Thank you so much for being patient with us as we worked to figure out the best way to continue supplying you with fiber. I know there was a lot of trepidation at the prospect of higher costs due to shipping across the border. We believe that we have found a compromise that will work for everyone.
Let's start with the simple part: the price list. We are attaching a price list in CAD. This price list should be nearly identical to the last one you got from Louet; we changed only those items where the price was drastically different from the equivalent in USD. We will still ask you to pay us in USD, but DMFibers will absorb any fluctuations due to exchange rate.
Now for the more complex part: the shipping. We have arranged with Louet to be able to send boxes of fiber across the border a pallet at a time. On these pallets will be two kinds of boxes - custom order boxes and resupply boxes. Custom order boxes are just what they sound like - boxes with a specific order for a specific store. Resupply boxes are boxes with a pre-selected assortment of fiber. We will start with four resupply boxes and adjust as necessary. For example, there will be a Coopworth resupply box which will contain edited due to a math error in the original email 6 bags of white, 3 bags of light, 4 bags of medium, and 3 bags of dark; however, if we find that everyone is running out of dark before medium, we will tweak the balance of colors in future boxes. Once the pallet reaches Canada, Louet will put all custom order boxes in the mail and warehouse a limited number of the resupply boxes. You may order a resupply box from us at any time (pending availability), and it will ship to you quickly since it is already in Canada. You may place a custom order at any time, and we will put your box on the next pallet to go out. However, there may be a significant delay before it ships. We anticipate sending a pallet once a month to start out, and we will send out an email when a pallet is about half full, reminding you to place custom orders before it goes out. Since we will be paying all fees associated with crossing the border to get the pallet into Canada, you will only be responsible for paying the shipping within Canada on anything that comes in on the pallet.
If you would prefer that we send your order directly to you, of course we would be happy to ship immediately with the carrier of your preference. However, you would be responsible for all border fees, and the feedback we've been getting from most stores is that this combined with the increased shipping cost makes many products prohibitively expensive.
To be able to cover the border fees for the pallet, we need to be sure that it is packed as efficiently as possible. To that end, we will be using a standard box size for all orders on the pallet, and we encourage you to fill your box. We can fit at least edited due to that same pesky math error 8 pounds of bagged, carded wool in our pallet box, more if it's a denser fiber. For your convenience in estimating shipping costs, our standard box is 41x41x26cm and weighs approximately edited 4.5kg. Custom orders may ship in larger boxes if there is space available on the pallet.
Starting out, the resupply boxes we have planned are Coopworth, Romney, Breed-Specific Wools, and Northern Lights/Silk Merino (these will likely get their own packs when our restocking order arrives and more colors are on hand). Please contact us for specifics on what is in each resupply box and the price. These will make their way onto the website soon where you will be able to see the contents as well.
The short version of all of this is:
- You will have immediate access to a subset of the product line
- You will have slower, but scheduled, access to the entire product line
- You will pay the same shipping cost as you did with Louet
We understand that there are compromises in this plan, but we hope that this helps keep DMFibers affordable for you to carry in your store.
Please get in touch with any questions or concerns you might have, and again, thank you so very much for your patience!