We Listen and Take Action #1: Delivery Charge Cut Down by Half, Less Than $5 Shipping All over the World.

It’s the beginning of 2022 and it’s time to make a meaningful change to welcome the new year. Seeed has been actively collecting our users’ good ideas and advice through our Wishing Well in an attempt to bring constructive suggestions to the ground and benefit more users.

We think with and alongside our customers to help them solve problems they face when using our products and services. From hundreds of suggestions, we chose to begin by solving an issue that concerns most of our users, that is, to provide more affordable shipping. After thoroughly researching how shipping fees are calculated and comparing the robustfulness of different packaging options, we chose a more economic solution and cut our delivery charge down to a half!

Cartons made from corrugated cardboard have been the go-to solution for many manufacturers, including us. Their structural features make it an ideal packaging solution while offering security and robustness. Consequently, cardboard has increasingly become the main means of shipping, storing and marketing products.

However, things are evolving differently in the hardware industry. Most MCUs and PCB boards are tiny, some even as small as a stamp (like our XIAO series), which means that upwards of 90% of the space could be wasted. Unused space easily causes our items to suffer from internal collisions which could damage important components on the board. Extra padding is an option, but overuse of materials does not bode well with our sustainable development goals.

More importantly, from the shipping industry’s point of view, the two most important factors that determine the cost of transporting a package are (a) weight and (b) size. Weight is trifling for most development boards or components, so we can narrow down shipping fees to (b), the larger the size of the package, the more expensive the delivery charge.

With the logistics fees understood, we can finally get down to the nitty gritty: How to minimize the package size while keeping the goods perfectly protected. To that end we adopted self-seal bubble mailers (jiffy bags) which offer a range of advantages. First, it maximizes space utilization so that the product can be better protected and most importantly, it opens up much cheaper shipping options. If your order meets both of the following conditions, you can enjoy shipping charges of less than $5 worldwide:

Order total less than $15
Total weight less than 200g

(not including Seeed Fusion orders)

With the lighter and smaller packaging, we can now offer three more shipping methods with cheaper shipping rates: 4PX Registered Air Mail, 4PX EUB and 4PX Direct Line (availability may vary depending on the destination country). On the checkout page, you can now find cheaper shipping options, with some shipping prices lower than $5. Shop Now!

We always do our best to listen and take action! Just share your suggestions and advice with us through our Wishing Well. Stay tuned for more changes soon!