e3 Update on Order Fulfillments During COVID-19

By Caryn Gehlmann

Patience… this is a quality we need as we continue to face all the unforeseen results of COVID-19 in our daily lives. It takes more time to go to the store; it takes longer to get online orders. The “get it now” world we’ve become accustomed to has changed to “get as soon as possible”. At e3, we’re not immune to these changes. They have impacted our ability to quickly complete our order fulfillments, get you quotes on pricing, and respond to the fabulous questions we receive each day. We are so grateful for your patience and understanding.

The new challenges we’re facing fulfilling your orders as quickly as possible include:

Essential oil production and harvesting have slowed down. In order to produce the quantity and quality of essential oils our customers need, we partner with farmers and distillers throughout the world. This enables us to focus on finding the highest quality products available. However, due to COVID-19 safety measures, harvesting the ingredients to make your favorite essential oils and factory production of caps, bottles, containers, packaging, etc. have slowed down output. We’re often left waiting on our suppliers to fill our orders, which creates delays for our customers as well.

Shipping is slower, both for our suppliers and for us! While this has improved a bit recently, we can’t forget shipping companies are facing monumental staffing and distancing challenges, so sometimes shipments take longer to arrive. And travel restrictions have added complications to international shipping channels, especially when you consider some of our favorite products, like French Lavender and Ethiopian Frankincense, come to us from overseas.

Smaller staff to handle the increased demand. We are having more sales than ever before! We’re so grateful to both our loyal, long-time customers and new ones who are checking us out for the first time. However, while demand has increased, some of our staff have health considerations which require that they work from home. It’s important that we support their needs but this does also occasionally contribute to small delays.

So we want to give a huge thank you to our community for your patience in the midst of these challenges. You’ve been so understanding and flexible — it is deeply appreciated. We’re making some adjustments to minimize delays to our order fulfillments by:

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• Ordering ahead and staying well-stocked with our most popular items.
• Staying in contact with our shipping carriers to keep you up-to-date on what to expect.
• Offering alternative ingredients or packaging that we can get to you faster.
• Adding new staff, our newest staff member, Denae, is quickly learning to fulfill and package your orders.

I feel so fortunate to be able to continue to serve our customers. I’ve seen firsthand how aromatherapy is an incredibly helpful tool during COVID-19, especially in strengthening our physical, mental, and emotional resilience. Please know that we’re doing our best to get your orders out to you in a timely manner! If you have any questions at all, please contact us. And once again thanks for your ongoing support!

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