New Pricing & Shipping Model!

Upon my relocation to NC back in 2016, I switched First Rays from an imprecise “price + shipping” model (the technology available for my platform at the time) to one that incorporated the cost of shipping in the purchase price. While that is certainly simpler, in order to do so, I had to calculate an average, nation-wide shipping cost for each item.

Unfortunately, that approach penalized customers closer to me, who were subsidizing the shipping costs for folks farther away. It also ignored the savings of shipping several items in a single package, hence the automatic “volume discounts” I implemented to compensate for that.

That methodology also required me to select a reasonable shipping mode, but in today’s shipping environment, I was concerned that my selection might not meet the needs of the customer. So…
I have switched back to a “price + shipping” model again with better technology, and those rates are displayed at checkout, offering a number of options from which you, the customer, may select the one with the best cost+transit value.

As those costs are now separate, I have lowered my product prices by about 30% across the board. Using the nutrients as examples, Kelpak is now $28 instead of $38, Quantum-Total is $20 instead of $29 and K-Lite Plus is $15 versus the previous $23.

At the same time, I have integrated a new shipping partner that offers significant discounts. As the shipping algorithm does calculate by weight, I have adjusted the volume discounts to be just that, rather than also being a way to compensate for the reduced shipping cost-per-unit.

Overall, your delivered cost of ordering from us will be lower than before (YOU select the service, so that will affect your net cost). Among the orders received since I implemented this mode, the average cost of an order is more than 10% less than before.