fees for local wine delivery?
I run a small, thinly staffed boutique beer and wine shop. In our area, wine and beer delivery must be done by a W-2 employee of the store. You can not use a place such as Drizzly. We have always offered local delivery but we never promoted it and it was usually for large orders and events. We informally waived delivery charges if it was a big order, otherwise we would charge $10-$25 depending on distance. With the current situation, our delivery business is booming and we charge a flat $25 fee. People seem OK with it so far but one of my regular customers politely told me that some of my competitors do not charge delivery fees. For what it's worth one shop is just as good as us in terms of service and selection in store, and I like the operators, but their website stinks. You can't order online, you have to call and talk to someone to figure out what you want, what's available and what it costs. Then give your card over the phone. Our website is a fully functional normal e-commerce platform where all of our inventory is on line in real time and the transaction is processed on line. I don't want to lose business by charging for delivery, but delivery is an added value which we have to pay for. It's staffing, it's gas and so on. Amazon makes everything so cheap and easy. Everything is not cheap and easy. This is the only complaint I have received and the customer was very nice about it so I am not mad at the customer. Anyway, others probably feel the same way. My question is what do you think about my $25 charge? I am starting to think that it should be waived for a minimum order of $x amount.