Wholesale Customer Service & Support

WELCOME TO SWAHILI IMPORTS!

We're so pleased that you are visiting our online catalog of wholesale handcrafted African gifts, home decor, skin care and accessories. We've worked tirelessly over the past 16 years to create a strong channel of exchange between Africa and the United States, and we currently provide high quality African creations to more than 2000 retail stores, museums, zoos, universities and catalogs located in the U.S. and around the world.

You Make It Happen

Without your patronage, our efforts would be in vain. Your orders honor the creativity and quality of craftsmanship of hundreds of artisans across Africa, providing in exchange a vital income that helps feed, clothe and educate families.

Supporting Fair Trade in Africa

We are a member of the Fair Trade Federation, a group of like-minded companies that pledge to adhere to fair trade practices in developing nations and to promote the fair trade movement worldwide. If you are interested in becoming a Fair Trade Federation member or sourcing more fair trade products for your store's selection, please visit www.fairtradefederation.org.

A Great Shopping Experience

With more than 1500 products available for purchase, it's easy to become overwhelmed. We want you to have a pleasant shopping experience, so we have simplified our website to make shopping fast and easy. The following points will acquaint you with our online shopping experience and let you know what you can expect after you hit the "Submit" button.

QUICK FACTS ABOUT ORDERING FROM SWAHILI IMPORTS

You must be a registered buyer to view pricing and place orders

There's a $75 minimum order required when you purchase through our website

We ship via UPS ground and charge you for the cost of shipping plus a small boxing fee

We accept credit card payment for your first order, Net 30 terms (if approved) for following orders

We typically ship orders within 1-3 business days after they are placed, an in some cases, the same day

We ship from our warehouse in Eugene, Oregon

We strive to keep all items stocked in our warehouse. If an item is depleted, we will indicate it's expected arrival date in the Availability field on the product's page.

A small selection of our items are available for sale to the general public at http://www.swahili-imports.com

We donate a percentage of our profits to three non-profit organizations, the Makindu Children's Program, Friends of Kenya's Schools and Wildlife and Caravan to Class.

GETTING STARTED: LET US CREATE YOUR BUYER ACCOUNT

We keep swahiliwholesale.com password protected as a professional courtesy to our buyers. To become a buyer, you simply need to enter the following information in our simple NEW BUYER ENROLLMENT FORM:

Email Address
Store Name
Tax Identification Number/Resale License Number
Contact Name
Telephone Number
Business Address

Once we receive your information, we will create your account and email your access information to the address you provide. Please add info@swahili-imports.com to your address book to ensure that our emails reach your inbox. We create accounts Monday through Friday between 8am and 4pm Pacific time. If you do not receive your username and password in a timely fashion, please email us.

NOTE: If you are a not a buyer, you can shop a limited selection of our products or find a store in your area that offers Swahili merchandise at www.swahili-imports.com.

YOU'RE NOW REGISTERED. HOW DO YOU BEGIN BUYING?

We've made our log in page easy to find at the top of our homepage. Enter the user name and password we emailed to you here to access wholesale pricing, the shopping cart and your account details.

What Happens After I Log In?

Once you are logged in, you'll automatically be taken to our catalog landing page, with a full array of thumbnail photos (see right). Each photo links you to a product category, which you can also access from any place in the site using the list on the left hand side of the page.

After you've logged in, you will also be able to view pricing and options for each item in the catalog, and to place items in your shopping cart. Now you just have to decide which of our 1500 items you're going to buy...

A FEW TIPS FOR SHOPPING OUR ONLINE CATALOG
Here are a few links to help you make the most of our product selection

Looking for low price points? We took the work out of hunting down all of our lowest priced items.			Want to See New Items?	Looking for a particular safari animal? Use the SEARCH box at the top of the category listing to pull up every item related to your quest.
				elephant	giraffe	hippo	rhino	zebra
Our $5 or less category offers more than 250 items under $5.00	Our $15 or less category offers over 700 items under $15.00	Our Sale category offers discontinued merchandise for pennies over our cost	Here you can check out new items that have not even arrived from Africa	Keep in mind that our Search box isn't always as smart as we'd like it to be. Some results may seem totally off-base, but there's always a reason, for example, the zebra search results bring up vases made from mpingo wood, also known as zebrawood. Aha!

USING YOUR ACCOUNT AND ORDER HISTORY

Your account keeps your business details stored to make checking out quick and easy. This useful section, which can be accessed by clicking the ACCOUNT link on the black bar near the top of the page, also gives you access to the status of your current order and your order history.

When you click View under the Details column in your Order History, you will be delivered to a copy of your order, complete with Bill To and Ship To addresses and product thumbnails. Many buyers find printing out a copy of this page to be a useful way to check in inventory, especially when the buyer is not the individual receiving arriving products.

Clicking the Reorder button at the bottom of the page creates a duplicate of the order in your shopping cart. This is a helpful tool for buyers who order the same merchandise repeatedly. You can adjust quantities and add additional items as you wish before submitting the final order.

PAYING FOR YOUR ORDER

When you are ready to check out, you will be required to choose a payment method. There are two options:

Credit Card: If you are a privately owned store, your first order must be paid by credit card. We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover.

***Your credit card information is securely recorded on our server, which is purged automatically after your order is printed. With your permission, we will keep your credit card number on file in our offices. If you do not wish for us to keep your card information on file, we will expect your credit card information to be included with each order.

Net 30 Terms: We do extend Net 30 terms for all following orders to customers who provide approved credit references. To download a Net 30 application, click here.

Museums, zoos and government institutions are awarded Net 30 terms automatically. Please advise if your invoices need to be shipped to a billing department with a different address than that of the order recipient.

Orders shipped on Net 30 terms should be paid within 30 days of the invoice date. Should you have an issue that prevents prompt payment, please contact Mary to discuss your options.

Repeated failure to pay your open invoices on time may result in revocation of your Net 30 privileges. Should your company check be returned due to non-sufficient funds, you will be charged all applicable bank fees and your Net 30 terms will be revoked immediately.

OUR ORDER FULFILLMENT, PACKAGING AND SHIPPING POLICIES

Transit We ship most orders via UPS ground shipping. Our commercial volume discount keeps shipping costs as low as possible. We charge you for the cost of shipping plus a small boxing fee if your order is shipped in new boxes.

Boxing When we can, we use sturdy recycled boxes to reduce our footprint and to keep our costs low. We pass that savings on to you by not charging a boxing fee. If you prefer recycled boxes, please indicate this in the Comments field when checking out. If you are averse to recycled boxes, please indicate that as well.

If recycled boxes are not available, we use new heavy duty corrugated cardboard boxes.

Padding We use reclaimed packing materials like shredded paper, packing peanuts, air bladders, lightweight cardboard and dunnage. We have an extended network of businesses and other outlets that happily contribute packing materials. This keeps our costs low.

Careful Packaging Our order fulfillment team takes great care when packaging your orders. Since each order contains a unique assortment of products with varied shapes, sizes and weights, they package each order with the safety of the products and the most cost-effective manner of packaging in mind. To reward our packers for their dedication to quality, we offer a paid day off for each month there are no order fulfillment errors. Over the years, our packers have received compliments galore about their thorough packaging.

LTL Shipments On occasion the volume of your order warrants a skid. In these cases we seek the best possible quote to get your shipment to you safely at the most reasonable price.

Federal Express We will ship via Fedex Ground or Expedited at your request. Since Fedex is not our default carrier, we are charged a $12 pick-up fee per shipment that we pass along to you.

C.O.D. In select cases we will ship by C.O.D. to your location. We require confirmed funds as payment in the form of a money order or cashier's check. Your order total, including shipping costs, will be emailed to you on the shipping date, and you are responsible for maintaining communication and procuring the necessary payment to receive your shipment. It is not our responsibility to chase you down to tell you your order total or to absorb return shipping costs when you do not provide secured payment at delivery.

Using Your Shipper Number We are happy to ship your orders using your UPS or Fedex shipper number. To arrange this, please indicate your shipper number in the Comments field during checkout. You may be charged a small boxing fee if we use new boxes to package your order.

International Shipments We wish to make ordering Swahili Imports merchandise as easy as possible for buyers outside the United States. We typically ship smaller orders via USPS Global Priority directly to your location. You are responsible for any duties or fees at pick-up. We can also ship via UPS ground to your freight consolidator here in the U.S. if you use such a service.

Direct From Africa We will organize containers or air shipments to your location if the volume of your order warrants such shipments. We generally work out the details of such orders by phone as you will be subject to receive F.O.B. pricing.

If you have any questions about our shipping policies, feel free to contact Mary by email or by calling 541-684-0688.

A NOTE ABOUT SHIPPING COSTS

As the price of fuel continues to rise, the cost of shipping merchandise also increases. We strive to keep shipping costs as low as possible for our customers while ensuring the safety of the merchandise during transit. With such a variety of merchandise in all shapes, sizes, weights and levels of fragility, we unfortunately cannot make a general rule about the percentage of your order total that shipping costs will comprise. However, here are a few guidelines for understanding the cost of your shipped merchandise:

Large items, even if they are lightweight, are subject to higher shipping costs due to the volume of the shipping box.
Heavy items, even if they are small dimensionally, are subject to higher shipping costs due to the weight of the shipping box.
Fragile items like ceramics are often subject to higher shipping costs, as additional packaging is required to ensure no damage to the item occurs.
Orders comprised mainly of closeout merchandise are often subject to higher shipping-to-total percentages since the merchandise is being sold at a lower price.

DAMAGED MERCHANDISE

If your merchandise arrives damaged, please print and complete a damaged merchandise report and fax it to 541-485-8132 or email it to info@swahili-imports.com within five (5) business days.

Claims for damaged merchandise will not be honored after 30 days from receipt of the order. Please keep all packaging materials and merchandise in the original box for UPS inspection. If the item can be replaced, you will be sent a replacement within 2-3 business days following the damage report.