View Full Version : Shipping charges
little-linguist
19-07-2008, 09:31
A bit of research!
I'm just wondering how everybody calculates their shipping charges. Do you offer different rates depending on weight / number of items ordered, or do you charge a set rate? If the latter, what do you charge?
Currently, we vary shipping charges by weight but we're thinking of charging a set fee as it's easier to explain when people ask what the shipping charges are!
This is a perennial problem, and there never seems to be an easy answer to this one. We charge a flat rate (or rates) based on value of order. We go to a maximum of £3.95 no matter how much people order and swallow the additional postage ourselves, except on the large items (pedal cars) to which we add a premium due to the high courier costs (which can be done at product level).
But then there's expedited shipping, which is extra, and then some items which are free delivery, and then EU or overseas rates, which we can never seem to get right etc. etc.
You are right though, it is easier to explain than by weight, which we looked into and abandoned.
Adva Trading
19-07-2008, 10:10
UK: Free.
The rest: Flat fee.
Hi
Weight is not really much of an issue with lingerie so we just have a scale designed to be competitive within our industry and fair as it can be to all customers in any location. This is the detail:
UK free - All items over £50 are sent special delivery.
UK Express - This is for customers spending under £50 who are in a hurry. We charge £5.05 for this and send by special delivery.
Europe - £3.75 items sent Air Mail International Signed for.
Rest of the World - £5.75 items sent either Air Sure or Air Mail International Signed for.
The overseas pricing does not cover the real cost but works out (as an average) at about the same cost to us as the UK Free but depending on the order value/weight some customers are paying only a proportion of the true shipping cost. But as these are the customers who have spent more it seems fair.
Gill
Hi,
Shipping is a really tricky one for us as some of our items weigh 10 grams others 5 kilos, so we have a similar issue. Also some of our items are table plans which weigh little but are expensive to send as they are A1 sized. Also the cost of packaging required can varying and we have to take account of this also.
We have gone for the weight based shipping option, but with items like table plans have added a shipping surchange through the product record, which has been a great benefit of using Blue park as with our previous shop we could not do this.
We have not had any complaints and people tend to understand how it works.
We tend to still use Royal Mail for smaller items and courier for any items over 5k as we have found it to be cheaper.
I can let you know the thresholds we have set if it would be useful.
Hela
We tend to still use Royal Mail for smaller items and courier for any items over 5k as we have found it to be cheaper.
Which courier do you use, and do you have to commit to minimum volumes?
Hi,
We use Interparcel.co.uk, you just book it as you need it and it gives you options on lots of different couriers and the best prices. The only slight limitation is sometimes if you book a collection, you do not always get it same day.
Hope that helps.
Hela
Hi,
We use Interparcel.co.uk, you just book it as you need it and it gives you options on lots of different couriers and the best prices. The only slight limitation is sometimes if you book a collection, you do not always get it same day.
Hope that helps.
Hela
Thanks Hela
little-linguist
04-08-2008, 09:31
Thanks everyone for your input!
Pete - regarding couriers, how many parcels do you send a year (ish!)? It may be worth you getting a contract. Sometimes the minimum useage needn't be too large. If you're sending more than a couple a week it could be worth investigating. We use Parcelforce, have an option of a 24-hour or 48-hour service and have found them to be generally very excellent.
Jonathan Read
04-08-2008, 10:47
Just thought you would like to know about http://www.payperparcel.co.uk/ - we use them all the time. They use DHLhome service and you pre-purchase your parcels which you then call off. £5.50 for up to 31kg is the cheapest we have found to date (1-4 days delivery, 90% have been next day)! Service has been very good.
Regards
Pete - regarding couriers, how many parcels do you send a year (ish!)? It may be worth you getting a contract. Sometimes the minimum useage needn't be too large. If you're sending more than a couple a week it could be worth investigating. We use Parcelforce, have an option of a 24-hour or 48-hour service and have found them to be generally very excellent.
We post on average 15 parcels a day of varying sizes, by Royal Mail or Parcelforce, but are a bit fed up with the too frequent visits to the Post Office and the queueing. Also, for heavy items it starts to get very expensive very quickly, so I'm looking for alternatives that are more convenient and cheaper.
Regards
Pete
Just thought you would like to know about http://www.payperparcel.co.uk/ - we use them all the time. They use DHLhome service and you pre-purchase your parcels which you then call off. £5.50 for up to 31kg is the cheapest we have found to date (1-4 days delivery, 90% have been next day)! Service has been very good.
Regards
Thanks Jonathan, I'll have a look into them. £5.50 for up to 31kg sound really good.
Going further afield, does anyone have any shipping recommendations for Europe apart from the Royal mail?
Hi Pete
We use interlink, the rates below where negotiated on a 50 parcel a week average. Rates are for Next Day Delivery (before 3pm)
Up to 1kg £4.00 (ex VAT)
Up to 5kg £4.65 (ex VAT)
Up to 10kg £5.50 (ex VAT)
With interlink you are supposed to use a bag for the 1kg and 5kg weights but most of my order are under 5kg but too big for the bags. As the depots are franchised, it is up to the local depot if they will except any size parcel up to that weight and charge you the 1kg or 5kg price. Luckily I get on really well with my local depot (5 units away from me on the same trade park!) and they will let me send any size parcel but just charge me on the weight of it. Only downside is that northern island and the Isle of wight (for some strange reason) are a lot more expensive (£12). We do sent alot to Northern Island, so these still go by Royal Mail.
With european destinations I have negotiated rates for them it varies from zone to zone with the cheapest (EU members) being £14 (i think!) not sure on the weight limit on that 5kg or 10kg (i'll check). Don't think you can beat Royal Mail on less than 2kg to europe though.
Karen
Hi Pete
Just checked my overseas rates and they are as follows;
you can send a box up to 31.5kg with max dimensions of 175cm length, 300cm girth.
Zone 1 (Ireland, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Netherlands) =£12.00
Zone 2 (Switzerland, Austria) = £14.00
Zone 3 (Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia) = £16.00
Zone 4 (Portugal, Poland, Hungary)= £18.00
We don't send huge amounts overseas but when we do we mostly send to France and Italy but under 2kg we would use Royal Mail.
Karen
Thanks Karen
I agree that up to 2kg the royal Mail are OK. Are the prices you quote for overseas shipping still with Interlink? One of our drop-shippers use them, and they do seem pretty good.
Thanks Karen
I agree that up to 2kg the royal Mail are OK. Are the prices you quote for overseas shipping still with Interlink? One of our drop-shippers use them, and they do seem pretty good.
Hi Pete,
I have had experience of Interlink for uk & european deliveries and the prices were very competitive and service excellent. The prices Karen has quoted if I remember look about right for Interlink overseas. Most of our parcels went to France, Germany, Belguim & Italy.
For UK deliveries we also used Fastway (you have to pre-pay) but it was £2.95 for local area deliveries and £4.95 for national deliveries.
little-linguist
06-08-2008, 06:42
We post on average 15 parcels a day of varying sizes, by Royal Mail or Parcelforce, but are a bit fed up with the too frequent visits to the Post Office and the queueing. Also, for heavy items it starts to get very expensive very quickly, so I'm looking for alternatives that are more convenient and cheaper.
Regards
Pete
Pete, would it not make life easier for you to get a Royal Mail collection? Off the top of my head I think we pay about £5 a week for Mr Postie to collect all our Mail daily from our premises and it's definitely money well spent!
Hi Pete
Yes those prices are still with interlink.
Karen
Just for info...
Royal Mail collection charges have increased and I believe are now between £450 - £750 per year depending on time of collections, or if you spend over £15K on postage then it is a free service :)
Andy
www.needundies.com (http://www.needundies.com)
Pete, would it not make life easier for you to get a Royal Mail collection? Off the top of my head I think we pay about £5 a week for Mr Postie to collect all our Mail daily from our premises and it's definitely money well spent!
Well that sounds really good value...
Just for info...
Royal Mail collection charges have increased and I believe are now between £450 - £750 per year depending on time of collections, or if you spend over £15K on postage then it is a free service :)
Andy
www.needundies.com (http://www.needundies.com)
Yoik! Now I'm not so sure. Maybe standing in the queue at the PO listening to the man behind me grumble about the guy wrapping his parcel at the service window isn't such a bad option after all.
Adva Trading
08-08-2008, 06:17
1. Paying collection will be about £2 - £3 per day.
2. Going to the post office, waiting in the queue and comming back will take me an hour.
3. I have another business. Between the two, I make about £_ _ _, which is A LOT MORE than £2 - £3.
So I get to have time to my other businesses, and to make more money.
4. I also get a discount for posting with the PPI account.
That is my math.
The collection service worth gold for me. :D
little-linguist
08-08-2008, 08:27
The collection service worth gold for me. :D
Same here - we switched to collection / PPI even when the business was run from home as it was no longer worth the hassle of driving to PO and then queuing with all the grannies. Time = money and an hour trudging to the PO and back when I had so many other things to do just wasn't worth it.
Plus, I personally felt that a PPI-labelled parcel gave a more professional look to your items than having a post office label with the exact postage cost on it. When we sent stuff from the PO we often got people moaning that they'd paid £1.99 for postage but could see we'd only paid £1.39 to send it etc. They forget about the packaging / labour costs!
Oh and PPI post doesn't usually get postmarked so customers don't necessarily see if you don't actually post it on the day they get an email saying it's been despatched! Great for us as post is collected at 3pm but we still continue packing / despatching orders that come in for the rest of the day.
Adva Trading
09-08-2008, 00:46
"Oh and PPI post doesn't usually get postmarked so customers don't necessarily see if you don't actually post it on the day they get an email saying it's been despatched! "
Yes, life saving for me too.
Pete, would it not make life easier for you to get a Royal Mail collection? Off the top of my head I think we pay about £5 a week for Mr Postie to collect all our Mail daily from our premises and it's definitely money well spent!
What do you do for Recorded (Signed For) parcels if you use PPI? Do you still have to take these in the the PO and queue to get them scanned?
About half our parcels go recorded delivery, so PPI may not save us much time if this is the case. Or can the collection service deal with these OK?
little-linguist
19-08-2008, 14:15
Yes - you can still send PPI mail Recorded / Special Delivery etc. You get a big roll of Recorded / Special delivery stickers (like they have in the PO but without the tear-off paper bit on the bottom) and then a separate book where you keep a record with peel-off sticker barcodes.
If it goes Recorded, the postie doesn't have to sign as Recorded Mail doesn't ever prove that you've sent it, just that they've received it.
For Special, you keep all the Special parcels to one side and the postie checks and signs for them separately when he / she collects them.
Adva Trading
22-08-2008, 11:53
"...and then a separate book where you keep a record with peel-off sticker barcodes."
Never mind the book.
Take the on-line service: You print a copy of the order and stick the peel-off sticker on the bottom of the page. Than you get the collectin man to sign anywhere on the page.
It will save you money, as they now charge extra for each paper docket (I think it is £1.00 per docket).
And it is a lot faster to complete the posting on-line than on paper.
-----------------------
And one more thing about Recorded or Special Delivery services by the Royal Mail: I used to use them. My own experience: For every 100 Recorded parcels I lost about 3. And the Special Delivery statistics was not much better.
I than stoped and started to use regular First Class: I have lost one (ONE !!!) parcel in the last 5,000 parcels.
If you use those services, you are advertising that you have something worth stealling!
little-linguist
22-08-2008, 13:52
Never mind the book.
Take the on-line service: You print a copy of the order and stick the peel-off sticker on the bottom of the page. Than you get the collectin man to sign anywhere on the page.
It will save you money, as they now charge extra for each paper docket (I think it is £1.00 per docket).
And it is a lot faster to complete the posting on-line than on paper.
-----------------------
And one more thing about Recorded or Special Delivery services by the Royal Mail: I used to use them. My own experience: For every 100 Recorded parcels I lost about 3. And the Special Delivery statistics was not much better.
I than stoped and started to use regular First Class: I have lost one (ONE !!!) parcel in the last 5,000 parcels.
If you use those services, you are advertising that you have something worth stealling!
We use the online system but didn't realise that you could stick the barcodes on the print out so thanks for the tip!
Also, I agree about the Recorded parcels having a higher loss rate than normal. Since we stopped sending goods recorded, our "lost in post" rate has dropped a lot.
Interesting points made regarding Recorded mail. Going to have a rethink about our policies.
mikepayn
22-08-2008, 20:43
In a similar vein to Recorded Parcels having a higher loss rate than normal, we used to mark parcels containing glassware as "Fragile - Glassware" and our damaged rate was higher than 10%. We now pack/wrap in exactly the same way but don't mark the parcels and our damaged rate is less than 1%?
Mike
Carhampton eMart (http://www.carhamptonemart.co.uk)
Adva Trading
22-08-2008, 22:22
"In a similar vein to Recorded Parcels having a higher loss rate than normal, we used to mark parcels containing glassware as "Fragile - Glassware" and our damaged rate was higher than 10%. We now pack/wrap in exactly the same way but don't mark the parcels and our damaged rate is less than 1%"
:D
Green East
03-09-2008, 21:44
Wow have we worn this conversation out with building our new site!
We already use a mix of Fastway and FedEx for an existing site depending on postcode, and with the new site will be using the Post Office for smaller parcels under 2kilos.
We set up charges by weight of selected items, which was fun in its self checking it works for multiple item orders. We will then know by the charge added to the order, which service to send by.
Also we added a band of postcodes for certain highlands and islands that are excluded from shipping.
Because our items are a mix of liquids and lighter items we had to go by weight but I would imagine something like a jewelery site would need to go by value of items to ensure adequate postal insurance.
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