ACOT changes coming

The $6 shipping (or $5.99 or whatever) has been a bigger discount for me than the 20% off preorder one because I don't usually find more than one collection to preorder at a time...

The current free shipping promo would not work with my cherry points, so I didn't order anything. The cherries were taken off first, so then my order was "less" than $35 and didn't qualify.
 
I am interested in what the 'exciting changes' are...

I hope they don't raise the minimum on the free shipping.
The usual minimum is $69+, but sometimes I have closer to $50 in my cart. I miss the days when the usual was $49+.

I try to always wait for a deal on shipping, like this week...it was free shipping on $35+

Love ACOT and will accept the changes. I like supporting small businesses. I want to keep scrapbooking companies in business (totally doing that on my own, ha!). They have fantastic customer service.

I always wait for a sale to shop. I'm also just happy that I can keep a running shopping cart. I hate sites where you have to find your stuff every time.

The $5.99 shipping deal is when I order. I did a little math and I came out slightly ahead when I use that instead of the 20% off.

The last time they ran the 20% off discount my shipping was close to $20. I kept removing things from my cart (and putting them in wish list) until I got the shipping down to $8. I bought the wish list ones when they ran the $$5.99 shipping deal.

So I’m hoping they keep some kind of shipping deal as well as the cherry points discount. So many companies, not just crafting companies, are dumping their reward programs.

Another benefit of ACOT is being able to split orders and ship while a product or two is waiting to come in.

Me, too! ACOT has never let me down.

I just received an email from ACOT with the changes.

"Hey there cherries,

You’ve been asking (and asking, and asking!) about being able to combine shipping discount codes with percent off promo codes on our website, and we’re excited to share today that we’re introducing a new shipping discount program and a cool new website feature.

Next time you place an order, these shipping discount “tiers” will automatically be applied once you reach each threshold (that’s right, no promo code needed!):
EVERY domestic order below $89 will ship for just $5.99 flat rate
Orders of $89 or more will receive 50% off shipping
Orders of $109 or more will receive 75% off shipping
Orders of $139 or more will receive FREE shipping
On top of these automatic discounts, you can also use any other valid promo code we’re offering at the time. To kick things off, in honor of our anniversary this month, you can use code 27YEARS right now for an extra 10% discount on your order. Shipping discount levels are calculated based on your order subtotal after any other promos or discounts from points.

In order to make this program possible, we’ve slightly adjusted our PREORDER promo code down from 20% off pre-order items to 15% off. We believe this still provides an amazing deal on brand new items, and your reduced shipping cost should help offset the price difference.

Please note that these shipping discounts only apply to orders shipping within the United States. International customers can instead use our new code INTLSHIP at checkout to receive discounted shipping rates on their orders. While we can’t offer the same automatic discounts abroad, we still want to help you save on shipping wherever you are! See full details here.

We know that spending so much at once for free shipping isn’t always possible for everyone, and so today we’re also introducing the ability to hold and combine multiple orders until you’ve earned free shipping! Just select our new “Hold This Order” option at checkout, pay for your order with no shipping charge, and we’ll set your items aside for you and wait until you’re ready to place another order. Once the total of all of your held orders reaches the free shipping threshold, we’ll automatically ship them out for you at no additional charge. You can also choose to ship them earlier at whatever discount tier they currently qualify for. You can view more details on how this works here."

I didn't see that there was any sort of minimum for the "hold this order" feature, but I didn't read the details, so maybe there is. It sounds like they do pick/pull the order and store it in the warehouse for you, so it should take care of out of stock issues. I will say that having that feature for NO shipping cost until you finally ship is FANTASTIC! Club Scrap has a feature where you can shop sales or specials and choose "with kit" shipping, where they hold your order in the warehouse until your next monthly kit ships, but that still costs $2.50 (so if you placed enough orders with that option, maybe because you skip monthly kits liberally, it wouldn't take long until it added up to regular shipping.

Hi all, if you'd like to share your thoughts officially, we have a survey running here.

Just to clarify a couple points I saw - there's no minimum on the hold this order option, so if you want to order one sheet of paper just to make sure you get it, that's fine with us! Also I wanted to mention that we don't physically pull the items in orders on hold, but we do reserve them in our system and don't allow them to be sold to anyone else. Short of an inventory mistake on our part (rare but it does happen occasionally), there's not any risk in missing out on an item as long as you've placed and paid for the order.

Matt at ACOT Cherries are still available correct?


And with the flat rate shipping, will we still be able to upgrade and pay the difference?

I noticed sometimes the flat rate is FedEx and I prefer USPS.

Yes and yes. No changes to cherries or the rewards program with this rollout, and the flat rate is technically a "variable discount" off the cheapest shipping method that you can apply to different/faster shipping options just like before.

Oh yes teacherlisa! I had also complained but my orders are now packaged much better! It’s always nice to be able to give good feedback.
I’m looking forward to the changes. Shipping charges are a necessary evil but it’s so nice to see a company offering perks like bundling. Much appreciated!

Me too.  It's just a fun little game.  Plus they're adorable and I enjoy having different things to search for sometimes on holidays or special days. 

I find I look at far more of their website because of them than I would typically look at any other scrapbook/craft supply website.

A recent order of mine had one corner of the box (ACOT branded) torn clean away when it arrived.  It was a small amount torn off, but my heart was in my stomach that day as I was opening the box because I really expected the contents to have been ruined given that they were primarily individual cardstock sheets.  Fortunately it must have happened quite far along in the journey and the plastic bag holding my items had not yet been damaged, so the contents were okay.

The last time I ordered from them I noticed that the Priority Mail price was less than a dollar more than the Ground Advantage.  The estimated shipping time was only a day sooner at best, which is typical for Priority Mail these days, so I didn't bother, but now I'm wondering if they still use Priority Mail boxes if you pay for that service, instead.  If so, I wonder if the Priority boxes are any stronger than the ACOT branded ones.  I may go ahead and pay for Priority next time to see.