Postal Charges

[Hedgie]

How do you work in regards to postal charges on your goods? The toys I sell vary dramatically in weight and the postal costs can vary from £1 up to £18. I charge a flat rate on goods up to a £50 order level and then charge free postage over £50.

If I sell something for £25 and it is heavy, then it can cost me £10 to post which if the cost of the item is £13 and I pay out postage of £10 minus the customer postage charge of £2.95, this means my profit margin is reduced from £12 to £5....

Should I be offering postage according to weight on the heavier items or should I just bear the extra cost?

[kulture]

I do postage on 'weight' and thus when 2 or more items are ordered the postage increases depending on the total order weight. I have weight bands and so if the order weight goes over a band the higher postage is charged. Say 3.95, 5.95, 7.95 etc etc.

I have a max postage of £12.95

[Steve2507]

I think you need to look at what your competition are doing as well.

I am assuming that you have looked at your competition with regards to your selling prices, have you also looked at they way they handle the postage charges?

[kulture]

Yes by all means check your competition and make sure your postal charges are similar. BUT I have found out over the years that many customers do price comparisons without taking into account postal charges and then making an order on whatthey think is 'cheapest' and accepting postal charges as long as they appear reasonable. Thus I have sold more at 9.99 with a postal charge of 3.95 than 10.99 with post of 2.95. Indeed I even sold more than 10.99 and post of 1.95.

That said it all depends on your market and target customer.

[Steve2507]

Yes by all means check your competition and make sure your postal charges are similar. BUT I have found out over the years that many customers do price comparisons without taking into account postal charges and then making an order on whatthey think is 'cheapest' and accepting postal charges as long as they appear reasonable. Thus I have sold more at 9.99 with a postal charge of 3.95 than 10.99 with post of 2.95. Indeed I even sold more than 10.99 and post of 1.95.

Good point.

[Comspec]

The numbers who don't look at postal charges is quite high.

Hedgehog - do you just use RM or have you thought about a contract with a courier? I say this because I have signed a contract with Citylink (now, I know we get a beeter deal over here with them) and I can send anything up to 5Kg in a 'Citypack' for just over £6.

[ken_uk]

A good option would be to have the site customised so you can enter the weights of all your items, and have pre-defined price weight bands.
That way as the customer adds items to the cart, shipping only increases when they hit the next weight band. Its a incentive for them to keep shopping, as they can see they are paying nothing on postage for the second, third item etc until they go over a weight limit.
You also end up with the correct postage being paid to you each time..

[emerchant]

I too would see what the competition are doing, my advice to you would be to keep it simple and fair.

[ken_uk]

Sometimes it pays to improve over what the competition is doing.
Offer a better service...

[emerchant]

Good advice Ken