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You realize that If U.S. customers get deals they cannot find elsewhere, then international customers would also benefit as your prices would go down even more? The fact of the matter is that MassDrop is a U.S. company that negotiates with U.S. vendors and U.S. based distributors. I have an expectation that these negotiations will result in prices that I cannot find anywhere else. Why do I have that expectation? Because that is how MassDrop is holding itself out here in the U.S.. That is how it has chosen to advertise its purpose for existence in order to have a competitive edge in the marketplace. MassDrop advertises that the reason I need to use its service is that it will negotiate a deal that I cannot find on my own because I don't have leverage. That if a group of us get together, we now have leverage to strike a deal below what can be found elsewhere. The downside for me is that I take on a two risks: 1) that MassDrop will take my money but won't perform under the contract and 2) that I won't get my order in as timely I would elsewhere. There is little point to this business model if I can get the deals offered elsewhere and I don't have to assume these risks.
Those of you in other countries may not realize that in U.S. jurisprudence, great weight is put on how a company advertises. I won't go into the specific legal obligations of MassDrop, because it isn't relevant as of now, but if they have U.S. customers and are advertising in the U.S., they do have an obligation to comply with U.S. Laws, specifically the UCC regarding advertising.
I don't buy the argument that the pricing isn't fully in the control of MassDrop. Off the top of my head, I can think of at least four factors that could be impacting the pricing. Only one of those factors concerns pricing from the vendor. That could still be solved by more efficient negotiations such as better research, creative deal making, or putting better negotiators in place. The other three are: 1) not negotiating lower shipping costs with carriers (UPS/USPS/Fedex); or 2) the deals have become so popular or the operating costs have gotten too high and Massdrop is taking a larger fee; or 3) the higher costs of shipping internationally is being absorbed by all of us .
It is evident that MassDrop is growing rapidly. This has caused some glitches in some transactions such as poor communication with customers and vendors, poor packaging, and poor shipping times. Many of us have experienced more than one of these. I want MassDrop to succeed. That is why I thought it was prudent to let MassDrop know that poor pricing is not something this customer is willing to accept. It was merely my constructive feedback to the deal(s) being offered currently.
Furthermore, in other sections of MassDrop, the pricing of drops is being discussed. I do not see why we can't discuss it in crafting as well. How will MassDrop know why drops are more or less successful if we don't speak up? No one wins in that situation. The employees of MassDrop have exerted a lot of time and energy behind the scenes to bring us these drops and if even one customer doesn't join a drop that would ordinary participate, then that is dollars falling right through their fingers. It is also time and energy that could have been spent more productively elsewhere that does make money for the company.
The bottom line is that there is no question that I am going to buy. The question is "am I going to buy on MassDrop"? If MassDrop isn't fulfilling my price points, and a competitor is offering it at the same or lower price, without all of the glitches and risk, then I am going to give my money to another competitor. It is really that simple. I would like to support MassDrop, but I am not going to do it when there is no upside for me.
I bring this to the forefront because this is a drop that I wanted to participate in and is the type of product I want to see offered on MassDrop. I appreciate that MassDrop has listened to their customers with respect to that. I hope that it will consider this feedback for future drops.
I also looked at a major fabric website that offers free shipping over $35 and the total I came up with for the three sizes of twin batting was 59.95.
This is certainly the place to discuss, disagree, and leave constructive feedback. Everyone's contribution is helpful and welcome.
Thanks for helping our community grow!
I used to work in a retailer that had 60 stores nationwide. I'd often get customers come in complaining they can buy the same thing at a competitor for cheaper. The difference is the competitor has over 200 stores nationwide. So, for my store to stock 10 items per store for 60 stores, that's only 600 units the company needs to buy. For a business with 200 stores, for them to stock 10 units per store they need TWO THOUSAND. This means they need to buy more from the supplier, which means they're able to get a cheaper bulk rate than my (ex)employer because they're buying over three times as many.
From what I know of Massdrop it's a fairly new offering so they're still trying to build up their customer base. This means there's only a certain number of people available to sell to until the site grows, so when making negotiations, MD buyers also need to walk the fine line of being realistic about how many customers they're likely to sell to to know what the best deal is to bargain for. Aiming too high for a super cheap price means a drop might not go through because there aren't enough people site wide to make the purchase happen to begin with. On the flip side I've seen drops sell out fast because the item demand outweighed what MD actually bought.
IMO, I think instead of complaining on every single item about the price, why not help MD with a little marketing and try and drum up new customers, because the more people there are to sell to, the more product MD would be able to purchase to then end up with a cheaper rate? It's all well and good to point out "a major store" sells something cheaper/same price however they would already have an established customer base which, at a guess, is larger than what Massdrop has, which comes down to - the bigger the store, the more they can buy in bulk = the cheaper price they can get.
In regards to shipping costs being absorbed, that is a likely possibility, however I wouldn't put all the blame on international shipping as domestic shipping is actually FREE, isn't it? So that is also a cost that's being eaten up somewhere.