New Website with New Features!
It's been a long time coming. Our other e-commerce platform had one thing going for it, and that was the price tag. It certainly helped us get on our feet when we couldn't afford more expensive platforms like Shopify, but the limitations and bugs were numerous, and the customization was limited.
Customer Accounts
Finally, we now have proper customer accounts where you can view and manage your orders. I'm also hoping to customize this page in the future so that you can keep track of discount codes you may have access to, product documentation, and more!
Wishlists
Wishlists are here! We know that sometimes making an order can be a process, especially when you're planning a full cage overhaul, with a specific theme or color scheme in mind.
One bit of feedback we saw consistently on our other website was that often times people would lose their order progress if they stopped to have a think on what route they wanted to go with certain items.
Wishlists saved to your account can now save you from that pain so you can plan your order at your own pace!
Subscriptions
While we're not quite ready to launch this feature yet, we do have some plans for future subscription services and possibly memberships.
We're hoping to launch the RatPack monthly box late this year or early next year. It will be a customizable monthly themed box where YOU have control of what types of items you get as well as how much you pay. Who wants to pay an exorbitant monthly fee to receive a box that only has one or two items you actually want?
New Items Incoming!
The end of April and the start of May ended up being a rough time for me personally. I've had multiple family members in the hospital due to serious illness, and also fought some medical issues of my own.
But while we've gone a bit radio silent on social media, we have been slowly working away behind the scenes on some new items and new mounting systems.
More Cottage Core!
The cottage core theme has already been our most popular release yet, and we can't thank everyone enough for your orders and your understanding about long production times. Sincerely, we got more orders in the month of April than we have this entire year!
But mushrooms and tree stumps aren't the only things we have planned! Well, there's some more of those too, but not only those! Here's a sneak peak at some of the upcoming cottage core items:
- A top-mounted Acorn hideaway
- A top-mounted mushroom-themed lounger
- Mushroom ledges
- A side mounted tree hideaway
- A Ground dwelling flower pot hideaway
- Treat nuts?
- Bee hive?
- Cabins?
More Cheese!
We're already pretty cheesy, but we could always be cheesier. I'd initially planned to release some new cheese themed items in May (which is American Cheese month, by the way) but, well, ya know, life happened. Here's a preview of some cheesy goodness in the pipeline:
- Cheese hut.
- Cheese wheel hides
- Swiss cheese toy
- Cheese versions of all existing items
- New, cheesier colors
- Cheese treat containers
- Cheese items for humans
- Cheesy stickers
Science!
We have several SCIENCE themed items in the works to help keep your ratties on the cutting edge! This one was a special request, but it's going to be released to everyone.
- Top-mounted flask hides
- Tippy test tubes treat toy
- DNA Ladders (If I can make them print properly)
- Brain hide! The jar said it belonged to Abby Normal, so we'll see how it turns out.
- Atomic Ledges
The Affect Of Tariffs
Like pretty much every other business in the United States, we have been hit pretty hard by the tariffs. Here's how it has affected us, and how it will impact our pricing structure going forward:
Material Costs Are Up
The trade wars have led to an average increase in our raw material of about 25%-30%. Unfortunately, it's darn near impossible to source 3D printer filament purely from sources within the United States, and often even U.S. based manufacturers import their raw PLA pellets from China and other countries affected by tariffs.
It is possible for us to get near our pre-tariff prices on filament by ordering in bulk, however we're not even close to a point where we can afford to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars at a time ordering filament.
In addition, our current filament supplier can often take up to two weeks (sometimes longer) to deliver filament due to stock shortages, and the anticipation is that filament prices with this manufacturer will likely rise higher.
We're currently working on sourcing our filament from a new provider who provides similarly high quality, RoHS certified filament. Prices will likely still be a bit higher than from our previous supplier, but much quicker fulfillment times are also a plus.
So How does this affect you?
- We will no longer be able to provide free shipping. Unfortunately shipping costs have risen significantly, and at our current price points, we are bleeding money on shipping fees. We are doing our best to lessen the affect of this change, or split shipping costs with our customers, but the reality is, it's just too expensive for us to sustain our current shipping model.
- We're reassessing item pricing, and some items may go up by one, or sometimes several dollars. As much as possible we are trying to find ways to prevent drastic increases. One way of balancing this will likely be higher prices on specialty themed items, while we attempt to keep our standard non-themed item price increases to a minimum.
- It's important to us that our core product lines be as affordable as we can, well, afford.
- We want every themed item to have a cheaper equivalent in our main product line for those who want a high quality product, without spending that extra.
- Whenever this crazy trade war is over, we will reassess to try to bring any raised prices back down.
- We will aim to provide a transparent breakdown of our prices, and how much we make off of each item. We're not here to run RatPrints like big business and try to squeeze every dollar and cent we can out of our customers. We simply want to get this business to a point where this can be what we do for a sustainable living. As such, you'll find (if I can get it to work) a pricing breakdown for our items that shows how much the raw material costs, how much printer time costs, and finally, how much we expect to make from your purchase (before tax).
Thank you
Sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone in the community who has been so incredibly kind as we try to get this crazy rat-fueled business off the ground.
It's been a long road, and at times it seems hopeless, but each and every one of you has been so amazing. In my darkest moments, it's the love and positivity that have kept me striving to try to make RatPrints the best it can be.
As always, I would love to hear from you. If you have questions, concerns, or feedback of any kind (not you, spam emailers!) you can always reach me at richard.vaughn@ratprints.com. I will be happy to hear from you (NOT YOU, SPAM EMAILERS).