In the Mail ....

[rodefeeh]

Had a little extra cash so I splurged.
Nice touch each one signed by Rob.

They actually went a little more mainstream with only 350mg caffeine. First I've heard of Triumph, packed formula as you would imagine!

 

[dukes3577]

Yeah definitely loaded profile. Just scared I’m gonna love it and then it will be discontinued, as it’s a limited run.

 

[AdelV]

Morphogen Nutrition now doing free international shipping on orders over $300.

I've been very interested in their Joint product, I wish more companies could manage to discount international fees.

I always see free US shipping, and I know that ain't cheap but there's never consideration for Internationals.

 

[rodefeeh]

The Controlled Labs label promo is still in effect. I couldnt find it on their website anymore but luckily still received my free supps!

 

[sns8778]

Morphogen Nutrition now doing free international shipping on orders over $300.

I've been very interested in their Joint product, I wish more companies could manage to discount international fees.

I always see free US shipping, and I know that ain't cheap but there's never consideration for Internationals.

A lot of that on the brand side comes down to how much the brands mark their products up.

Basically, if a brand offers free international shipping, they have to make sure that they can make a profit or at least break even if they get hit hard with an international shipping fee.

(Now, I agree that most brands absolutely would still profit in cases of 300.00 total order without coupon codes, so that doesn't apply to the one you mentioned, just explaining in general).

And then, that presents the problem - what does the brand do when they run sales?
- If they remove the free int'l shipping option during sales, then that seems like a slight to international customers.
- However, if they leave it in place, that may mean that they couldn't offer the same types of sales to begin with.
- Or it could mean that they mark the products up higher to be able to afford to give a bigger discount and international shipping, but then that means that people pay more for products year round.

For example, a lot of the orders we ship to Australia during the 25% off and 30% off sales, especially with us allowing those discounts on multi-packs, we would lose money on if we offered free shipping.

It's a problem any way that you look at it, but its one that I don't think has a good solution to it.

Here's a good example of a similar situation we're trying to figure out internally now:
- We typically do big 30% off sales at holiday times.
- Within the last year, we've started to do more 3-pack and 4-pack multi-packs, and at first we just let them be part of the sales and people got the 30% off the already discounted multi-pack price.
- But we've been getting asked more and more to do 6 month and 12 month multi-packs on a lot of items, and if we do, we would discount them more to make it worth it to people to stock up - BUT there's no way we can do those and then still allow the 30% off coupon codes to apply to them.
- I think its one of those things that no matter which way we go with it, some people won't be happy with it.

I hope all of that makes sense.

 

[AdelV]

A lot of that on the brand side comes down to how much the brands mark their products up.

Basically, if a brand offers free international shipping, they have to make sure that they can make a profit or at least break even if they get hit hard with an international shipping fee.

(Now, I agree that most brands absolutely would still profit in cases of 300.00 total order without coupon codes, so that doesn't apply to the one you mentioned, just explaining in general).

And then, that presents the problem - what does the brand do when they run sales?
- If they remove the free int'l shipping option during sales, then that seems like a slight to international customers.
- However, if they leave it in place, that may mean that they couldn't offer the same types of sales to begin with.
- Or it could mean that they mark the products up higher to be able to afford to give a bigger discount and international shipping, but then that means that people pay more for products year round.

For example, a lot of the orders we ship to Australia during the 25% off and 30% off sales, especially with us allowing those discounts on multi-packs, we would lose money on if we offered free shipping.

It's a problem any way that you look at it, but its one that I don't think has a good solution to it.

Here's a good example of a similar situation we're trying to figure out internally now:
- We typically do big 30% off sales at holiday times.
- Within the last year, we've started to do more 3-pack and 4-pack multi-packs, and at first we just let them be part of the sales and people got the 30% off the already discounted multi-pack price.
- But we've been getting asked more and more to do 6 month and 12 month multi-packs on a lot of items, and if we do, we would discount them more to make it worth it to people to stock up - BUT there's no way we can do those and then still allow the 30% off coupon codes to apply to them.
- I think its one of those things that no matter which way we go with it, some people won't be happy with it.

I hope all of that makes sense.

PES still offer free international, I believe too.

What I am saying tho, for you to ship 10 products to a customer across the US must cost you money and you give free shipping over X amount.

Why isn't international shipping being discounted?

You ain't shipping to US customers for free, even if it costs you $15....my question is why isn't any discount given to internationals?

That's what confused me.

I also understand that some companies, or businesses may have a better deal with a courier/shipping service.

I absolutely understand what you're saying tho, and yeah MN products ain't cheap.

I'm only interested in the Joint product because of my arthritis.

It sucks as Aussies, we lose 30% on currency so when there's a sale, were actually just paying the normal price that a US customer would pay

What can you do, hence I personally stopped buying supplements. I couldn't justify the costs between currency loss & increased shipping charges(No fault of a business)

P.S. My post wasn't directed at any business/company or retailer.

 

[sns8778]

PES still offer free international, I believe too.

What I am saying tho, for you to ship 10 products to a customer across the US must cost you money and you give free shipping over X amount.

Why isn't international shipping being discounted?

You ain't shipping to US customers for free, even if it costs you $15....my question is why isn't any discount given to internationals?

That's what confused me.

I also understand that some companies, or businesses may have a better deal with a courier/shipping service.

I absolutely understand what you're saying tho, and yeah MN products ain't cheap.

I'm only interested in the Joint product because of my arthritis.

It sucks as Aussies, we lose 30% on currency so when there's a sale, were actually just paying the normal price that a US customer would pay

What can you do, hence I personally stopped buying supplements. I couldn't justify the costs between currency loss & increased shipping charges(No fault of a business)

P.S. My post wasn't directed at any business/company or retailer.

I was only trying to answer your question as to why different companies have different approaches.

It all comes down to markup.

The higher that brands mark products up, the more extra incentives that they can give.

If someone wants to buy 300.00 worth of products from me at regular price and they're fine with me picking the absolute cheapest shipping method, sure, we can probably do free shipping to Australia on it.

But if someone wants to buy 300.00 worth of products consisting of already discounted multi-packs and then use a 25% off coupon code on top of it, then that's a whole different story.

In our case, I'd rather all international customers be able to take advantage of all sales and discounts and offers and simply pay their own shipping rather than exclude them from those deals, when they're likely saving much more off those deals than the shipping costs are to begin with.

Which in our case, we don't markup shipping at all - the websites are directly integrated with UPS and USPS plugins and the shipping cost is determined by the shipper's software with zero markup on our end. This allows us to offer international customers a variety of different shipping options so that they can select which best suits their needs.

Some people may not care how its shipped, and if that's the case, they can go with the cheapest option. But to people in some countries, being able to select the shipper and in some cases the particular shipping method is very important and can be the difference between them receiving it quickly and efficiently or risking it being held for long periods by Customs.

Examples:
- If we shipped to Australia during peak Covid protocols via UPS - good luck getting it, and if you did, it was going to take forever; whereas normally UPS is around the same price as USPS to Australia and a lot more reliable & normally seem to clear Customs much quicker.
- Canada was the exact opposite - in that USPS was a nightmare but UPS seemed to get through quickly and efficiently.

^^^ We can't control any countries Customs nor can we keep up with them all, so I'd rather focus on what we can control and that's offering the best products and the lowest prices all the time, not excluding international customers from multi-packs and sales, and let them pick the shipping method that works best for them in their respective circumstances.

You used the example in your post the cost to ship across the US versus to ship internationally, so I'll use today as a real case example of that:
- We shipped a 12 pack of Anabolic XT across the US today and it cost less than 20 bucks.
- I shipped 4 Optimize-T, 4 Anabolic XT, and 1 Api-Plex today to someone in Australia and the actual USPS cost was 59.68.

If the Australian customer wanted to pay full price for everything and be excluded from sales and promotions like most brands do, then by all means I would have been glad to have given them free shipping bc I would have profited a lot better that way.

But instead, they had asked me if they could use the New Years coupon code back while it was going on since we didn't have Anabolic XT in at the time, so I had let them use that and it much more than offset shipping costs.

Here's how that breaks down:

• If they bought those items at regular price, the order total would have been 479.91.
• By going with multi-packs options (no coupon code) their total would have been 439.96.
• If they bought them with the coupon code based off regular price but excluded them from multi-pack deals, their total would have been
• If they bought them with the coupon code but not multi-pack deals, the total would have been 335.94.
• By allowing them to get the multi-pack savings and use the coupon code/sale code, their total was 307.97.

So, in this case - yes, they paid 59.68 in shipping but they saved 171.94 in discounts for a net savings of 112.36 and that was after being able to choose the shipping method of their choice.

If we had excluded them from discounts and gave them 'free' shipping, it would have cost them a minimum of an extra 120.00.

We get compliments a lot on the way we handle international shipping.

This is a great example of the term 'perceived value' in that we could absolutely use a marketing tactic that would make customers think they were saving more while actually paying more and us profiting more - but that's just not the way that we do things.

You feel how you feel and I'm not trying to influence you one way or the other - I'm just presenting our side of things and how that if we offered 'free' international shipping but excluded international customers from promotions the way most brands do, it would be much more profitable for us but detrimental to the customers.

 

[AdelV]

I was only trying to answer your question as to why different companies have different approaches.

It all comes down to markup.

The higher that brands mark products up, the more extra incentives that they can give.

If someone wants to buy 300.00 worth of products from me at regular price and they're fine with me picking the absolute cheapest shipping method, sure, we can probably do free shipping to Australia on it.

But if someone wants to buy 300.00 worth of products consisting of already discounted multi-packs and then use a 25% off coupon code on top of it, then that's a whole different story.

In our case, I'd rather all international customers be able to take advantage of all sales and discounts and offers and simply pay their own shipping rather than exclude them from those deals, when they're likely saving much more off those deals than the shipping costs are to begin with.

Which in our case, we don't markup shipping at all - the websites are directly integrated with UPS and USPS plugins and the shipping cost is determined by the shipper's software with zero markup on our end. This allows us to offer international customers a variety of different shipping options so that they can select which best suits their needs.

Some people may not care how its shipped, and if that's the case, they can go with the cheapest option. But to people in some countries, being able to select the shipper and in some cases the particular shipping method is very important and can be the difference between them receiving it quickly and efficiently or risking it being held for long periods by Customs.

Examples:
- If we shipped to Australia during peak Covid protocols via UPS - good luck getting it, and if you did, it was going to take forever; whereas normally UPS is around the same price as USPS to Australia and a lot more reliable & normally seem to clear Customs much quicker.
- Canada was the exact opposite - in that USPS was a nightmare but UPS seemed to get through quickly and efficiently.

^^^ We can't control any countries Customs nor can we keep up with them all, so I'd rather focus on what we can control and that's offering the best products and the lowest prices all the time, not excluding international customers from multi-packs and sales, and let them pick the shipping method that works best for them in their respective circumstances.

You used the example in your post the cost to ship across the US versus to ship internationally, so I'll use today as a real case example of that:
- We shipped a 12 pack of Anabolic XT across the US today and it cost less than 20 bucks.
- I shipped 4 Optimize-T, 4 Anabolic XT, and 1 Api-Plex today to someone in Australia and the actual USPS cost was 59.68.

If the Australian customer wanted to pay full price for everything and be excluded from sales and promotions like most brands do, then by all means I would have been glad to have given them free shipping bc I would have profited a lot better that way.

But instead, they had asked me if they could use the New Years coupon code back while it was going on since we didn't have Anabolic XT in at the time, so I had let them use that and it much more than offset shipping costs.

Here's how that breaks down:

• If they bought those items at regular price, the order total would have been 479.91.
• By going with multi-packs options (no coupon code) their total would have been 439.96.
• If they bought them with the coupon code based off regular price but excluded them from multi-pack deals, their total would have been
• If they bought them with the coupon code but not multi-pack deals, the total would have been 335.94.
• By allowing them to get the multi-pack savings and use the coupon code/sale code, their total was 307.97.

So, in this case - yes, they paid 59.68 in shipping but they saved 171.94 in discounts for a net savings of 112.36 and that was after being able to choose the shipping method of their choice.

If we had excluded them from discounts and gave them 'free' shipping, it would have cost them a minimum of an extra 120.00.

We get compliments a lot on the way we handle international shipping.

This is a great example of the term 'perceived value' in that we could absolutely use a marketing tactic that would make customers think they were saving more while actually paying more and us profiting more - but that's just not the way that we do things.

You feel how you feel and I'm not trying to influence you one way or the other - I'm just presenting our side of things and how that if we offered 'free' international shipping but excluded international customers from promotions the way most brands do, it would be much more profitable for us but detrimental to the customers.

I think you've missed my point altogether.

What I'm saying is alot of US retailers give free shipping to US customers when they spend $100.

This must cost them X amount.

If a international spends $100, they offer no free shipping nor discount.

My point is, they give free shipping within the USA but that still costs them something and they don't pass that exact discount to international customers.

I understand what you're saying, however MN don't do sales very often and if they do - I don't know his business model.
I don't look at their products other than the Joints product which even at full price is absolutely loaded. I can't imagine other company would offer a similar product much cheaper.
Btw the international shipping charges were ridiculous for MN, so I have no idea how or why they're taken this route all of a sudden.

PES I believe offers free international shipping over a certain spend standard or sale price too.

I'm not talking about SNS, I'm literally just saying US customers will get free shipping over a certain spend, and that costs the business weather it's $5 or $15.

But if you spend $500 as an international, they don't even pass on that $5-$15 discount they pass onto US customers.

Am I making sense?

I don't expect free shipping, I'm just saying internationals for the most part don't even get the little discount on shipping US retailers give their own US customers.

 

[LeanEngineer]

The Controlled Labs label promo is still in effect. I couldnt find it on their website anymore but luckily still received my free supps!

View attachment 229055

Dang I'm jealous! Sweet bag to!

 

[sns8778]

I think you've missed my point altogether.

What I'm saying is alot of US retailers give free shipping to US customers when they spend $100.

This must cost them X amount.

If a international spends $100, they offer no free shipping nor discount.

My point is, they give free shipping within the USA but that still costs them something and they don't pass that exact discount to international customers.

I understand what you're saying, however MN don't do sales very often and if they do - I don't know his business model.
I don't look at their products other than the Joints product which even at full price is absolutely loaded. I can't imagine other company would offer a similar product much cheaper.
Btw the international shipping charges were ridiculous for MN, so I have no idea how or why they're taken this route all of a sudden.

PES I believe offers free international shipping over a certain spend standard or sale price too.

I'm not talking about SNS, I'm literally just saying US customers will get free shipping over a certain spend, and that costs the business weather it's $5 or $15.

But if you spend $500 as an international, they don't even pass on that $5-$15 discount they pass onto US customers.

Am I making sense?

I don't expect free shipping, I'm just saying internationals for the most part don't even get the little discount on shipping US retailers give their own US customers.

If you're asking why don't brands offer a 10.00 or 15.00 discount off shipping price to international customers, like actual cost minus 10.00 or 15.00, it's because the way that website plugins are integrated with UPS and USPS, a brand can choose - free shipping, actual cost shipping where customer pays the real shipping rate, or an option to markup shipping (actual rate + say 5.00 or 10.00 to profit off shipping). I'm familiar with WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify, and several other shopping carts and I've never seen one that has an option for actual shipping minus a certain amount; so basically the reason for not doing that is that the functionality doesn't exist in the shopping cart plugin features.

I hope that makes sense.

I can't speak for any other brands, I went into great detail above explaining why we do things the way we do things and that its ultimately much more advantageous to the customer the way we do them.

 

[Rocket3015]

Maybe my last supplement delivery for a while, I believe the pharmacy might be my new go to !!

 

[LeanEngineer]

Maybe my last supplement delivery for a while, I believe the pharmacy might be my new go to !!View attachment 229094

You'll just have to stock up on supplement swag rather than actual supplements

 

[Rocket3015]

You'll just have to stock up on supplement swag rather than actual supplements

If you ask my Wife, I have to much of that also.

 

[LeanEngineer]

If you ask my Wife, I have to much of that also.

I didn't know there was such a thing?!

 

[Rocket3015]

I didn't know there was such a thing?!

I'm not much of a collector, I tend to throw or give away things I don't need or use, but T-Shirts and Shaker Bottles I have a hard time parting with. I bet I have over 100 shaker bottles!

 

[sns8778]

I'm not much of a collector, I tend to throw or give away things I don't need or use, but T-Shirts and Shaker Bottles I have a hard time parting with. I bet I have over 100 shaker bottles!

That's an impressive collection. I've been thinking about doing shakers for SNS and CEL but haven't been able to decide on the size and type yet.

 

[Rocket3015]

That's an impressive collection. I've been thinking about doing shakers for SNS and CEL but haven't been able to decide on the size and type yet.

The funny thing is I don't use them I have been using the same (4) for 10-15 years, I just can't throw them away .

 

[sns8778]

The funny thing is I don't use them I have been using the same (4) for 10-15 years, I just can't throw them away .

I can absolutely understand that. I have some that I like too much to use because I don't want to mess them up.

I'm that way with a lot of stuff. I've always been a sentimental person. My daughter has high functioning Autism so can get very attached to certain things, to where she wouldn't use some things bc she didn't want them to get messed up so I had gotten in the habit of getting her duplicates of things (one to use, one to keep) and I quickly found that carrying over to me doing that for myself on some things too.

A lot of our house is decorated with things that may seem silly to some people, but we like it and its important to us.

 

[thatsuppguy]

I'm not much of a collector, I tend to throw or give away things I don't need or use, but T-Shirts and Shaker Bottles I have a hard time parting with. I bet I have over 100 shaker bottles!

I am the same way. after taking up an entire cabinet and several garbage bags full, I finally gave all but 10 away. Why 10, I have no clue. I refuse to get rid of my shirts though. I was really bad about this when I had my small little supp website. Reps would send me 20 at a time, from about every company you can name. I kept one of each to remind me of the good ol days. haha!

 

[Rocket3015]

I can absolutely understand that. I have some that I like too much to use because I don't want to mess them up.

I'm that way with a lot of stuff. I've always been a sentimental person. My daughter has high functioning Autism so can get very attached to certain things, to where she wouldn't use some things bc she didn't want them to get messed up so I had gotten in the habit of getting her duplicates of things (one to use, one to keep) and I quickly found that carrying over to me doing that for myself on some things too.

A lot of our house is decorated with things that may seem silly to some people, but we like it and its important to us.

Our house is decorated with anything and everything the grands kids make !! and I love it !!!

 

[sns8778]

Our house is decorated with anything and everything the grands kids make !! and I love it !!!

Same here. I used to keep my house decorated super nice but still somewhat random, but now, its however me and her want it to be and I love it. It makes me smile.

 

[Rocket3015]

If you look at the bottom shelf, these are the shaker cups my wife has not boxed up and sent to the attic yet !!

 

[Rocket3015]

Well if I can't buy supplements, I can at least smell good!!

 

[SkRaw85]

I'm not much of a collector, I tend to throw or give away things I don't need or use, but T-Shirts and Shaker Bottles I have a hard time parting with. I bet I have over 100 shaker bottles!

Think I have about 8-10. Even that is against the wife’s blessing lol

 

[LeanEngineer]

If you look at the bottom shelf, these are the shaker cups my wife has not boxed up and sent to the attic yet !!

View attachment 229160

Looks like you need to give me some protein so it doesn't go to waste

Nice stash!

 

[Rocket3015]

Looks like you need to give me some protein so it doesn't go to waste

Nice stash!

It won't go to waste !!!

 

[faipdeooiad]

If you look at the bottom shelf, these are the shaker cups my wife has not boxed up and sent to the attic yet !!

View attachment 229160

I spy predator nutrition. Do they have a US presence or did you order from here?

 

[Rocket3015]

I spy predator nutrition. Do they have a US presence or did you order from here?

That is an oldie, I believe I ordered from the UK that time.

 

[MrKleen73]

My wife would kill me if I even thought about buying another protein and had even 25% as much as @Rocket3015.

I get most of my protein from a place in town that matches internet prices so I don't get a lot of the freebie shakers. I used to have about 20, but they have all gradually gone the way of the Dodo bird. Now every once in a while i buy a 3 pack from Kroger with these really heavy plastic blender balls in them and really like how much better they break up the shakes or seem to anyways.

 

[SkRaw85]

Some Apex goodies!

 

[Afi140]

View attachment 229190

Some Apex goodies!

Love me some Apex

 

[LeanEngineer]

View attachment 229190

Some Apex goodies!

Stocked up on the essentials from Apex Alchemy !

 

[Rocket3015]

My wife would kill me if I even thought about buying another protein and had even 25% as much as @Rocket3015.

I get most of my protein from a place in town that matches internet prices so I don't get a lot of the freebie shakers. I used to have about 20, but they have all gradually gone the way of the Dodo bird. Now every once in a while i buy a 3 pack from Kroger with these really heavy plastic blender balls in them and really like how much better they break up the shakes or seem to anyways.

@MrKleen73 if you ever need a few shakers let me know I will send you a few

 

[LeanEngineer]

New Powertec Multisystem put together!

 

[Rocket3015]

Looks very nice and I’m sure it will spark a little extra enthusiasm in to your work outs

 

[Hyde]

View attachment 229221

New Powertec Multisystem put together!

Very cool! Lots of good options rolled into one footprint there. Enjoy!!!

 

[Afi140]

View attachment 229221

New Powertec Multisystem put together!

 

[Segansational]

View attachment 229221

New Powertec Multisystem put together!

That looks sweet!

 

[Segansational]

That's an impressive collection. I've been thinking about doing shakers for SNS and CEL but haven't been able to decide on the size and type yet.

Do the mini blender bottle size. Those are definitely my favorite go to's for any pre's.

 

[sns8778]

Do the mini blender bottle size. Those are definitely my favorite go to's for any pre's.

That's the size I like best myself and that I was thinking about.

I was thinking those and then we've gotten asked for some 64 oz. water bottles sizes.

Also thinking of doing some of the keychain funnels.

 

[LeanEngineer]

Looks very nice and I’m sure it will spark a little extra enthusiasm in to your work outs

Very cool! Lots of good options rolled into one footprint there. Enjoy!!!

Definitely will provide some new exercises into my regular routine. I have a power rack and dumbbells off on the other side of my home gym as well.

 

[Rocket3015]

Do the mini blender bottle size. Those are definitely my favorite go to's for any pre's.

I like the smaller bottles also!

 

[sns8778]

I like the smaller bottles also!

I like the small ones best myself, especially for things like Focus XT and pre-workouts.

I can see where some people would like the big ones better for protein, but I don't mix a lot of liquid in my protein so a small one would be fine on that end for me too.

 

[Rocket3015]

I know some folks like the really big ones half or gallon side for interim workout drinks

 

[Beau]

I know some folks like the really big ones

Thats in another thread ....

 

[Rocket3015]

Thats in another thread ....

Yes it is !

 

[sns8778]

I know some folks like the really big ones half or gallon side for interim workout drinks

I was thinking about doing the half gallon size for SNS and then the gallon size for CEL.

 

[dukes3577]

Really digging Triumph! Snagged some Overtime and Casanova for my cruise coming up

 

[LeanEngineer]

Really digging Triumph! Snagged some Overtime and Casanova for my cruise coming up

Nice! Those should treat you well!

 

[rodefeeh]

My joints are rejoicing!