Why Does Casaroma Charge Shipping?

Shipping goes to Someone Else.

A couple of customers contacted us this week because they wanted to place orders of more than $100, but when they saw the shipping charge added at checkout, they decided not to continue. I completely understand why that can be frustrating, particularly because some of our longtime customers may remember a time when Casaroma offered free shipping on purchases over $100.

We did offer that for quite a long time. Unfortunately, as our order volume changed, we reached a point where we could not continue absorbing the cost of shipping and still keep our product prices where we wanted them. It has now been over a year since we discontinued that offer, but I realized this week that we have probably never properly explained why.

When you order from Casaroma, the price you see on the product is the price of the product. We have worked very hard over the years to keep those prices as reasonable as we can while still making products in smaller quantities, choosing our ingredients carefully, and maintaining the quality of the formulas themselves. That is one of the reasons you can still purchase products such as a 60 ml shampoo or shower gel for $6 rather than watching those prices climb to make another part of the order appear less expensive.

Shipping is different. It is the cost of physically moving that parcel from us in Nova Scotia to you, wherever you are in Canada, and that cost is charged by the carrier according to things such as the size and weight of the parcel and the distance it has to travel.

“Free Shipping” Still Has a Cost

When a company offers free shipping, the cost of moving that package has not disappeared. Someone is still paying for it.

A large retailer may be able to negotiate very low rates because of the enormous number of parcels it sends every day. Other businesses may build some of that cost into their product prices or have enough order volume that they can absorb the shipping expense as part of doing business.

For a small company like Casaroma, covering a $15, $20, or $25 shipping charge means that money has to come from somewhere. If we pay the carrier on your behalf, that amount comes directly out of the money we received for the products in your order. On a $100 order, for example, we have not really received $100 toward the products, ingredients, packaging, labour, and operation of Casaroma if a significant portion of it immediately has to be used to transport the parcel.

That was ultimately the problem with our old free-shipping-over-$100 offer. We loved being able to provide it, but we no longer had enough order volume to spread that expense across the business without it taking too much away from the actual sale.

We could have responded by raising product prices and hiding some of that shipping cost inside every bottle, jar, and stick. But then our local customers who pick up their orders would be paying toward shipping they never used, and someone buying several products could potentially be paying that hidden amount multiple times within the same order.

For us, it makes more sense to keep the product price about the product, and the shipping charge about getting that order to you.

We Do Not Make Money on Shipping

This is something we especially want people to know.

Casaroma currently works with a shipping service that gives us access to discounted shipping rates rather than simply paying the regular counter price every time we send a parcel. Those discounted rates are passed along to our customers. We do not add a profit margin to shipping, and Casaroma does not make a cent from your shipping fee.

In fact, the opposite is true. If we decide to cover some or all of the shipping ourselves, that money is being taken from what we would otherwise receive for the products you purchased.

We are certainly not finished looking for better options. If we find another shipping app, service, or carrier arrangement that gives us better rates without sacrificing reliable delivery, we will absolutely investigate it. If we can reduce the cost of getting Casaroma products to you, we want that saving passed through to you as well.

So How Can Shipping Work Better for You?

One of the things you can do is look ahead a little before completing your order. Like you do when you are making a grocery list.

If you already need shampoo, take a moment to see whether your conditioner is getting low too. If you know you will need deodorant next month, or there is another Casaroma product that someone else in your household regularly uses, it may make more sense to include those products in the same parcel rather than paying to ship several smaller orders at different times.

That does not mean buying things you do not need to justify the shipping. It means making the shipping you are already paying for do as much work for your household as possible. We are also launching our subscriptions so you can create your order and have it shipped to you automatically every 2 months. That automation is almost finished, hopefully taking it live this week.

And if you live close enough to use our Saturday pickup at Alderney Gate in Dartmouth, that remains another option. You can place your order ahead of time, choose pickup, and avoid shipping altogether. That location is also up for discussion.

If Shipping Has Been the Thing Stopping You, Talk to Us

The customers who contacted us this week did something we genuinely appreciated: they told us why they did not complete their orders.

That information matters to us.

If you have ever filled your Casaroma cart and stopped because the shipping charge felt too high, we would rather you tell us than disappear from the checkout. We cannot promise that we can make the shipping charge better, but we can listen, look at the order with you, see whether another option is possible, and continue learning where shipping is becoming a barrier for our customers.

We cannot control what it costs to transport a parcel across Canada, but we can continue searching for the best rates available to us, pass those savings along when we find them, keep our product prices as reasonable as possible, and be transparent about where your money is going.

And if our business grows to the point where we can responsibly offer better shipping incentives again, we absolutely will.

For now, if shipping is the reason you have not placed an order, please talk to us before deciding Casaroma is no longer an option. We would much rather have the conversation.