Drop Those Rates

Brad Grimsley knew he needed to make some changes. The vice president of service and fulfillment at Shindigz/Stumps, a South Whitley, Ind.-based party and prom supplies merchant, says he noticed soon after arriving at the company in 2003 that he had an opportunity to reduce shipping expenses.

Meanwhile, the company’s overall order volume for its eight catalog titles had risen 28 percent since 2002, but its average order size was down 14 percent. One other variable: Stumps’ officials wanted to continue offering free shipping (ground only) to customers of certain catalog titles who order a predetermined amount of merchandise. The question was how to do that profitably.