All of us love retail services that make our lives easier, especially if they save us money. That’s the case with the new Combined Shipping Option for plant orders at Flowers by the Sea Online Nursery.

Now all it takes is a simple click — instead of a written text or phone call — to combine multiple orders and reduce shipping charges. It’s a feature available to all customers with registered accounts on our website, which is home to the FBTS online catalog.

How Combining Orders Affects Delivery Date

When you combine two orders to save on shipping, the original delivery date for the earlier order no longer applies. It automatically changes to the delivery date set for the later order, because the later date is when plants for both orders will be ready for shipping and planting.

At FBTS, we don’t cut corners on plant quality by shipping a Salvia or companion plant before it’s mature enough — vigorous roots, strong foliage — to withstand shipping and be ready for planting.

Salvia Alert Plants & Other Modifications

Order combining frequently occurs when customers already have open orders (ones scheduled for shipping at some future date) and then receive an FBTS Salvia Alert for a sage they want. A Salvia Alert is an email newsletter announcing availability of a single kind of Salvia that may be highly coveted, such as a new or rare species.  

Other reasons for multiple orders may include afterthoughts about garden design, discovery of a delightful sage, or failure to include an important choice in an initial order. In any case, full shipping fees for a second order can be frustrating. But with order combination, you can improve your shipping costs.

Old Versus New Order Combination Process

Combining separate open orders for delivery at the same time is a service FBTS has always offered. However, it used to require time-consuming manual tracking of the orders to make sure they were packed together. Quite a headache!

Our shopping basket system now automates the process of pairing the orders and adjusting shipping charges. This change gives us extra time to grow excellent plants and focus on efficient packing for lower shipping fees and healthy delivery.

An Invoice Showing How You Save

At FBTS, we don’t charge a flat fee per plant for shipping. Instead, the delivery agreement with our shipper makes it possible to reduce per-plant shipping charges as your order increases in size.

The new Combined Shipping invoice shows you the amount you save on delivery charges for an order subsequent to, and combined with, an initial order.  It can be significant, sometimes amounting to only a few more dollars than the cost of your plants.

Answers to All Your Questions

This article is part of a new category — Business Buzz — in our Everything Salvias Blog. Business Buzz includes information about consumer issues, such as shipping and delivery. Whether you dig into our blog or contact us with questions concerning our flowers or ecommerce practices, we’re ready with answers.