Frequently asked questions
You’ve guessed right using the term “collective”.
Eira and Carla realised that they could get better prices for products they liked to use when they bought in bulk.
While buying in bulk does reduce the price per product, when you do it alone, all your hard earned cash is tied up in a LOT of products that have to be purchased to make up the minimum order quantity (MCQ) for a wholesale order.
Our platform is a collective effort for conscious consumers to group together to get lower prices on the products they like to use.
Using this community effort towards a common goal, no one person has to buy in bulk yet everyone benefits (to different degree depending on member type) from great discounts on the retail price.
Without a community of like-minded consumers, it is difficult and requires a large investment of funds to buy at wholesale. With a community, the community becomes the one customer that orders from the wholesaler.
Our platform, collectively, and known as the Collective Wellbeing Community is that one customer.
Eira and Carla want to maintain the spirit of a community effort, and are continuously working on ways to keep the discounts on the store substantial.
One of these ways is to place wholesale orders with suppliers only once a month. So, in exchange for these discounts, customers can only order once a month. That is a critical part of ensuring that we get the bulk orders we need to meet the MOQ of our suppliers and to limit the costs associated with carrying stock.
All orders are on a pre-order basis – this lowers our costs and time commitment so that we can sustain these member discounts
All orders are paid for at check-out on the store with your debit/credit card or instant EFT – similar to any other paygate on other online stores. The paygate fees are a necessary cost in this business because they automate the ordering and payment process which frees up our time to focus on the handling and distribution of orders at delivery stage.
The monthly order cycles run as follows:
- Orders can be placed throughout the month
- Orders close on the last day of the month.
- We recommend customers place orders between the 26th and the last day of the month (for example, in August, orders closed on 31 August).
- Eira and Carla collate all orders on the 1st day of the new month (for example, for August orders, the order cycle closed on 31 August and we placed the orders with suppliers on 1 September).
- Suppliers have an approximate 2 week lead time. Therefore we expect delivery of the group orders in the second week of the new month. (The August orders were available for collection by customers by the 14th of September).
- Orders are collected by customers from their closest, local, collection point, also known as a collection hub.
- By asking customers to collect their own orders we further reduce costs because our handling and distribution of products is limited to sending group orders to various hubs.
- viii.Customers can collect themselves from the hub, or send an Uber, or send someone to collect on their behalf.
- The hubs are located close to the customers so that pick-up is not out of the way and happen in the ordinary course of the day.
- Where there is not a hub local to a customer, we recommend they join our community as an “Influencer” member and build an area buying group for themselves and others interested in these low prices. We support that area buying group and have the group order delivered to the Influencer.
Welcome Newbie! Congrats! We are so happy you’ve found our community of conscious consumers.
This is what you need to know:
This is the platform for a discount buying group.
As far as possible we offer our community discounts on their purchases through the buying group when compared to the retail selling price that any individual would pay when they buy alone and not part of a group.
We have three discount levels for our community members.
New joiners fall into the first level which is the “Lucky Fish” member group.
The other two discount levels are “Legacy” (second level) and “Influencer” (top level)
Lucky Fish can graduate to Legacy over a combination of time in the community and spend.
Lucky Fish or Legacy members can both upgrade to Influencer if they wish to start an area buying group for themselves and their friends, community, neighbourhood.
Area buying groups have certain minimum order quantities which we will explain to you if you’re interested in running one.
There is currently no fee to become a member.
The only requirement is that you’re keen on our buying model which works as follows:
We offer discounts to the community because we only place one order, once a month, with each of our suppliers.
Place your entire order of all our products once a month, by the last day of the month.
The store is open the whole month but we recommend that you place your order between the 26th and the last day on the month.
Eira and I collate the entire group order on first day of the new month and send those orders off to our suppliers.
Our suppliers have an approximate two-week lead time and your orders are usually ready to be collected in the second week of the new month, or shortly thereafter.
For example, the August 2023 order cycle closed on the 31st of August 2023. Eira and I placed the orders with suppliers on 1 September. By the 15th of September each area buying group had received their orders and their community members had collected from that area buying group pick up point.
We have reduced the costs associated with these purchases by relying on community members to collect their orders from a collection hub as opposed to offering shipping directly to you.
A collection hub and a pick-up point are the same thing and these are run by our elite customer group known as “Influencers”.
You can collect your order yourself or send an uber or someone else to collect for you.
Your collection point is ideally located close to where you work, live or drive by on a regular basis i.e. not so far out of the way that it is an inconvenience for you to collect your order.
We have a number of collection points (hubs) throughout Johannesburg and are growing the number of these hubs.
If there is not a hub near you, speak to us about starting your own area buying group and upgrade your discount status from Lucky Fish to Influencer!
Good question! We have three different customer types or members in the community. These are:
- “Lucky Fish” members who come on at the entry level discounts and currently get 1% to 75% off the recommended retail selling price (RRP) depending on the product.
- “Legacy” members who are on the mid-tier or second level of discounts and currently get 8% to 77% off the recommended retail selling price (RRP) depending on the product.
- “Influencer” members who are on the top tier of discounts and currently get currently get 13% to 78% off the recommended retail selling price (RRP) depending on the product.
*These % discounts were accurate at the time of writing these FAQs in September 2023 but do vary as supplier cost prices and RRPs change over time.
The majority of the products we sell are sold at a discount. This includes:
Bio-cleaning products made by Greenworx.
The entire range of Crede and Oh Mega products supplied by Crede
Select healthcare, body care and cleaning products from the Apothecary.
Quality Italian cooking ingredients and tinned goods
Maple Syrups and maple sugars.
Organic silica (premium, natural, collagen boosting supplement made from Orgono ® organic mineral silica).
And more to come
When it comes to artisans, we sell at the recommended retail price.
If you are an existing member of the community, your profile on our platform already takes your customer discount type into account and you will see the Recommended Retail Selling Price (RRP) and the price you pay for every item on which there are discounts.
If you would like to apply for membership, click here, fill out the form and we will review your application. If your application is approved, you will come on as a “Lucky Fish” member, or if you want to create an area buying group, you will come on as an “Influencer” customer. Either way, once approved you will see the RRP and your discount.
The percentages vary per product because they are calculated on the margin on each product ie the difference between the cost of selling the product and the RRP
The costs of selling include the following:
- Product cost.
- VAT on product cost.
- Paygate cost (a % of the price we sell the product for on the online store, determined by our Paygate provider).
- Platform hosting costs which are shared across the community so that we can have this easy to use and automated platform which is what makes this model sustainable and able to accommodate more and more customers, more and more suppliers and more and more discounts. We cannot offer this service without the use of an online store.
Remember that an exciting discount model that so lovingly rewards the community with great discounts in exchange for placing a group order with other savvy, conscious consumers like yourself?
Well, that model is only possible because we:
work only on a pre-order basis and don't carry stock (retailers carry stock and because carrying stock comes with a chunk of extra expenses, we chose not to carry stock and pass those savings onto the community and that is why you can get prices below retail on our site.
Do not do returns, refund, and exchanges (these things cost a retailer and are built into the retail price - here you get below retail prices but one of the compromises is that we don't offer returns, refunds or exchanges)
What you can do is try and offer the product you wish to return/exchange or get a refund for to another member of the community who may be willing to buy it off your hands or consider gifting it to a neighbour or a charity - we're not a retailer but we're also not inflexible, should an item not be delivered in non-usable condition for any reason and the supplier themselves agrees to the flaw, we will consider making a plan.
In unusual cases like this, just reach out directly to Carla or Eira for support.
100%. Absolutely and definitely.
When you join the community, you are under no obligation to order every month. You can order monthly or you can order on an ad hoc basis.
The only thing to remember is planning on your side because we only place orders with our suppliers once a month.
We close community orders on the last day of the month and get orders to suppliers on the first working day of the new month.
Community members can expect delivery from that order in the second week of the new month. We designed the monthly ordering system so that our community could plan their budgets and product purchases in some manner and monthly worked out well.
We want you to be able to save you the cognitive effort and expense of placing multiple orders during the month. And we want to be able to place a bulk order with our suppliers each month for the community so that we can all benefit from bulk order prices.
However there is no expectation for our community members to order monthly. Most like to order monthly so that they don't run out of products and have to run to the shops for something of an potentially inferior quality and pay...gasp...actual retail prices ;D
This sounds like a great problem to have and a great opportunity for us to collab on a solution that benefits everyone. Just reach out to us onour Contact Us page (https://cwco.co.za/pages/contact) and we can work with you to find or start an area buying group close to you.
Hi Legacy Member! Howya doing? We love hearing from our core group of customers and you ask a very good question.
The next step up from Legacy is the discount level associated with our elite group of Influencer customers.
An Influencer is someone who has built up an area buying group for themselves, their family members, friends, neighbours, and colleagues. We deliver the group order to the Influencer and their area buying group members collect their orders from a common collection point that the Influencer has arranged.
You can upgade to Infleuncer by starting your own area buying group and receiving the bulk order from your group. Chat to Eira and Carla about what makes the Inflencer model possible to see if you can qualify for that upgrade!
Artisan, hello, hello! Our community appreciates the work of artisans and would love to sell your items in our store and give our conscious consumers the opportunity to directly support your business.
Artisanal products are sold at retail price and compliment our discount range. As conscious consumers ourselves, we understand the importance of supporting the artisans in our community.
Please reach out to us on our Contact Us page and we will meet with you to find opportunities to work together.
