May 21st, 2018
We switched to cold shipping earlier this May. Here's more information as we strive to be a company that is as transparent as you can be.
Cold shipping costs more, so we'll cover it
This May, we purchased a walk-in freezer as well as several smaller freezers. We expanded our staff to account for the increased packing time. We've also even bought some automatic box sealing machines to help speed up things.
Unfortunately cold shipping takes longer to pack. We have to secure our ice packs in each order with care and we also have to be careful about when we pack.
Ultimately this means increased costs for us, both for the materials and extra man power.
After an internal debate, we decided to absorb the rather significant cold shipping costs. Rather than charge $5 or more in extra cold shipping fees like most places, we've decided to eat the costs ourselves.
Instead of making a profit this summer, we hope to simply break even. This is a risky move for us, but it's one we believe in.
At ChocZero, customers come first: not profit. It should always only be $5.99 shipping on our site and it should always be free shipping on Amazon. We don't want to change this and we won't let a little heat get in the way of our vision of one of the most customer centric health food businesses.
From envelopes to boxes
Another way we traditionally save money is using priority envelopes when we can. This works great in the winter, however, in the summer it's a nightmare. These cost effective parcels fit way too easily into mailboxes. As such, we've decided to pack in boxes for orders over $20 on the shop and Amazon (i.e. if you order two pairs of bark in the same order, it will be cumulative and trigger the $20+ mark). This way the post man simply can't ignore our perishable labels and stuff it in the mailbox to melt.
This is another cost we have to absorb, as boxes are significantly higher priced.
Recent Delays
We wanted to apologize profusely for a slower shipping time lately as well as delays for about 5% of our orders. Due to the above changes, we've had an increased pre-shipment length overall and sometimes it extends too long for certain customers.
Additionally, while thousands of orders go out every week quickly without a hitch from our factory, some people have occasionally gotten slower orders to the tune of two or even three weeks. It happened in a larger twice: when coconut and 70% went out of stock then again when some newer hires forgot about orders from a Saturday a week ago.
A big source for these delays is we restructured our shipping department in March and April, meaning everyone on the team was new to cold shipping as well as the job. This was an unavoidable situation and we are at fault for not doing it slower. We were also unprepared for such a high volume of orders.
The good news is we've hired more folks as mentioned, and we're also working DOUBLE SHIFTS to catch up. Anyone who is upset about an experience they had with their order can email support@choczero.com. If you've ever waited over ten days for an order and didn't talk to us about making it right, please reach out. We'll happily refund anyone who experiences significant delays or reship any lost orders.
Thank You
Last but not least, we wanted to include a special thanks to everyone for supporting us so far. Our unprecedented growth has meant the world to us and we appreciate you understanding as we encounter new hurdles and new lessons to learn.