Big news for L.L.Bean fans: Starting today, the clothing and luggage company is offering free shipping on everything. As their Web site says, “no minimum order, no end date, just free.”
This is a pretty big deal when the added cost of shipping on mail orders can often add up to an extra 10% or so on your order. If you’ve ever waited until you could order a few items together (to avoid the relatively high shipping cost of one small item) or you decided against getting a the heavy rolling upright (wait, you don’t do that, do you?) because of how much the shipping might come out to, you can now rejoice.
Here’s the company press release:
L.L.Bean to Launch Free Shipping Forever March 25
Customer orders ship for free to United States and Canadian addresses with no minimum purchase and no expiration date
Freeport, Maine, March 24, 2011 – L.L.Bean, a leading outdoor equipment and apparel merchant, implements free standard shipping to all United States and Canadian addresses effective March 25, 2011. The company founder and inventor of the original Maine Hunting Shoe, Mr. “L.L.” Bean, introduced the concept of free shipping in 1912 by adding “post paid” in catalog copy. As L.L.Bean nears its 100th anniversary, the tradition of free shipping returns. L.L.Bean’s free regular shipping includes fast delivery with customer packages arriving in 2-5 business days.
“We tested free shipping offers with no minimum purchase for several months and the customer response was overwhelming,” said Chris McCormick, President and CEO, L.L.Bean. “Our customers want and value free shipping. It’s our opportunity to offer free shipping for all US and Canadian customers with no minimum purchase, no end date, no conditions — guaranteed.”
L.L.Bean had recently offered free shipping with no minimum purchase as a limited-time promotion, and as an ongoing benefit to L.L.Bean-branded Visa Cardmembers. With the implementation of free shipping to all US and Canadian customers, L.L.Bean increased the benefits for its Visa Cardmembers by doubling rewards on everyday purchases made with L.L.Bean® Visa® Cards. L.L.Bean Visa Cardmembers will earn 1% everywhere Visa is accepted and 3% on L.L.Bean purchases, in addition to other member benefits such as free monogramming and free return shipping.
Besides their various travel-friendly clothing items, the one item they have that is particularly Travelite-friendly is their Quickload Travel Pack.
The L.L.Bean Quickload Travel Pack
Priced at a relatively reasonable $109.00, it’s currently available in 4 colors. They’re sold out of black, but both the red and navy models are rather nice. I’m not personally fond of the orange piping on their olive model, although the best color has got to be their multi-plaid. It’s screamingly loud, awesome, and just waiting to be personalized with patches and buttons!
A big thank-you to L.L.Bean. And congratulations for doing so well! According to a message they posted earlier on Twitter, today was “Bonus Day,” where they gave out $19 million to 5,000 employees. Wow!