Happy Friday! I’m here today with a DT Spotlight project from our latest DT Challenge from Tracy. I love how she used multiple patterns from the paper pack and then a simple image and sentiment. Check her post for all the details.
I’ve also got some important store changes and announcements. If you didn’t get the newsletter last night, here are the details. (But you should make sure you sign up for it because EVERY MONTH I give away a free $10 gift certificate to a random subscriber. Sign up on the right side of the homepage.)
Cha-cha-changes: Effective 1/22 new postal rates go into effect on Priority and package rates, which is almost exclusively how IHP ships. And this is quite a hefty increase. It’s been 2 years since we’ve had any changes to the store’s shipping policy and in the interim have absorbed 2 postal price increases without raising our rates or free shipping threshold. But this time the increase is too much to absorb. Effective 1/22 there will be a new shipping policy in place but even with the change, IHP still offers one of the lowest free shipping thresholds in the industry, with NO restrictions like many other retailers. Some of our top competitors don’t offer free shipping until $75 and one is even $150 and those are with restrictions! Yikes! But at IHP, you can order all stamps, all paper, all 12x12 paper even, and it’ll still be free if you order reaches the threshold. And hopefully the speedy and reliable service you’ve come to know and love will keep you coming back, even with these changes. Starting 1/22/12 the new free shipping threshold will be $60 for US orders (includes HI, AK, APO and territories.) For the complete shipping chart, please check the policies page on the store.
Copic Update: As we’ve been mentioning, effective 1/1/12 Copic raised their prices to retailers (the amount I pay per marker). The increase on my end comes out to be about $1.40 per marker more that they expect me to pay. They attribute this to the global economy and the yen to dollar value. Copic also has a very strict pricing policy which price fixes the minimum amount markers can be sold for, which is why I can never put them on sale. For the entire duration I’ve sold Copics, I have always sold at their lowest legally allowed price. However with this increase, I cannot continue to do that. I am not even sure at this point if I will restock with the new pricing structure. So, until the current inventory runs out (which I paid the old price for), the prices will remain fixed at $5.24 per marker and $5.99 per refill. . I did also order the new 12 Copic colors and they will be arriving next week! But, I will be visiting some booths and exploring some other marker options while I’m at CHA at the end of the month. There are at least two comparable competitors that I will be exploring and will report back after the show and my shopping is done! I haven’t used either of these markers so I want to try them while I am there to determine if I find the quality to be comparable in quality, especially considering the price point is significantly lower than Copics. Stay tuned!
CHA is right around the corner! Our end of year clearance sale was a HUGE hit (thank you!) but we’ve still got a few things we’re trying to clear out to help make room for all of the new goodies we’re about to buy. So, we’re offering a CHA Clearance Sale – 15% off everything storewide with code CHA15 (min. order $25). Coupon valid 1/25-2/1 however no orders will be shipped between 1/27 and 2/2. All orders placed during this time will be shipped on 2/3.
Thanks for reading and thanks for your continued support and loyalty. Have a great weekend!
