Yes, first, we have coffee. Then we can get down to business.
Home Microgreens Business Practices
We want to be transparent, honest, and trustworthy.
Home Microgreens is a business, and we want to be profitable. Not to take all we can from our readers and customers. You guys are first. We believe Home Microgreens provides value. We test, experiment, and show you the results, making your decisions easier.
Of course, each home and grow room is different, so results may vary. So if you have different results share them with us so we can report it, update our article, or figure out why the results are different.
We want to work with you.
Affiliate Links
Some of the links on the website are affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and purchase a product or service, Home Microgreens might receive a small referral at no extra cost. Affiliate relationships are ubiquitous in all businesses, whether online or brick and mortar.
That said, we don’t link to a product for any other reason than we believe that it is beneficial to you. We use or have used that same product or service with excellent results.
We want our customers and readers for the long-term. There’s no advantage to us to lose your trust over a commission of a few cents.
Product Pricing
Pricing is set up so that when you buy an item in more substantial quantities, it will be less. Pricing is also set up, so the majority of seeds and such are the same price. However, the seed and equipment availability is erratic (especially with the current pandemic situation). Each supplier has different rates and shipping and handling practices. Therefore, prices can and will vary day to day depending on which supplier we need to purchase from to reduce the overall order cost considering all of the variables.
Shipping & Handling
We try to make shipping as fair as possible. Shipping costs have been the hardest aspect of our eCommerce business. As you may or may not know, the USPS pricing is all over the place based on distance, package size, and weight. Other factors to consider are the box and envelope cost and paying people to pull and package the orders.
We have been surprised with the items ordered. So having one size box and one price to ship just isn’t feasible. So for each order, we see if one item skews the cost. We also review the amount of money brought in as S&H and our cost output for postage and supplies.
Our current goal is to charge as much as we put out in postage and supplies, not considering the handling aspect. We don’t intend to make money on shipping, only to break even as close as possible.
Free Shipping
We do have a free shipping threshold at $75. On average, it costs us over $20 to ship those packages, a little less than a third of the revenue. Indeed, this cuts into profits (it can also eliminate the profit depending on the items ordered). Still, we feel that people who wish to spend this much money are totally into microgreens. We know our service and prices are reasonable, and they’ll be repeat customers.
How do others have such a low free shipping threshold?
Of course, we can’t speak for them or know for sure, but those companies most likely are adding the cost of S&H to the price of their goods. In other words, they are raising their multiplier on item cost. So instead of charging 79¢ for a packet of seed, they charge $1.29 or more.
We don’t think this is right, as those that don’t meet the free shipping threshold are paying way more than they should for a product.
We want to be as fair as possible, so our prices are set lower, and shipping is calculated on a per-item basis—a base cost for packaging and a per-unit charge for the item. We continuously modify and improve these numbers. What we haven’t considered is the shipping zone.
Shipping Zone
We don’t want to make a set shipping price based on distance where we charge the median cost to ship to the central states, make money on packages shipped to the eastern seaboard, and lose money on those sent to the western states.
We have shipped to every state and some to eastern Canada, so we have some data where most of our orders come from; still, we want to make it fair for everyone.
A shipping zone is a set of distances from the origin of the package. For us in central New York State, it cost less to ship to New Hampshire than it does Washington State. We believe we have enough data to add shipping zones to our costs to make shipping even fairer for our customers.
Too Much Info?
Maybe we are stressing too much on being transparent on our S&H costs. However, we want to show you that we care and put effort into our practices to be fair to all of our customers.