Delivery of the product describes how the various materials, as well as finished products, are transported around the world to be available to the consumers. Depending on the destination of the product, Rawlings gloves may be delivered by large semi-trucks carrying a great number of boxes to various stores, or they may be shipped overseas to be sold in foreign markets. Rawlings gloves may also be delivered through the mail to a consumer’s household if ordered online.
Rawlings gloves can be ordered online and delivered straight from Rawlings. Rawlings uses a different and interesting method of delivering the products to its customers however. Rather than using just a shipper like FEDEX or just the post office, it uses something called “Smartpost Saver” which “utilizes the speed of FEDEX and the convenience of USPS (“Shipping and Delivery”). FEDEX will take the initial shipment and then drop it off at your local post office, who will then make the final delivery to your door within 24-48 hours (“Shipping and Delivery”). Rawlings does, however, also offer the option of delivering just through FEDEX via ground or air shipping as well as the option of ordering just through the USPS, also via ground or air shipping (“Shipping and Delivery”). It is interesting to note that they will not deliver their gloves to Hawaii, Alaska, or “U.S. territories” via FEDEX or their Smartpost Saver, and do not post the actual rates for the USPS shipping to these areas (“Shipping and Delivery”). By not having easy delivery services to those areas, it goes off of the same idea as the recycling of the product in that although Rawlings is one of the biggest suppliers of baseball gloves in the United States, it doesn’t seem to play that role outside of the U.S. as much. Perhaps even, this is part of the reason that there are organizations needed that donate old, used gloves to places like Cuba for little kids. The kids have no easy way of obtaining Rawlings baseball gloves at all. They have, however, started to change this as they are now partnered with a service called “MyUS.com” which helps to offer shipping to 225 countries outside of the United States (“Shipping and Delivery”). This service, although advertised on Rawlings as a place where customers can also, “receive deeply discounted shipping rates,” is actually not as cost effective as it seems (“Shipping and Delivery”). First, it requires a one-time setup fee, which is only $10 for the basic plan, but as high as $20-$35 for the premium plans (“Sign Up”). The other problem with this other than costing more up-front, is that the “deeply discounted shipping rates,” are only applied if you have at least a premium plan, which also requires another monthly fee, which can be as high as $25 a month, on top of the one-time setup fee (“Sign Up”). So although Rawlings does offer shipping of its gloves outside of the major U.S. states, to even get them you either have to pay the extremely high U.S. Postal Service rates, and that’s only if you’re considered a U.S. territory or live in Alaska or Hawaii, or you have to pay a setup fee to ship to your country, plus an additional monthly fee if you want any discount on what would be much more expensive international shipping. The lack of availability for Rawlings gloves outside of the U.S. can clearly show to be a major reason why it’s a glove that’s much more popular in the United States compared to other countries where baseball may also flourish, and seems to show Rawlings’ lack of push towards any sort of globalization of their own products.
By Jonathan Borgese