Frequently Asked Questions

Unfortunately, we cannot assist with sourcing the products we sell in your area. As we're just a single-store retailer of the goods we sell and not the manufacturer of anything, we honestly have no idea what other stores carry the same goods outside of our territory here in the Milwaukee area. We can certainly mail you anything that you'd need, however, if you only wish to purchase something that's in your town then you'll have to contact the product manufacturer directly as only they can assist with any details as to whether or not the items are available where you live. One thing to note is that many items we carry are exclusive to only our store or very few stores inside the USA, such as with some of the imported sweets we stock, and sometimes the only way you'll ever be able to try these products is to order them online.

Yes, everything we sell is vegan! We don't wish to offer anything that contains any animal-based ingredients or that has been tested on animals. Period. We're vegans ourselves, and we have never had any plans to sell anything that is not conforming to vegan standards. You may read an ingredient in a product that sounds like it is not vegan, but trust us, there are many different ways something can be derived or created, so even if something looks like it might not be vegan or you read that the ingredient is from an animal, you can be sure that the derivitive in the product we're carrying is not from an animal source. It is extremely rare that a company ever changes ingredients to make a vegan product non-vegan, but if this were to happen with something we were carrying, we would immediately discontinue the product and no longer offer it in our store.

Regarding allergens, while all of our products are completely vegan, many items we sell are made in facilities that do handle some allergens for other items that may include nuts, dairy, gluten or other such things. If you or the person you're purchasing edible products for has serious allergies to common allergens, we do not recommend purchasing items without contacting us first to find what might be ideal for your needs. For example, even though all our chocolate is dairy-free, much of it is made in facilities that also manufacturer dairy chocolate, so for those with life-threatening allergies to dairy, most chocolate would not be suitable for your needs. We can quickly and easily help to clarify which items you're interested may be suitable for those with serious allergies if you would like to call or email with details on the items you're interested in, so please contact us before ordering if severe allergies are a high concern. We cannot accept responsibility for orders placed that are assumed to be allergen-free if you do not consult with us prior to ordering, and anything containing unwanted allergens that are unusable will need prior authorization before being returned, if they are eligible for return.

This is a question we receive often, as unfortunately, the giant online mega-stores have given the false impression that shipping is somehow low-cost and inexpensive due to the artificially low / free shipping they tend to offer, so most people who do not ship products themselves have little idea how shipping costs actually are at this time. We hope to be able to educate online shoppers a bit about the truth of shipping costs, as small stores simply cannot do what larger retailers can for their free/ultra-low cost shipping. Shipping costs, in our 20+ years online, have only increased with every year. Even when fuel costs dropped considerably in recent years, shipping costs ONLY go up from all major carries including FedEx, UPS, US Postal Service, and others - this has been a fact since the first parcel we shipped, and is unlikely to ever change. The costs we charge at checkout are never padded for profit - we charge the actual costs we pay for the shipper you choose at checkout, with ALL of our volume shipping discounts passed on to you to help keep costs down. This means when you order from us, you'll be paying about 30-40% less on shipping than if you were to go to a UPS Store or FedEx Office location to ship a parcel yourself as an individual - we do every bit we can to keep costs as low as we can for you, and we work to try and negotiate better discounts periodically in order to stave off price increases at every chance possible. However, what most people aren't aware of is that those big online retailers you see with $5 flat shipping or "free" shipping get HUGE discounts small retailers do not receive - some of them paying as little as 25% of the normal cost to ship a parcel, making something that you would pay $20 to ship cost them only $5 with their big discounts - it's not "fair" by any stretch, but that's the reality of shipping. The more a company sends out daily, the bigger their discount, so a small store like ours simply does not have the ability to match what a multi-billion dollar retail giant can do for their shipping costs as they're paying less than half of what we do. Add in that many such retailers also pay less for their products by demanding better pricing from their suppliers, factor in that some of them also spend part of their marketing budget to artificially subsidize their shipping costs to reduce them further, and you can see why there are so few small stores doing what we do in this era. If shipping is what determines a sale, then the faceless mega-retailer will win every time, as we can't compete with how little those big stores pay in relation to what we are charged for shipping. However, if you're looking to support small, independent retailers who share your same ethics and ideals, and who won't turn around and spend part of your money from your purchase on their meat department or give their billionaire CEO another bonus, then you've come to the right place! And, of course, we do offer periodic item or shipping discounts to help make us more competitive with those big stores, so we do all we can to keep pricing low every chance we get - we want you to be happy with your purchase, and do all we can for our wonderful shoppers!

We do allow order pickups at our warehouse in Waukesha, Wisconsin, during limited hours Monday-Friday for those looking to save on shipping costs. Please email info info@veganessentials.com with questions regarding placing a pickup order and for current hours available to receive orders at our location.

It is rare that ordering problems happen on our site, but situations can arise where you just can't seem to get your order to complete as intended. Should you ever try to place an order with us and something does not work correctly, there are many other means to get an order in to us. Here is what we suggest:

- Call us at 833-407-0747 to place your order over the phone, or email us your telephone number and we'll call you back to take your order at your convenience.

- Mail in your order to us at our contact address listed at the bottom of this page. You can use our printable order form found under the "Ordering" section listed at the top of the page or simply write it out with credit card and shipping instructions and we'll send your order when we receive it in the mail. Shipping costs are listed on the form (for shipping inside the continental USA only - all other areas, please write or call to get a quote)

- If all else fails, we do have a secure email address that you can send all details to for ordering and credit card information. If you need to place an order via this method, please write us at questions@veganessentials.com and we'll tell you where to send the information!

When your order has been sent you will receive an email confirming that it has been shipped and it will include a UPS tracking number (USA and some Canadian orders only). You can log into our site at VeganEssentials.com and track your order from there or go directly to www.UPS.com and use their online tracking feature to find out where your order is at any given time.

For orders outside the USA which are sent via USPS Air Mail, we unfortunately have no way to track these orders. Also, should a package be lost or stolen in transit, we can file a claim with UPS to try and get a 2nd shipment out to you at no additional charge, but this cannot be done with orders outside the USA, so order at your own risk. However, if there is information from your local post office to show that the package was delivered and you say that you did not receive the package, you will need to contact UPS to initiate a claim for lost package - this situation is not the responsibility of VeganEssentials.com to follow up on as once a package has left our warehouse we have no control over the situations which may occur.

While most orders ship within 1 or 2 business days, shipping time can be affected by other factors, especially if your order contains refrigerated or frozen food items.

UPS SHIPPING INFORMATION: If you choose UPS Ground for delivery, your order will ship during the week so long as it will arrive by Friday. Any UPS order containing cold goods that cannot ship to deliver by no later than Friday within the same week will be held to ship the following Monday to best protect the order contents for maximum freshness. PLEASE NOTE, some major metro areas do offer Saturday delivery with UPS – if you have confirmed that your city is one of these areas, you may note this in your order comments at checkout and if we can ship to arrive by that time, we will always do our best to accommodate. We ship UPS Next Day Air and 2 Day Air parcels Monday-Thursday SO LONG AS they will be arriving by Friday in the normal UPS delivery to all locations on weekdays – Saturday delivery for Air shipments is possible, but as UPS charges an additional $16 for Saturday delivery on Air parcels, we would need to adjust your shipping cost accordingly for this added fee if you require your delivery on Saturday. If you have questions regarding receiving Air shipment delivery on Saturday, please email info@veganessentials.com or call us at 833-407-0747 for details to assist with your order.

FEDEX SHIPPING INFORMATION: We ship FedEx Ground and Smart Post Monday-Friday, as they deliver to most locations 7 days per week. FedEx Ground and Smart Post services deliver Monday-Saturday to all locations, with most locations offering delivery every day of the week. While FedEx does offer Sunday delivery as well to most of the USA, some rural areas in the Central and Western half of the USA do not currently offer Sunday delivery. Please see the map below for details on which areas FedEx offers Sunday delivery to – if you are unsure if your location offers Sunday delivery, please email us at info@veganessentials.com and we will be happy to check on this for you to confirm if that option is available, or, you may call 1-800-GOFEDEX to confirm if Sunday delivery is available to your area. If you are in an area that does not receive FedEx deliveries on Sunday, please note this at check out in the comment box so we can ship accordingly in case we need to hold your order to ship the following Monday to protect perishable contents. We ship FedEx Overnight and 2 Day Air parcels Monday-Thursday SO LONG AS they will be arriving by Friday in the normal UPS delivery to all locations on weekdays – Saturday and Sunday delivery for Air shipments is possible with FedEx, but as FedEx charges an additional $16 for weekend delivery on Air parcels, we would need to adjust your shipping cost accordingly for this added fee if you require your delivery on Saturday or Sunday. If you have questions regarding receiving Air shipment delivery on weekends, please email info@veganessentials.com or call us at 833-407-0747 for details to assist with your order.


Orders containing only dry goods items without any cold products included ship Monday through Friday every week. Items containing cold items will ship as soon as possible after they’re placed, again, so long as they can arrive before Saturday. If for example, you place an order, with UPS, for cold items on Thursday after at 12 PM CST, that order would not ship until the following Monday, even if it were only a 1-day shipping time for delivery as again, any cold goods sent must arrive by no later than Friday afternoon unless you note that you have confirmed your location offers Saturday delivery with UPS (we are not responsible if shipping to a location that has not been verified to be allowing Saturday delivery with UPS and cannot refund or replace affected cold items due to any delays in delivery on weekends). If you place an order with FedEx, we ship daily, Monday through Friday, unless you specify on the order that you want it held for the following Monday. If you have questions regarding shipping for any orders containing cold goods, please email info@veganessentials.com or call us at 833-407-0747 and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you have to help coordinate your order to deliver your items at the best time.

Major holidays may affect shipping schedules, especially at Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day, as those holidays often are very busy for us and also tend to have shorter than normal shipping weeks, and both UPS and FedEx do not deliver on those 4 holidays. Please email info@veganessentials.com or call us at 833-407-0747 if you have questions on coordinating delivery around a holiday if you’re unsure of how to time your shipping for ideal delivery.

Orders placed after 12 noon CST will not be able to ship the same day, and likely will ship within 1-2 business days. Please do not place orders in the afternoon with expectation of same-day shipping as our shipper pickups happen around 2-3 PM daily, and orders placed after noon typically cannot be prepared to ship in time for same-day service.


Please note, we do ship any orders on Saturday or Sunday – we are closed weekends and do not receive any pickups from our shippers on those days, so no orders will be sent on weekends with the sole exception of Black Friday weekend when our shippers accommodate weekend pickups from our facility.

VeganEssentials.com does not sell your information to anyone. All of your information is kept private and is used only within our business and under no circumstances will be shared, sold or traded to anyone else, guaranteed.

We offer a 30-day return policy on many items, but unfortunately, we are not able to offer returns on food items or supplements unless the product can be shown to have a manufacturing defect, or, unless the wrong item was received. If you receive a damaged item, please contact us immediately – we may ask for a photo of the damaged product to be emailed to us for verification so that we may file a damage claim with the shipper. Also, please do not discard any damaged items until we have given notice, as the shipper may send a driver to inspect the damage before honoring a claim for anything that cannot be used.

Regarding food and supplements, as everyone’s tastes can vary, we unfortunately have no way to guarantee that everyone’s personal taste ensures they’ll love every product we offer, and therefore, we cannot refund on such items for personal taste preference/dislike issues. This is also our policy regarding dog/cat food and treats, as companion animals can be finicky, so we recommend ordering only a small amount of food or treats for your dog or cat before stocking up so that you can be sure it’s a product they’ll enjoy.

For items that we do offer returns on (clothing, accessories, cleaning products, bath/body care, cosmetics, etc.), please email info@veganessentials.com before sending any items back to us to inform us of the reason for return, as well as for us to issue you a return authorization. If a defective or incorrect item is sent to you, we will take care of return and/or re-ship costs at our expense. Please do not return any items without prior authorization, as our warehouse may refuse to accept any return parcels that are shipped without prior authorization.

For questions on orders already placed, please email info@veganessentials.com. For product questions, general questions, or questions prior to placing an order, please email questions@veganessentials.com. If you are a vendor interested in getting your products into our store, please email info@veganessentials.com