Store Review: Blitsy

Have you heard of Blitsy? Blitsy is a retail website that sells craft supplies at a discount.  The web site proclaims:

Blitsy brings you the best craft supplies at up to 70% off. We are on the frontlines of the crafting industry, discovering and delivering the latest designs and trends from your favorite brands. You'll find steals on products for paper crafting, needle crafts, kids, fine arts, jewelry, and so much more!

The Good:

Blitsy has a nice selection of current items.  I was a skeptical at first.  I find that when some stores claim to sell "overstocks" at a discount, the merchandise is old, outdated or not anything you would want to purchase anyway.  Blitsy is selling current, popular items from popular manufacturers.  Recently, they  had Tim Holtz mini distress inks, Julie Nutting Prima dolls, Prima flowers, stamps and embellishments, Memory Box dies,  Bo Bunny, Basic Grey, My favorite Things, Papermania and more.   Other categories include fine art supplies including gesso and paint as well as supplies for  jewelry making, knitting and crochet, sewing, kids crafts and more.  They sell craft items you would actually want to buy, not just the leftovers.  All at less than retail prices.

Items were as promised:  When I received my order,  it was exactly as advertised and pictured on the website.  Nothing to complain about there.

Oh Blitsy,  I really wanted to like you.  I really did.  But alas,  I cannot not.  Here is why:

The Bad:

Prices are not that great: I don't know about you but I try to avoid paying retail prices for craft supplies.  Ever.  Crafting is a hobby for me so I don't like to pay a lot for items that I do not need. I am willing to pay full price for the things I must buy- like food & transportation- necessities.  ( Even with then, I tend to focus on weekly special items in the grocery store circular and try to fill up my car when the local gas station has $.05 off per gallon).  While the Blitsy site says they have craft supplies at up to 70% off,  I did not see that level of discount in the papercraft supplies I looked at.  The discounts for the papercrafting category seemed to be 15% to 30% off.   Since I avoid paying retail pricing anyway, a 30% discount when I have to pay 20% in shipping isn't much of a draw for me.

Login required, even to browse:  Retail websites that require you to set up an account and log in even to look are a personal pet peeve of mine.  Seriously,  Blitsy,  I came to your website to see if I wanted to have a relationship with you and you are demanding my name and email address before we even say "helllo"  No casual drive-by looking here. Annoying. 

Expensive shipping:  Another pet peeve is web retailers who charge excessive shipping fees.  Apparently, Blitsy is determined to make it up for its product "discounts" by overcharging on shipping.   My order cost $9.99 to ship.  I almost cancelled it when I saw the shipping cost.  This is what I ordered:

A couple of Prima doll stamps, Prima color bloom spray in berry wine( new to me and I wanted to try it) and a few colors of Viva Modeling Creme ( you can make and color your own for a lost less but I really like the colors of the Viva creme)

My order was shipped in this box:

This did not cost Blitsy $9.95 to ship.  My guestimate that actual cost to ship was $5.95

Slooooow order processing and shipping:  This is where Blitsy really lost me.  I placed my order on February 13.  I received my items on March 12.  The items ordered were not pre-order items nor did they site indicate that they were out of stock when I ordered so I don't understand how it could have possibly taken 30 days to get my order. Now in fairness to Blitsy,  on their website, in their FAQ section, under "Shipping", it says:

"Shipping times vary by product. Many of our items ship within 2-3 business days, but others can take up to 7-14 business days. Every product will have an estimated shipping date posted in the item description. Please note, your order will ship once all items are available."

I did not notice the disclaimer before I placed my order but even at an estimated 7-14 business days  for order fulfillment there is no way my items should have taken a month to arrive.  Especially for items that I could have walked into Joanns or gone to my LSS and purchased several times over in the time it took Blitsy to ship to me. 

Poor Communication: I try not to get antsy when  place an online order.  I know that there will be a lag between the time I order my items and the time they arrive, no matter how impatient I am.  However,  the wait is so much more tolerable when you know what the heck is going on.  Blitsy did not provide an order update. Not one.

Constant Emails/Spam- 

Number of emails I rececived in 30 days updating my on my orde status: 0

Number of emails I received in 30 days urging me to shop at Blitsy: 59 ( I counted)

Seriously,  Blitsy,  I don't need to hear from you that much.  At least ship my order first.

Although my order took about 3 weeks to ship, my credit card was charged immediately:  Different stores handle this differently.  Personally,  I think the most appropriate policy is to charge the card only when the item is shipped, but stores vary.  Normally, shipping delays are not significant enough for this to become an issue for me but you should NOT charge my card and then take 3 weeks  to ship.

My verdict?: The small discount off retail pricing did not make the order worthwhile especially when the slow shipping time and expensive shipping costs are factored. 

Blitsy is another entry into an already crowded retail space and they have done nothing to make me interested in ordering from them. Slow and expensive shipping for items that are minimally discounted is not a good combination for me. YMMV.

Where to shop: I prefer to support LSSs but I don't really have one. If I want to place an online order for papercrafting supplies, I will continue to use my go-to: oozak.com, which has  superfast shipping ( and free for orders over $50), great customer service and  seems to offer a standard minimum 20% discount off MSRP for most items. Oozak is great at providing order status updates by email. I have also have good results with bluemoonscrapbooking.com (great customer service and fast shipping. I ordered recently and received a telephone call to tell me that my order had shipped!) and Ellen Hutson (pricey but honorable mention here for good customer service).  Joann.com is also good for sales but are slow to update with newer products and you have to watch out for their shipping costs.