New West Marine Shipping Policy

[Christian Williams]

They are clearly feeling the heat from online competitors. Price match and now this.

But can they all stay in business? "No sales tax" seems to be going away for companies like Defender. Word in the trade is that things are tough all around, with yet another pro warning me that Raymarine may fold.

[h=1]Shipping[/h]FREE SHIPPING for West Advantage Gold Members

• Begins August 30, 2018.
• No minimum order threshold.
• Applicable on orders within the 48 contiguous United States.
• Does not apply to Truck Freight.
• No coupon code required.
• Discount applied at checkout.
• Orders delivered within 5-7 days
• Includes items shipped from vendor
• Includes hazard

FREE Delivery to Store

• During Checkout, choose Ship to a Store for FREE.
• Everything online ships to stores for FREE, over 85,000 products!
• Orders shipping within the contiguous United States arrive in 10-14 days.
• Orders shipping to Hawaii and Alaska arrive in 10 - 16 days.

Ship to Store is available for all products including hazardous and truck freight. Expedited shipping is available for an additional fee. This service is not offered to our Puerto Rico stores.
FREE Standard Shipping on Orders over $49.00

• Free Standard Shipping is only applicable on orders over $49.00 within the 48 contiguous United States. Free shipping does not apply to Alaska, Hawaii, and Truck Freight orders.
• During Checkout, select Standard Shipping.
• Orders will be delivered within 5 - 7 business days.
• No coupon code required.

Shipping Rates

Delivery Type	Contiguous U.S.	Alaska or Hawaii
Ship to Store	FREE	FREE
Standard Shipping	$9.99 or FREE over $49.00	$19.95
2 Day Shipping	$19.95	$29.95
1 Day Shipping	$29.95	$39.95
Next Day AM phone only)**	$39.95	Call for pricing
Saturday Delivery (phone only)**	$49.95	Call for pricing
Hazardous	varies, rates may apply	N/A
Truck Freight	$65.00	N/A

**Call 1-800-BOATING for Next Day AM and Saturday Delivery.
International Shipping
International Shipping charges are determined based on shipping destination. Please follow the checkout process to see offered shipping methods and associated charge upon selecting a method.

The shipping charge displayed on your order DOES NOT INCLUDE any customs, duties, or brokerage and import fees. To determine any additional fees or shipping limitations associated with your shipping destination, please review each country's import/export compliance policies. West Marine considers all orders being shipped to destinations outside of the 50 United States as International. For more information or assistance in determining expected shipping charges, please contact 1-800-BOATING (1-800-262-8464).
U.S. Territory Shipping
Shipping to any of the U.S. Territories is considered International Shipping. Please follow the checkout process to see offered shipping methods and associated charge upon selecting a method, or call 1-800-BOATING (1-800-262-8464) for further assistance.

---

​

Delivery Times - United States**
Expedited Shipping Orders must be received by 4pm Eastern Time (Monday - Friday) in order to ship same day, if items are in stock. **

	DELIVERY TIME	LOCATIONS	PO BOX DELIVERY	APO & FPO DELIVERY	ORDER PLACED BEFORE 4:00pm ET Monday-Friday
Ship to Store	7 – 10 days	Contiguous US	NO	N/A	N/A
	10 – 16 days	Alaska & Hawaii	NO	NO	N/A
Standard Shipping	5 – 7 business days	Contiguous US	YES	YES	N/A
	10 – 14 business days	Alaska & Hawaii*	YES	YES	N/A
2 Day Shipping	2 business days	All United States	NO	NO	Arrives in 2 business days if in stock
1 Day Shipping	1 business day	All United States	NO	NO	Arrives in 1 business day if in stock
Hazardous	5 – 7 business days	Contiguous US	NO	NO	N/A
Truck Freight	5 – 7 business days	Contiguous US	NO	NO	N/A

*Some areas of Alaska and Hawaii require an additional day of shipping. Please call 1-800-BOATING for additional information.

Delivery Times - International
All International orders ship from our distribution centers located in the United States, not from our stores. Please note that we cannot guarantee International shipping arrival dates as we have no control over the destination Customs rules, timing, or processes.

	DELIVERY TIME	LOCATIONS	PO BOX DELIVERY	APO & FPO DELIVERY
Canada Ground	5 – 7 business days	Canadian Territories	NO	NO
International Standard	5 – 10 business days	Non-US postal codes	NO	NO
International DHL	4 – 6 business days	Non-US postal codes	NO	NO
International Air Parcel Post	4 – 6 weeks	Canadian Territories	NO	NO

---

​

Shipping Restrictions
Hazard Shipping

Standard Shipping (ground service) is used to ship items that are considered hazardous. Estimated delivery is 5 – 7 business days and only applicable on deliveries within the contiguous United States. Additional shipping fees may apply. Signature Required for receipt of shipment.


Truck Freight

Truck Freight is used to ship items that exceed standard shipping limitations on weight and/or size. Estimated delivery is 5 - 7 business days and only applicable on deliveries with the contiguous United States. Additional shipping fees apply. Signature Required for receipt of shipment.

Vendor Shipped Items

• Items marked "Ships directly from vendor" typically arrive in 2-3 weeks.
• Vendor fulfilled items do not ship to a PO Box, APO, FPO, DPO or international address.
• Expedited shipping

 

[bgary]

They are clearly feeling the heat from online competitors. Price match and now this.

But can they all stay in business?

I had the same thought when West started the price match thing. I know they've lost (?) hundreds of dollars just from my use of the price-match (eg, a 600-foot spool of MFP, West's price was ~0.60 a foot, Fisheries had it at about half that, West matched it, with free shipping to the store).

I haven't looked at West's financials but... it smells like desperation, and I wonder how long it can continue. I know they were acquired last year (Monomoy Capital, IIRC), and were delisted from the NASDAQ a couple months later.

I hope they stay healthy. As much as they're sort of the 7:11 of chandleries, they serve a good purpose.

 

[Loren Beach]

WM thoughts, etc

My initial thought is that WM has always charged "full list" as a standard, and makes a very good profit by doing so. Now they are reducing their gross a little bit, but still making money, just less money. Perhaps.

What I find encouraging is the continued and seemingly-thriving survival of smaller regional competitors that at one time I thought would be forced out.
In our area we have England Marine and Fisheries Supply. The later is strong on the web, and England has a strong store presence along the Oregon coast and on the Washington side of the Columbia.

Locally we have an independent chandler that has survived since the 80's with a sole proprietor. Our other even-smaller chandler is for sale and it's survival is uncertain at this point... owner is going cruising...

Mixed feelings about the monster WM. Their return policy has been a help to me several times over the years, and it's nice to have the convenience of weekend shopping even at their higher price.

Quite a few merchants now offer "free" shipping to their store locations, especially hardware and appliance retailers. My surmise is that this saves them stocking costs at the store level, and their fleet of trucks makes the same rounds anyway.

Interesting thread material. Thanks.

 

[alcodiesel]

I bought the EV-100 wheel pilot at West only because of price matching. I found an online dealer that had it for $1000. West gulped and matched. I don't like paying list for anything. First time I've bought from them in years.

 

[toddster]

Dunno. A few years back, I experimented with “free” shipping for the retail part of my business. Seems like it was only viable if the average order was more than $100. If the average fell below that, it was disasterous. There has definitely been a sharp uptick in costs of materials this year. Tariffs? Maybe. I’ve had to raise prices in turn. Come to think of it, the “free” shipping was in part an attempt to soften my last price increase.

 

[Geoff W.]

Hope this isn't a derail, but as a newbie entering the scene these things are interesting to me. Let's say hypothetically Raymarine does fold...it seems like their autopilot products are ubiquitous / "THE" option one would go with. If a relative staple like that vanishes, who steps up to fill in the gaps?

 

[toddster]

Raymarine has been part of Flir for some time now, and they seem to be doing alright, overall. I wouldn't be surprised to see big changes in their business, but that goes for all the big-name marine electronics brands. A lot of the things they make and sell at very high prices - sensors, networks, data displays, etc. have become commodities in the wider world that sell for a few dollars. Or a few cents. Other items in their line-up are still more specialized - like radars and autopilots. But kids growing up in the open-source robotics world might look at those things and see nothing special. About all they have left is "Ours is waterproof! (sort of.)" Which doesn't seem that hard.

I've been expecting prices to start crashing as soon as some low-cost competitor gets their act together. But Raymarine seems positioned to survive the fallout better than some of the others.

I'd charge $.02 for that opinion, but it turns out that they're free on the internet now!

 

[tenders]

While their margins on any individual product often look fat, I believe it’s been a struggle for West to make money because of:
* High rent in relatively good retail space despite very seasonal demand
* Ready availability of substitutes/other providers for many items - not just Defender, but Home Depot, Best Buy, McMaster, sports stores, Amazon, eBay, Craigslist, and industrial supply shops
* Higher-than-average-retail inventory costs, and a lot of stores across which to spread that expensive inventory
* Differentiated customer bases (sail vs power vs fisherman vs watersports - very few crossover products)
* Infrequent motivated buyers and frequent showcase customers - ie, rarely does somebody walk into WM having to buy an inflatable/radar/set of fenders on the spot/right that day, and it sure is easy to walk through WM to see what you need and then go online to find the best price

Personally I don’t see how a private equity firm could maintain the retail overhead at WM’s scale AND do price matching. They’re going to have to consolidate stores, and make them smaller, perhaps turning more of them into what used to be called “catalog showrooms” where a lot of the high ticket/low turnover items you can see for sale are floor models, and you have to wait for them to be shipped to the store. That actually could work.