Most of these changes are small, many will go completely unnoticed by everyone but me. However, the first and perhaps biggest change which I've put in place this morning is that Leanne Woods Designs will no longer ship worldwide.
I realise for a business this probably seems a little bit counter productive. I've effectively reduced my customer pool to those living on the tiny group of Islands known as the UK but after some thought I'm completely fine with that, if anything I'm happier.
It's always been a goal of mine to use as many locally sourced materials as possible. Many of the fabrics I use are manufactured right here in the UK a smaller quantity are made in neighbouring EU countries however those were still purchased locally, I never add to the volume imported where possible. With things like zips and some hardware which just isn't manufactured anywhere in the UK I will import but I try to offset these items by using carbon neutral companies for things like stationary, business cards and packaging or by making donations.
Because of this I never felt comfortable with the idea of shipping worldwide, it was something I did way back when I first set up shop and it hasn't sat well with me since then. The idea of sending a purse or a handbag halfway round the planet when I'm completely and utterly positive that something could have been sourced closer to home seemed ludicrous to me.
I'll announce any future changes in time, but as I say they're teeny tiny compared to this and most won't have any dramatic effect to the shop or products on offer.
I understand entirely. I don't have an online shop, but I do sell on eBay sometimes. I used to ship worldwide, but rising postal rates make that almost prohibitive these days, even just to our Canadian neighbors to the north. I also don't purchase from countries other than the US. Not because I'm all that patriotic, but simply because I don't want to pay shipping.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I wish this Carbon neutral ideal actually had more of a foothold over here in the USA. Starting to get bad, but its not as bad as Mexico City yet. Thanks for the post.
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