Week of 3/4/26

There’s an assumption in eCommerce that you have to offer free shipping. We don’t see it that way. Free shipping isn’t a requirement. It’s a strategic decision.

If you’re in a highly competitive category where multiple sellers carry the same product, you may need it to stay in the game. In other cases, especially when what you sell isn’t ubiquitous, charging for shipping can make sense. You can also use a minimum order threshold, but that number shouldn’t be arbitrary. It should be based on your margins, shipping costs, and average order value.

Understanding the free shipping equation requires looking at your data, your competition, and your unit-level economics. Otherwise, you’re not making a strategic decision. You’re just giving margin away. ●

Week of 2/11/26

I told someone they should raise their prices because they weren’t even getting keystone. They asked what keystone meant.

When we started our eCommerce store in 1999, keystone was a common way retailers priced products purchased from distributors. It simply meant pricing at roughly double the wholesale cost. That logic makes sense as a starting point for retail, although it isn’t applied the same way to wholesalers selling direct.

Today, people don’t talk in those terms as much. The same idea shows up as gross margin, contribution margin, markup, or whether something clears a 2x. The language has changed, but the pricing conversation is still about margins and sustainability. ●