Temporary suspension of our Free shipping Offer to North America & Oceania

Until March 2022, Seido has maintained its free shipping offer to as many destinations as possible, including North America, Europe, and Oceania, despite the very important "covid" shipping surcharges put in place by all carriers. 

Unfortunately, the situation has only worsened in the past months, and the Ukraine War caused further issues in Europe and Worldwide. The two new issues are a complete suspension of all Japan Post shipments to Europe, which is the service we were relying on for packages under 1kg to offer free shipping, and the fulgurant rise of kerosene prices, which resulted in a further significant increase in the shipping costs.  

Private carriers offer flat B2B rates, and we are confident we have the lowest rates these carriers can offer in Japan, allowing us to ship to more than 100 countries completely free of charge in normal time. 
But these rates also have a variable part called "fuel surcharge". In normal time, this variable part is around 5%. The Ukraine war pushed this variable fee to 30%.
With the COVID crisis, a new surcharge of about 220 YEN/kg was also put in place. 
In total, our shipping costs have risen by about 50% in a few months, which is no longer sustainable for us. 
Two examples: 
- Shipping a 2 kg Aikidogi to the US went from 2,300 YEN in 2020, to 3,500 YEN today. 
- Shipping a 100g Sageo to Europe went from 1,200 YEN in 2020 to 2,500 YEN today. 

For this reason, we have no other choice but to :
- suspend our free shipping offer to North America, Australia, and New Caledonia for all packages. And charge a 1,000 YEN flat fee for all orders. 
- suspend our free shipping offer for packages under 1 kg to Europe. And charge a 1,000 YEN flat fee for packages under 1kg (free shipping remains for larger packages). 

We are extremely sorry to have to come to this point. For almost 2 years, we did our best to keep our free shipping active, as it is a key component of our business model. 
So we want to reassure you that as soon as the situation will allow it, free shipping will be restored!

Thank you very much for your understanding and stay safe!

Jordy Delage
Founder & CEO @Seido Co., Ltd.