Free shipping for qualified orders? Easier checkout? We did both!

Online shopping is supposed to be convenient for YOU, the customer. But we’ve all been there: a cart full of cool stuff and there's a shipping total that stops us in our tracks, or the ordering process is anything but quick and easy. We don’t want to be that company. We don’t want that experience for you.

New Shipping Fees

“We’ve received a lot of feedback from our customers that they’d like to see some changes to shipping,” said E-Commerce Manager Dan Eckelberry. “We really do listen and we appreciate customer feedback.” So, thanks in part to your responses, we’ve revamped our shipping prices and the checkout process.

For starters, any order of $500 or more from Pitsco, Pitsco Consumables, TETRIX^® Robotics, Science of Speed, and Hearlihy receives FREE shipping in the continental US. But what if you don't qualify for free? Don't fret. All of our shipping rates have been revised. For the smallest orders – $49.99 or less – we reduced shipping by 40%. The rates are as follows:

• $0 to $49.99 has $6 shipping.
• $50 to $199.99 shipping is 10% of order total.
• $200 to $324.99 shipping is 9% of order total.
• $325 to $499.99 shipping is 8% of order total.
• $500+ has free shipping.

“At the end of the day, we want to get our tools in the hands of students so they can have a positive impact on their learning,” said Pamela Scifers, senior digital marketing manager. “We don’t want shipping costs to be a hindrance in getting students and teachers the materials they need to be successful, whether that be a spare part needed for a competition robot or a kit of straw rockets. Having said this, there are some factors when talking about shipping costs that are completely unavoidable and out of our control."

“We simply took a hard look at what we could manage and where savings could be passed on to our customers and tried to implement those changes,” Pam said.“In fact, now in some cases, it could be less expensive to add a little extra something to your cart to qualify for free shipping. You end up getting more for less."

Faster, Friendlier Checkout

Aside from shipping changes, anyone purchasing for a school should find the new checkout process faster and smoother. First, the E-Commerce team made the checkout responsive to cell phones and tablets. At the same time, they addressed usability issues from the checkout version introduced in September, which caused some confusion.

“We looked at customer feedback and learned where the pain points were and then addressed those by changing the user interface,” Dan explained.

Now, customers can enter their zip code and a list of area schools will appear. If their school is on it, they can simply select it and much of the ordering information will autofill. This saves time and frustration for busy teachers.

The change also helps with some order fulfillment issues for Pitsco, such as tax exempt information and processing purchase orders. The changes went live on January 10.

“So far, the response has been very positive,” Pamela said. “We monitor customer feedback through our checkout survey and, thus far, positive comments are up and negative are down.”

However, we won’t rest on our laurels, so don’t be surprised to see other new or revamped features in the future.

“We hope it’s a big improvement for the teachers, but we’re going to continue to watch our feedback, and we plan to make more improvements,” Dan said. “We don’t consider it complete at this point. We’re always going to be tuned-in to customer feedback to make sure the changes we’ve made are beneficial and to keep our eye out for additional changes that might help them.”

So if you haven’t been through Pitsco’s checkout in a while, check it out for yourself. And know we welcome ALL your feedback.