Air Freight Shipping
Pre-orders for the Wooting 60HE have the option to upgrade their order to air freight shipping. This article explains what exactly that upgrade means, and why it's even an option.
Air freight shipping is one way to get the keyboards from the factory in China where they get made to our warehouses in the Netherlands and in the United States.
The other way to ship all those keyboards is via sea freight shipping. Sea freight shipping takes a lot longer, but is usually cheaper.
Note: The freight shipment (air freight or sea freight) from the manufacturer to our warehouse is not the same as the shipment from our warehouse to your front door.
Usually when we make the bulk shipment from the manufacturer to our warehouse, we stick with the cheapest option, which is via sea freight. This normally takes 6+ weeks to arrive, as a best case scenario.
Air freight shipping usually takes about two weeks and is far more reliable.
The cost for this upgrade is either €12.00 or $12.00, depending on whether your order was placed via our North American storefront or our European/International storefront. The extra cost of the upgrade is fully passed through on average. To be fully transparent, since shipping prices change all the time, sometimes it costs us a little more than €/$12 per keyboard to upgrade, and sometimes a little less.
There are two reasons why we are offering this upgrade:
Some customers want their keyboards as soon as possible.
These customers are willing to pay a little bit extra in shipping costs to receive their keyboard a whole lot sooner. The air freight shipping upgrade from the factory to our warehouse is much cheaper than upgrading the shipment from our warehouse to your front door, and saves more time too!
Air freight shipping is far more reliable.
Since the start of the Covid pandemic, we have experienced all kinds of delays and other difficulties related to sea freight shipping. We have specifically experienced these delays:
Shipments getting assigned to different (and later) boats
Delays in loading or unloading at any of the ports that the ship stops at along the way
The ship our keyboards are on getting stuck in the Suez canal for two weeks
Delays at customs at the destination country when one product in a shared shipping container has a copy right dispute, even if it's a totally unrelated product is from a completely different company.
We make the decision to offer or not offer the upgrade for each batch of each product. This is because freight shipping costs and timelines change constantly.
For every bulk shipment we request quotes for both air freight shipping and sea freight shipping. Sometimes the time savings from air freight shipping just isn't worth the extra cost.
An example of when we decided it wasn't worth the price to split the shipment was for the North American orders for the Wooting Two HE. We got a quote for sea freight shipping that would only take 30 days, whereas the quote for air freight shipping was for 20 days but over twice the price!
You can upgrade your order to air freight shipping directly via the order hub!
https://hub.wooting.io/
If you don't see the option to upgrade to air freight shipping for your order, then the upgrade isn't available for your specific batch.
What is air freight shipping?
Air freight shipping is one way to get the keyboards from the factory in China where they get made to our warehouses in the Netherlands and in the United States.
The other way to ship all those keyboards is via sea freight shipping. Sea freight shipping takes a lot longer, but is usually cheaper.
Note: The freight shipment (air freight or sea freight) from the manufacturer to our warehouse is not the same as the shipment from our warehouse to your front door.
Usually when we make the bulk shipment from the manufacturer to our warehouse, we stick with the cheapest option, which is via sea freight. This normally takes 6+ weeks to arrive, as a best case scenario.
Air freight shipping usually takes about two weeks and is far more reliable.
The cost for this upgrade is either €12.00 or $12.00, depending on whether your order was placed via our North American storefront or our European/International storefront. The extra cost of the upgrade is fully passed through on average. To be fully transparent, since shipping prices change all the time, sometimes it costs us a little more than €/$12 per keyboard to upgrade, and sometimes a little less.
Why are we offering this upgrade?
There are two reasons why we are offering this upgrade:
Some customers want their keyboards as soon as possible.
These customers are willing to pay a little bit extra in shipping costs to receive their keyboard a whole lot sooner. The air freight shipping upgrade from the factory to our warehouse is much cheaper than upgrading the shipment from our warehouse to your front door, and saves more time too!
Air freight shipping is far more reliable.
Since the start of the Covid pandemic, we have experienced all kinds of delays and other difficulties related to sea freight shipping. We have specifically experienced these delays:
Shipments getting assigned to different (and later) boats
Delays in loading or unloading at any of the ports that the ship stops at along the way
The ship our keyboards are on getting stuck in the Suez canal for two weeks
Delays at customs at the destination country when one product in a shared shipping container has a copy right dispute, even if it's a totally unrelated product is from a completely different company.
Why is this upgrade not available for some orders or batches?
We make the decision to offer or not offer the upgrade for each batch of each product. This is because freight shipping costs and timelines change constantly.
For every bulk shipment we request quotes for both air freight shipping and sea freight shipping. Sometimes the time savings from air freight shipping just isn't worth the extra cost.
An example of when we decided it wasn't worth the price to split the shipment was for the North American orders for the Wooting Two HE. We got a quote for sea freight shipping that would only take 30 days, whereas the quote for air freight shipping was for 20 days but over twice the price!
How do I upgrade?
You can upgrade your order to air freight shipping directly via the order hub!
https://hub.wooting.io/
If you don't see the option to upgrade to air freight shipping for your order, then the upgrade isn't available for your specific batch.
Updated on: 12/12/2022
Thank you!