PROFILE DELETIONS
Hello past and present customers! 2022 is quickly coming to a close and we wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas!Just a heads up that we are performing annual profile purges that will include customers that have subscribed to our Newsletter or monthly sales emails but have not made a purchase, do not have valid email accounts, or profiles created without any information created on or before 12/31/2018. Our marketing emails are billed by each profile email sent so to keep costs manageable, we delete profiles that meet this criterion from time-to-time. We have removed these profiles as of today but you are welcome to resubscribe again anytime either during checkout while making a purchase or click on the Subscribe button in the bottom middle of any page on the website.
Thank you and happy shopping!
Buffalo Trader Online & Staff
Thank you!
We are now in our 13th year of business, and we want to say thanks to our wonderful customers, like you!
ECONOMICS
2021 and 2022 so far have been difficult years for all of us. We've been met with difficult wholesale pricing structures and reduced staffing with nearly all of our suppliers, increased overhead costs, higher shipping costs, and slower than expected shipping delays with all three major carriers, USPS, FedEx, and UPS, all short-staffed. While our online traffic has increased over the last 18 months, we've experienced a sharp drop in sales, all due to this struggling economy and inflation. Believe us, we understand the difficulties stretching to budget to make ends meet. We're doing the same.
NEW WAREHOUSE LOCATION
We closed our small retail store at the end of June this year when our lease was up for renewal. We simply could not justify the additional monthly costs any longer, so we gave our notice, and we've moved our warehouse and shipping department to a much smaller, climate-controlled warehouse nearby. We're hoping the defrayed costs will help us grow our business so we can keep our pricing and shipping costs lower. We have only increased our shipping fee schedule once in 13 years of business and we do not currently have plans to change it. Even with the increased shipping costs, we're doing our best to make do without adding additional costs or upping our pricing. We still offer discounted UPS Ground and FedEx shipping rates, based on our contracted discounts.
NEW PRODUCTS COMING
We're also working with several new suppliers, all US-based, and only those that are willing to work with their retailers to help us all get through these tough times. We've had to make some tough decisions about which suppliers to keep and which ones to leave for the betterment of our business and for our promise to our customers for continued quality, fair product pricing, and the customer service you deserve. Going forward, we'll only be offering the most cost-effective, highest quality items to you, our customers.
OUR PROMISE TO YOU
As we remain a small, family-owned and operated business, we try to make these decisions with our customers' best interests at heart. With this in mind, we will continue supporting American owned and operated businesses only. Supporting only American businesses means more American jobs and the potential for economic growth and prosperity for everyone.
We appreciate your business and look forward to continuing to serve our customers.
Again, thank you for shopping with us. We appreciate your patronage and loyalty!
Buffalo Trader Online Owners & Staff
Buffalo Trader Online
Office Correspondence
PO Box 552
Elfers, FL 34680
Annual Sign Sale Going On Now
Annual Sign Sale Going On Now - Save an additional 15% off our prices and even more off suggested retail pices. Hurry, this sale ends soon!2021 Year In Review - Going Forward
We're in our 13th year of business this month thanks to our wonderful customers like you!
2021 was a difficult year for most small businesses. We were not an exception. We were notified by nearly every wholesale partner that currently supplies our goods that due to increased raw goods costs, production costs, and transportation costs, a sharp rise in wholesale pricing as well as higher shipping costs was inevitable. While our suppliers continue to hold back and are absorbing as much of the additional expenses as possible, an average additional increase of 10-12% has been passed on to online and brick-and-mortar retailers like us. Christmas 2021 was quite a struggle, but we managed somehow, but not without many, many delays. 2022 has started off much the same but rest assured, we are trying to contain costs as much as possible. Unfortunately, we have had to make sacrifices on which products will be available going forward and as a result, we have dropped a few of our product lines entirely as a result of poor supplier business performance, products not selling, or continuous supply chain issues with certain vendors. We hope to find suitable new products lines soon to give us a wider selection of goods that are reasonably priced and going forward, we will deal only with reputable suppliers to provide the best products as the best prices possible.
Products made of raw wood, steel, aluminum, silver, glass, and injection molded poly resin materials are among a few of the categories of products that have proven to be the most affected by increased costs. These increases are three-fold for us as a small business since we are not only absorbing higher incoming shipping costs but also the higher cost of the goods, higher minimums required by our suppliers, and increased outgoing shipping costs to our customers. While we have continued passing our discounted UPS and US postal shipping rates to our customers, we have not increased our tiered shipping rates for the past four years and at this point, we do not plan to increase shipping rates, however, this may have to happen down the road as our current shipping rates barely cover shipping costs in most instances, even for smaller packages of less than 3 lbs. to most delivery areas. Costs of packing materials, tape, and new shipping boxes (required for UPS and FedEx) have also seen sharp increases in costs in recent months. However, for customer shipping that creates a loss of less than $5.00, we absorb the difference in higher shipping from our profit margin rather than raising shipping rates or even higher product prices.
PLEASE NOTE: We only bill our customers additional shipping fees for larger or heavier items that require over-sized rates or when shipped to an obscure delivery location that dictates much higher costs. We will continue this practice for a long as is feasible. Products that may require additional shipping have a disclaimer in the description, however, combined shipping of multiple items can also create higher shipping costs that are not calculated at checkout. Our shopping cart calculates shipping based on purchase price and delivery region only, without consideration to size or weight. This is not something we can change currently. Please review our Terms and Conditions page for complete details.
We are in the process of adjusting prices for products with all our suppliers and in the coming weeks will be eliminating a few more of our current suppliers while adjusting available product lines for some items that we feel may no longer be practical for us to carry that are creating high-cost freight overhead on incoming merchandise as well as utilizing precious warehouse space. With much regret, many of our most popular items may no longer be available after these adjustments have been made. Some larger items may show out of stock but are actually still available. Because of ongoing high freight costs and other extraneous expenses, these items are no longer profitable for us. We hope, with time, that escalating shipping costs and costs for goods will normalize if and when our economy improves and/or suppliers of these larger items will consider utilizing drop-shipping to avoid or eliminate double-shipping costs.
As we remain a small, family-owned and operated business, we try to make these decisions with our customers' best interests at heart. We want to continue offering a wide variety of high-quality goods at fair prices with the lowest possible shipping costs. While shopping with us, keep in mind that while we can no longer offer free shipping because search engines like Google and Yahoo penalize us by restricting relevancy and viewership on search results when we offer "FREE" anything. This hurts us and other small businesses in lieu of "big tech" helping their biggest paid ads customers Amazon, eBay, and other big box stores that can afford to absorb these costs and who receive much larger shipping discounts due to volume than we do. We are trying our best to prevent being squeezed out of the online marketplace to continue offering our customers fair and honorable pricing and policies without deceptive offers where the added costs are tacked onto the cost of products just for the sake of offering "free" anything. Many of our products are already priced at 20-25% below the manufacturer's retail suggested price to help our customers defray anticipated increased shipping costs. So, while we do not offer free shipping any longer, we do offer lower prices and our fairest shipping rates possible.
As a reminder, all of our products are sourced from American based companies providing American jobs and we plan to continue supporting American owned and operated businesses only. We believe that we can help keep costs down by being a part of the solution rather than contributing to the problem.
We appreciate your business and look forward to continuing to serve our customers in 2022.
Thank you!
Buffalo Trader Online Owners & Staff
Escalating Freight, Product Prices, and Overhead Costs
CELEBRATE WITH US!
We are now in our 12th year of business thanks to our wonderful customers like you! January, 2022 will make 13 years in business and we thank you for your continued patronage.
UPDATE ON RISING COSTS
In our last blog post, we discussed the rising costs of goods and shipping. We have been notified by every wholesale partner that currently supplies our goods that due to increased raw goods costs, production costs, and transportation costs, a sharp rise in wholesale pricing as well as higher transportation costs have unfortunately now made some of our most popular products no longer profitable. Due to hyper-inflation, we have made the decision to no longer offer some larger or heavier items in our products lines. These items include iron or heavier metals, wood, and glass items weighing more than 5 lbs. measuring 24 inches or more in any dimension. Items are marked as "(over-sized)" and most require separate shipping due to the weight and/or size and shape. These items are clearly marked on our website. We have also eliminated several product suppliers that have been unwilling to compromise on high-cost shipping options or product minimums.
AFFECTED PRODUCTS
Products made of raw wood, steel, aluminum, silver, glass, and injection molded poly resin materials are among a few of the categories of products that have proven to be the most affected by these increased costs. These increases are three-fold for us as a small business since we are not only absorbing higher incoming shipping costs (two increases just since January) but also additional fuel and distance surcharges with all major shipping carriers. Along with this inflation, we are also absorbing higher office, warehouse, electrical, and labor costs to operate. With the higher cost of goods, higher minimums required by our suppliers, and increased outgoing shipping costs to our customers, we had to make some tough decisions on which products to keep and which ones to no longer offer. Items that are not drop-shipped to our customers by our supplier have been marked "out of stock" momentarily. We hope this will only be temporary and while these items are still available from our suppliers, the overhead costs are just too great at this time.
DISCOUNTED SHIPPING RATES
While we have continued passing our discounted shipping rates to our customers, we have not increased our tiered shipping rates for the past three years and at this point, we may have to now as our current shipping rates barely cover shipping costs in most instances, even for smaller packages of less than 3 lbs. to most delivery areas. The US Postal Service has announced yet another proposed increase for 2021/2022. And, as we have in the past, if shipping costs are less than $5.00 more than our customer paid for shipping during checkout, we will continue to waive the difference and cover the costs from our profit margin, at least for now. However, the costs of packing materials, tape, and shipping boxes have also seen sharp increases in costs and we are experiencing shortages due to long backorders for paper products in general, particularly new boxes that UPS now requires for all shipping. This is not only expensive but also impractical or impossible with larger special order or open stock items that may or may not ship to us in suitable packaging for re-shipping. We only bill our customers the extra shipping for larger or heavier items that require over-sized rates or when shipped to an obscure delivery location that dictates much higher shipping costs, all described in the product's description. We will continue this practice for a long as is feasible.
While shopping with us, keep in mind that while we can no longer offer free shipping because search engines like Google and Yahoo penalize us by restricting relevancy and viewership on search results when we offer "FREE" anything. This hurts us and other small businesses in lieu of "big tech" helping their biggest paid ads customers Amazon, eBay, and other big box stores that can afford to absorb these costs and whom receive much larger shipping discounts due to much higher volume than we do. We are trying our best to prevent being squeezed out of the online marketplace to continue offering our customers fair and honorable pricing policies without deceptive offers where the added costs are tacked onto the cost of products just for the sake of offering "free" shipping. Many of our products are already priced at 20-25% below the manufacturer's retail suggested price to help our customers defray anticipated increased shipping costs. So, while we do not offer free shipping any longer, we do offer lower prices and our fairest, discounted shipping rates whenever possible.
INCREASED DAMAGE CLAIMS
We have also seen a sharp increase in damage claims with all three shipping carriers as a result of inexperienced and untrained transportation workers, labor shortages, increased shipping volumes, increased shipping delays, lost packages, and packages delivered to the wrong address. While we are not responsible for these issues, it affects our business and our customers so we are doing everything we can to prevent any damages by utilizing the required methods by all three shipping carriers to ensure safe transport of insured packages. While issues arise, please understand that shipping issues are not the fault of the store and once a package leaves our warehouse, we have little or no input on how or where the package is routed once shipped. We ship to the address give by our customers and the system is automated so please check the shipping address you enter carefully.
CUSTOMER COMPLIANCE
We have also experienced an increase in customers that abandon their orders and/or refuse to pay additional shipping due on items marked as "over-sized" in the item's description. These items are clearly marked for this reason. We encourage customers to email us for a shipping quote in advance of placing an order for all larger or heavier items. Special order and larger open stock items are not eligible for late cancellation or refunds. This is also stated clearly in the descriptions of these items. Late cancellations after an order is packed, weighed, and measured for shipping costs us time and labor, non-refundable credit card fees, and other overhead expenses related to returning products to inventory. For this reason, all customers will now be required to agree to our Terms and Conditions (including shipping fees) when their order is placed. You may review our Terms and Conditions here. The 15% restocking fee (minimum of $10) for late cancellations and returns will now be strictly enforced.
WE ARE SMALL BUSINESS USA!
We remain a small, family-owned and operated business and we will continue to try to make these decisions with our customers' best interests at heart. We want to continue offering a wide variety of products at fair prices with the lowest possible shipping costs while maintaining a decent profit margin.
My husband and I started this business 12 years ago to promote his western art. While this website has been quite successful, we have carried our share of obstacles and economic issues along with all other small businesses. Since the COVID-19 shutdowns, we've seen significant changes to how our business operates as well as how to effectively service our customers. My husband retired a few years ago so this is now our primary source of retirement income and it's becoming harder and harder each day to stay afloat in this turbulent economy. We're not Amazon and we never will be so please bear with us through this difficult time in our country's economic history.
As a reminder, we currently seek American-made products where possible and our remaining products are sourced only from American-based companies providing jobs to Americans. We do not deal with overseas vendors and we plan to continue supporting American owned and operated businesses only. Please help us by continuing to support all small local and online businesses!
We appreciate your business and look forward to continuing to serving you in the upcoming holiday season.
Pray for our nation.
Sincerely,
Denny and Leigh Karchner - Owners & Staff
Buffalo Trader Online
