Pricing, Shipping, and Inventory
I mentioned in my last blog post that I hadn’t been making videos lately because I’ve been busy with everything else. In that blog post I listed off the new product listings and website content I’d made, but this time there’s far less to show but soooo much to tell. I’ve had chats with a number of people since then about all the ongoing challenges I’ve had to deal with that have kept me from the more public-facing things that people expect of me, like making videos. I’m not a YouTuber, despite a few accusations. I started my YouTube channel strictly as a way to host videos to supplement my written DIY Guides. It’s grown a bit since then, and I’ve got a lot of plans for it, but it’s an extremely low priority for me.
Anyway, given these topics have come up so many times lately, I decided to grab a drink (thanks Mike!!) and pound on my keyboard to shine some light on what’s going on. It’s really nothing new - just more of the nonstop WTFery that’s been raging since last year, but the last few months have been particularly WTFy.
If you just want to see what new product listings I’ve added, scroll on down to that section. It’s fine, you won’t hurt my feelings. I’m drinking my drinky drink whether you read all of this or not.
The Ongoing Challenge of Price Management
Checking and updating pricing is one of the most tedious things for me, and unpleasant things for my customers. I have to go through every item I sell and see if the price has changed, then update prices accordingly if they have. Usually, prices stay the same. But they do go up fairly often and nobody likes that. While spending way too much time going through this process today, I noticed a couple things and figured I’d share them.
I’ve adjusted many of the prices in my Online Store but the vast majority of them are between only $1 and $5 each. Unsurprisingly, most prices have gone up, but some of them did actually go down. There was one big surprise, though… the trunk lid rain seals (AKA “tailgate flip seals”) more than doubled in price. I really wish I’d known that before I bought a small pile of them and completely wrecked my financial projections for the next couple months.
I thought that’d be the most egregious thing, but I was wrong. I came across the new pricing for a Carbon Edition tail light, which has tripled in price compared to what it was previously. That means you can spend a few thousand dollars on a single tail light. Seriously. WTF. But somehow, oddly enough, the price for the same tail lights as a complete package hasn’t changed. Well, at least not yet.
While rebuilding my price sheets, I came across some old invoices from a few years ago and noticed that prices were lower across the board. While also figuring in the worse exchange rate (for us Americans, anyway), today’s average prices are ~15% higher than they were back then, at least for things that didn’t have drastic price increases like the trunk lid rain seals or tail lights I mentioned above. I’m fairly sure shipping costs have gone up since then, which adds to the cost of inventory and, even if pricing has stayed the same, dealing with shipping is exponentially more demanding than it was in the past.
And that brings me to the next topic. (Awesome segue, Rich!)
The Ongoing Challenge of Shipping Management
Shipping has been an absolute godawful nightmare the last several months. I’ve flown across the US and back twice in the last two months and may need to again in another couple weeks, all just trying to deal with inventory shortages and backorders caused by shipping issues. Despite racking up a whole bunch of Delta Skymiles and Amex points, the situation isn’t much better thanks to FedEx losing several thousand dollars worth of my inventory and FedEx and UPS delaying delivery of several thousand more on multiple occasions.
Directly related but completely separate, I ran into someone high up at FedEx and had a bit of a chat. Let’s just say they’re going through some extreme lengths to get things fixed and hire 10,000 additional people, like high hourly pay and low standards for hiring. While I’m extraordinarily pissed off at FedEx for completely screwing over me, my business, and my customers, it’s not just them - the entire shipping industry is in the same situation. And it gets worse if you’re moving cargo by ship.
I’ll also say that, despite their bad reputation, USPS has been the the most reliable carrier of all the ones I’ve used (DHL, UPS, FedEx, USPS) over the years. DHL used to be great but they completely collapsed several months ago to the point that I had to stop using them due to so many lost packages (I later found out that a few had been literally left on the side of the road). With FedEx being so bad lately, I’ve been relying pretty heavily on USPS. Most shipments have been going out using them regardless of what’s selected during checkout simply because they’re actually delivering shipments when other carriers aren’t. I’ve been calling FedEx multiple times each week and they still haven’t found my missing shipments, so until they get their heads out of their asses, I’ll be continuing to use USPS for most order fulfillment.
I’ve been buying more inventory than I can afford just to get ahead of shortages caused by shipping delays, but that’s been slow, painful, and sometimes futile because of lack of availability for some parts.
And that brings me to the next topic. (Heck yes, another awesome segue!)
The Ongoing Challenge of Inventory Management
In addition to getting inventory delivered, it’s often been a challenge to ensure things are even available at all. The most recent cascading issue is a shortage of fuel filler door struts. These have been on backorder for quite a while but I’ve finally got a bunch of them on the way and are supposed to arrive next week. I say “supposed to” because, well, see the previous section. (Orders waiting for those will be shipped out as soon as they arrive, and I appreciate everyone’s patience.)
Most supply issues lately have been caused by the pandemic completely wrecking global manufacturing and shipping. That also certainly contributes here, too, but from what I’m told by a couple different people within AMHQ, there’s more to it. This is a bit of a bigger topic and this blog post is long enough, so I might write an article about it sometime soon… ish.
Anyway, the point here is that parts are sometimes backordered, and getting more in stock can take a while. I’m working on adding much better inventory management to my Online Store to make it clear what’s in stock and ready to ship, and what’s on backorder, what’s special order, and so on. Plus, I’m still adding more products to my Online Store.
And that brings me to the next topic. (OMG these segues are spectacular.)
New Product Listings
I’ve added product listings for Powerflex bushings, which are going to be a massive cost savings for owners that are dealing with worn-out suspension bushings. These are a brand-new product and the initial inventory shipment is expected to be delivered to me in the next couple weeks. Powerflex bushings are made in the UK and have a limited lifetime warranty, and I’ll cover these far more in depth soon.
Powerflex Bushing Package for the 2004-2012 DB9
Powerflex Bushing Package for the DBS, V8 Vantage, V12 Vantage, Virage
Powerflex PFF2-101 front lower control arm front bushings
Powerflex PFF2-102 front lower control arm rear bushings
Powerflex PFF2-104 front upper control arm bushings
Powerflex PFR2-111 rear lower control arm bushings
Powerflex PFR2-114 rear upper control arm bushings
I also added a variety of VelocityAP products for the 2018+ Vantage (AKA, “AM6 Vantage” or “New Vantage”).
VelocityAP Lowering Springs for the 2018+ Vantage
VelocityAP Secondary Cat Deletes for the 2018+ Vantage
VelocityAP Sport Exhaust Tips for the 2018+ Vantage
VelocityAP Quad-Tip Valance for the 2018+ Vantage
VelocityAP Valvetronic Exhaust for the 2018+ Vantage
And back by popular demand is the carbon fiber trunk lid spoiler from ACR in Japan, which I have on my supercharged 2007 V8 Vantage.
ACR Trunk Spoiler for the V8/V12 Vantage
I’m still waiting for my private-label Redpants stuff to resume manufacturing, and those will be added to my Online Store once ready. I keep getting requests for these and it’s really awesome that people are excited to see them come back. It takes a lot of work and investment to get these things ready and the continued interest has been really supportive to that end.
And that brings me to the next topic. (Bloody hell. Just incredible.)
About That “Thanks!!” Shout-Out
I added a Support page when I did my huge overhaul of the Redpants website and a few people have actually used it. I’m incredibly grateful for the contributions and wanted to say Thanks! to those of you that have given them. I still feel weird about it but I’ve had some great chats with people that sent them and that’s made it a bit easier to accept. The latest was from a guy named Mike whose note said to buy myself a drink, which is exactly what I did! So, thanks again!
…Holy crap I just realized I haven’t uploaded a video to YouTube in four months.