Postage

[BusinessDeli]

As mentioned in another thread, I'm looking at ecommerce options for a new venture.

I'd like to know what services people use for postage and how it works. Are there any recommendations?
The products won;t generally be huge or heavy and low volumes (estimated 10 orders per week initially)

 

[SourChocolate]

The products won;t generally be huge or heavy

I personally can't advise on that but you might get far better and accurate response if you were more specific in terms of what it is, ie. weight and dimensions of an average parcel. 'not heavy' is rather subjective.

 

[BusinessDeli]

No probs, thanks for the tip. They are small food items, jars etc and will weigh 100-500g per parcel. Dimensions about half a shoe box I guess (I haven't looked at the packaging just yet)

 

[Websitehandyman]

I think you'll find Royal Mail will be the cheapest option for anything under 500g.

 

[Jeff FV]

I'd add to the above - I think Royal Mail will be cheaper for anything under 2Kg.

When we started, we used Royal Mail at the counter and Parcels2Go for our bigger boxes.

As our volumes grew, we opened a Packet Post/OBA (online business account) with Royal Mail - this has 2 main advantages:

1. Its cheaper than over the counter
2. We take the sacks to our local sorting office - no more waiting in queues at the post office.

We also opened an account with UK Mail for our bigger boxes - cheaper and more convenient than Parcels2Go.

However, until you are up and running and have some more idea of size & volumes you may struggle to get accounts set up.

Parcels 4 Delivery (a competitor for Parcels2Go) are on this forum - I have never used them but hear good reports about them - and may be worth looking at.

Jeff

 

[BusinessDeli]

That's great info chaps, many thanks. I'll start taking a look at them tomorrow. I wasn't sure if I would be dropping the parcels off or they would be picked up but I guess it does all depend on volumes.

 

[Jeff FV]

I wasn't sure if I would be dropping the parcels off or they would be picked up

Any courier service, booked through Parcles2Go, Parcels4Delivery or on account, will collect the parcels from you. One of the advantages (other than price, which is cheaper) of having an account (in our case with UK Mail) is that we have built up a relationship with the driver in our location. By agreement, he comes to us at a fairly regular(ish) time slot. When we booked through P2G we had to be in all day as the driver could come at any time.

If you have a Royal Mail account, you can have them pick up from you - it's free if you spend above a certain threshold (sorry, can't remember what it is, but its in the thousands I think) If you don't hit this threshold you can pay (£500?? sorry, again not sure) to have them collect. We have a sorting office in our town and it gives us greater flexibility to take our bags there.

HTH

Jeff

 

[kulture]

The threshold is an annual spend of £15,000 for free collections. The collection charge is (well it used to be) £750 per year. It may have gone up, but as I get free collections I would not know. You do have to claim the free collection at first, as they will happily keep on charging you even if you have passed the threshold.

 

[jdbcomputing]

Royal Mail, since the price increase, will be charging a minimum of £2.20 for any items thicker than about 20mm.

If they get heavier than a few hundred grams I'd consider trying MyHermes: https://www.myhermes.co.uk/wps/portal/PN_CTR/Home/homepage/

 

[Gooner4life]

Royal mail is cheapest dependent entirely on the dimensions the majority of your items are.

 

[BusinessDeli]

Thanks again, I have lots of reading to do!

From the costs it looks as though I'll start thinking about bundles and special offers to get the cost of postage more representative of the amount being posted (I mean people will baulk a bit at spending £3 and then another £3 on P&P!).

 

[P4D | Parcels4Delivery]

Parcels 4 Delivery (a competitor for Parcels2Go) are on this forum - I have never used them but hear good reports about them - and may be worth looking at.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff Much appreciated.

OP, the Post Office is still most competitive for anything under 2kg. You might have fared well with a carrier if you had high volumes, but you seem to recognise this isn't an option at the moment. If you do ever have anything larger, you don't need an account to use us, just book as and when.

To understand how a reseller like us works, see www.p4d.co.uk/about.

I hope that helps.

Nat

 

[PostalSavingsExpert]

The postal market was opened to full competition in 2006 and Royal Mail is not always the cheapest option for packets up to 2kg.

There are other postal providers that can save you anywhere up to 55% on Royal Mail postage costs. If you qualify for free Royal Mail collection then you probably send enough to meet the minimum volume requirements of the other service providers.

There's a whole load of FREE information (and a list of the postal providers) available online just search for 'Money Saving Postal Expert'.

 

[Just_a_bloke]

The quantity of parcels we send out is very dependant on the season. I'm currently in very low season and sending out about 5 small parcels a day. So anything less than around 2Kg I post at standard postal rates via my village post office (no big sorting depo's here). I'm currently sending out around 20 larger parcels per week (around 12kg 47cm x 25cm x 25cm). these I do through a booking agent who farms it off to the big carriers at a cost less than £7 +vat.

Through the agent I use Parcel Force. I have tried other big companies who quite often use car drivers for deliveries or non native staff who have difficulties reading and speaking English, consiquently I suffered many failed/late deliveries even though I paid extra for AM deliveries. At least Parcel Force can leave parcels at local post offices if the customer is out.

It all depends on what you wish to pay and what reliability your looking for.

 

[BusinessDeli]

Well reliability is a must-have. I think, from what I've read and the responses here that RM is the way to go for now.

Thanks for the offer p4d by the way - I'll bear it in mind should my sales go up

 

[P4D | Parcels4Delivery]

Well reliability is a must-have. I think, from what I've read and the responses here that RM is the way to go for now.

Thanks for the offer p4d by the way - I'll bear it in mind should my sales go up

I'm sure they will! Good luck with it all

Nat

 

[mar121y]

Handling rates for product is noted on each product page Series and other products identified .

 

[GeoMal]

Sorry to jump in on this thread, but I think my question could be answered easily by the same group.

I'm looking at setting up an online business where the items will only be sent to a very local market, maximum of about 15 miles from us. Does this affect what options may be available to us? The product is children's school uniform.

I know Next use a local distribution network. Is there any way as a small business to tap into this type of facility?

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

 

[P4D | Parcels4Delivery]

Sorry to jump in on this thread, but I think my question could be answered easily by the same group.

I'm looking at setting up an online business where the items will only be sent to a very local market, maximum of about 15 miles from us. Does this affect what options may be available to us? The product is children's school uniform.

I know Next use a local distribution network. Is there any way as a small business to tap into this type of facility?

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Our prices will be the same to you sending 15 miles as they will be to somebody else sending 60 miles This is an international network for you to tap in to, which you can compare with prices from a local courier.

You can compare prices directly for us and the Post Office too, if your items are above 2kg: http://www.p4d.co.uk/blog/2012/11/low-parcel-delivery-prices-arent-just-for-christmas-2/.

Hope that helps,

Nat

 

[GeoMal]

Our prices will be the same to you sending 15 miles as they will be to somebody else sending 60 miles Nat

Nat,

Thanks for taking time to reply, I've seen your service and it is great for national deliveries. What I am trying to find out though is there any way of reducing cost for local deliveries? Perhaps I just need to contact local couriers directly.

Again though, whenever my family gets a delivery from Next it is via a local couple, that deliver in their own car. I assume this happens in all towns, so perhaps there is some network of semi-professional couriers?

 

[P4D | Parcels4Delivery]

Nat,

Thanks for taking time to reply, I've seen your service and it is great for national deliveries. What I am trying to find out though is there any way of reducing cost for local deliveries? Perhaps I just need to contact local couriers directly.

Again though, whenever my family gets a delivery from Next it is via a local couple, that deliver in their own car. I assume this happens in all towns, so perhaps there is some network of semi-professional couriers?

Sorry, yes, my point was that 'local' is irrelevant to our service (cheap across all areas!), but I understand you're looking for something *even* cheaper based on a small radius. You will have to find local delivery firms directly, although you might find some bidders on shiply.com to investigate whether they can deliver on a regular basis. Good luck!