hogwash!". It is time for people to just be told the truth. Blunt. Upfront. Clarity.
Q. How are your prices so low? A great question and one that we cannot answer in just one sentence. This is an introductory price for a new collection and is subject to change. But how all our prices are so low is answered in more detail on our FAQ's to read click here and get into the economics of this business model. It is quite exciting.
Q. What if I buy an item that is Free Shipping with a product that is not? All products are entered into the system with a weight. It is that weight and quantity which calculates the shipping cost. Quite simply all Free Shipping products are entered with 'Zero' weight. So it will ship with your other order as if it ways nothing. Essentially as if it were not there. Not adding any additional cost to your shipping cost.
Q. Is this First Quality? All our products are. But this Glass Tile is 8mm with kiln fused backing (order a sample and see). The White glass is premium "Virgin" white glass to ensure no green hint at all. We have spared no expense on the quality. Our margins are really low, our business model allows for it (This is not some painted on cheap backer). This is the best the market offers and for our customers this is Brilliant!
Q. What is the shipping cost? On this page Zero, Nothing, Zip! It is a market share model we are aiming for. We have dropped the shipping cost in order to gain market share in these particular areas. It can also be if we are "Overstocked". If the "System" inadvertently made an error and ordered 100,000 square feet instead of 10,000 square feet then we have to take action and reduce the inventory.
Q. Can I not get Free Shipping on any other products? No. If it is not on this page it is not free shipping. We state anywhere on this site (no matter how you much you wish it did) "Free Shipping on Select items" this is the selected items. We did not put anywhere "Free Shipping on every product". Please no matter how much you want things for free they do not exist. The UPS driver will expect to be paid. I am sure you or your spouse, friend, family member, etc, etc. expects to be paid for their work. In 600 B.C., Lydia's King Alyattes minted the first official currency. That currency was used to pay for labor. We have been on the same system for over two thousand years.
What would you do as a designer if all your customers wanted you to do all your design work for free. Or a Builder to Build houses for Free. Or a lawyer and all your clients wanted free advice and so on. It is not something you would even consider.
So please respect us as you would want to be respected yourself. We are people. With families. Children. Lives. We are not Robots. We try and do everything we can to offer the best price for the best quality. There maybe a better price a lower quality. We buy products from the market like you and compare. We notice others reducing the thickness of their mosaics to lower the price, that is not smart and certainly not in line with the Marble Institute of America's requirements. There are ways to achieve Free Shipping if it serves a marketing purpose.
However we refuse to impact our customers product quality to achieve some made up marketing gimmick! It is time for America to understand and know more. Not be lead blindly down the path by tricky marketing executives. There is no way round it. You get what you pay for. Unless the company can provide a bona fide rationale as to how their prices are low. We have addressed this in the "about us" video and it looks into the supply chain, but there is more. We did not stop at just the supply chain and we will never stop. We just do not know how.
Click here to see how we are able to price our products as we do.
Click here and read FAQ#3. This gets into more of the economics. This is simply more than just impacting the supply chain. We reviewed everything and still do today and everyday. Ordering other competitors samples and ensuring dollar for dollar we have the best value.
Q. Can you not work with me at all on the shipping, anything? We want to help anyone we can. It is in our nature. In fact the entire business model is designed for one purpose; to take out the inefficiencies of this industry and give that back to the consumer. We estimate the consumer has been over paying by around 50-60% for the past sixty years. The very purpose of this website is to help. Help give Americans back some value in their homes, by turning Home Improvement into an asset gain instead of industry set loss. But we cannot do it without the consumers help. If this is simply out of your budget (we hear that often) then please wait until you have saved more money. Be patient. Or perhaps go with a mosaic on the floor and paint on the wall. I am sure all our employees would like better cars, or homes that are outside their budget but they cannot just keep asking they get shown another vehicle or home. Being online does not mean we are not human. We are Human. Selling online has removed humanity to some extent. We see it in the emails. Emails that one person would never say to their neighbor, or if we printed it out and we mailed it to them and they read it out loud to their family they would be shocked by what they wrote.
We do have options. If you have time. We can try and find a lower quality version of what you require. If you require a marble bathroom, our products are exceptional we offer the best grade (you can read the reviews). We could try and find a lower grade that is cheaper. It would be a one off. It will not look as nice. But there is no way round it. Once you remove all loose costs and operate at a minimum. The costs you are left with the cost of extraction, fabrication, shipping and people, we cannot lower, not without impact to the product quality. But we can lower the quality in a "Special Order". If you are ordering more than 360 Square Feet and can wait 12-14 weeks. Then we can see what is out there. No promises. But we will always, always do our best. We tell our Children to do that everyday :)
In one Paragraph “Simplify the supply chain, improve product quality, carry no debt, operate on low margins, lower costs with no a no frills marketing strategy. Then bring this value to our customers so they can add what would have been lost profit into the value of their own home or business. Give the power back to the customer. Completely disrupt what has been well over half a century of inefficient supply to the end user!”
