Delivery Options - help!

[Danny@BFC]

Hi.

another royal mail type question, although I'm not asking for alternatives.

my one product sells online for £9.49. website only launched a little over a week ago.

my delivery options at the moment and since launch has been free royal mail first class or paid royal mail next day.

with the strikes this isnt ideal!

so what to do....



lose the royal mail options altogether and just have one option of garaunteed 3-5 day courier and promote the fact hard that we dont use royal mail/strike proof etc, cost to customer £2.49.(my margins dont allow me to absorb this cost, the actual cost to me is £3.99).



offer the above with a second option of free royal mail 1st class.



offer both the above with a 3rd option of garaunteed next day courier - cost to customer £6.50:eek:.

or any combination or alternative?

sorry if this seems trivial. there will be some final changes and better images to my site soon at which point I'll be promoting it much more and what to get as much right as possible!

Thanks for any advice / comments.

Danny:)

[Jam86]

Hey I've heard royal mail recorded and next day aren't really affected by the strikes, could be simplest to replace the 1st class standard option with recorded until the strikes are all over?
1st Recorded is about 75p extra over standard 1st class, but 2nd recorded is cheaper and pretty much the same speed... could maybe add a 49p postage charge to help the margins if needed, if u mention all deliveries are tracked and insured customers might be willing to pay a bit extra, just my two cents

[Fuzzy]

Danny, did I say I received mine all ok ? :D

[JayLondon]

This had been addressed in a previous thread, but Royal Mail Tracked and Royal Mail Recorded are two different services. The Recorded mail is sorted in the same way as regular 1st and 2nd class post so the delay will be exactly the same during a strike. Tracked and Special Delivery cost more because the letters/parcels do not go along with regular mail but have a separate delivery system. All is explained on the Royal Mail website or if you phone RM customer services they will explain the difference in more detail.

[JayLondon]

With regard to the original question. My business has currently dropped Royal Mail altogether as we noticed a significant drop in sales one the strikes commenced. We now use a next day courier which is cheaper than Royal Mail Special Delivery. Shame really as last month we spent over £3,500 with RM!!!!

[ecashking]

With regard to the original question. My business has currently dropped Royal Mail altogether as we noticed a significant drop in sales one the strikes commenced. We now use a next day courier which is cheaper than Royal Mail Special Delivery. Shame really as last month we spent over £3,500 with RM!!!!

JayLondon - Who is your next courier? Are they any good?

[Danny@BFC]

thanks for replies,

Jay who are you using for next day? at less than SD? my product sent SD last week was £5.40..would be very interested in a next day service thats reliable and cheaper than that!..do tell!!

Fuzz it arrived already?..well I am surprised! everything ok with it?

[Naughty Vend]

Special Delivery, well other than the 1pm benefit most carriers will offer a "PACK" service which is one of those self-seal envelopes and you pay by the size... for example UK MAIL rack rate for a small pack is £4.99 up to 1kg and a medium £5.99 up to 5Kg but these are negotiable.

Many offer similar services... and the big benefit is they collect, the tracking is online, there are API's to integrate with your website if you so desire and no hand written paperwork.

[Michelle_HLD]

I have had zero problems with the Royal Mail strikes and have been getting post every single day. :|

I'm not sure if the strikes are as prevalent as they are making out.

I would charge the customers, do not try to even absorb some of it as it has to be worth your while selling your items!

I reckon customer can either have standard first class and just wait for it or pay the surcharge of £1.50 or whatever it is to have it next day/recorded.

I only offer free delivery on my site but I am not adverse to paying a reasonable delivery charge. If you are going to start asking to £4-£5 then it will probably effect business.

Hope you figure something out.

[gibby]

we have had a lot of customers asking if we use RM

we had to put a note on the website saying we were not effected & took the UK RM options off

Fastway do an upto 5kg bag for £4.54 inc vat in their own areas & £5.50 ish for their non covered areas

G