Best Postage Solutions For Small E-Commerce Store Selling UK & Overseas

[Justin Smith]

Signed for is not for the customers' protection, it's for yours.

I`m aware of that, but if we`re sending out a low value item where the carriage is as much as the product if the customer is prepared to take the risk of it getting lost I`m prepared to send it out cheaper. If we ever get a customer "ratting on the deal" then we`ll have to think again as to if we`ll offer that service, though that would be a bit unfair on the other 99% of decent honest customers. Life is unfair isn`t it......

 

[wayzgoose]

I`m aware of that, but if we`re sending out a low value item where the carriage is as much as the product if the customer is prepared to take the risk of it getting lost

But the customer isn't taking any risk at all, you are. It's down to you to make sure the parcel arrives, not the customer.

 

[Justin Smith]

But the customer isn't taking any risk at all, you are. It's down to you to make sure the parcel arrives, not the customer.

If the customer is prepared to accept the risk that it might get lost ion the post that`s up to him. As has been said signed for is for the suppliers benefit, not the customers. If the item is worth £15 and it`ll cost him £6 to have it signed for many customers say just send it unsigned for and they`ll take the risk it gets lost in the post. As I keep saying, we`ve not had anyone rat on the deal yet.

 

[wayzgoose]

But the customer can say or read anything about the cheaper postage. But when it comes down to it, if it doesn't turn up, they are quite within their rights to say it hasn't turned up, please send another one.

 

[japancool]

If the customer is prepared to accept the risk that it might get lost ion the post that`s up to him. As has been said signed for is for the suppliers benefit, not the customers. If the item is worth £15 and it`ll cost him £6 to have it signed for many customers say just send it unsigned for and they`ll take the risk it gets lost in the post. As I keep saying, we`ve not had anyone rat on the deal yet.

There's no risk. If it doesn't arrive, the customer simply tells you to send another one or refund.

 

[Pish_Pash]

FWIW, I'm of the opinion that when things go wrong Royal Mail's tracked & signed sucks..... this is because when it's overseas & things go awry, the Royal Mail will say "Yeah, it looks like there's a problem....you need to wait then make a claim" ...they add ZERO value - try telling that to the customer who is miffed that his order hasn't arrived. So as a seller, I'm then faced with sending another (& if the first item sent does turn up, the likelihood is I won't get it back & with then no option of making a claim) or the imminent & clear threat of negative feedback (due to making the customer wait).

All tracked & signed is good for is for tacking dodgy buyers why say their item hasn't arrived (which seems to be a national hobby in the likes of Italy)

 

[japancool]

FWIW, I'm of the opinion that when things go wrong Royal Mail's tracked & signed sucks..... this is because when it's overseas & things go awry, the Royal Mail will say "Yeah, it looks like there's a problem....you need to wait then make a claim" ...they add ZERO value - try telling that to the customer who is miffed that his order hasn't arrived. So as a seller, I'm then faced with sending another (& if the first item sent does turn up, the likelihood is I won't get it back & with then no option of making a claim) or the imminent & clear threat of negative feedback (due to making the customer wait).

All tracked & signed is good for is for tacking dodgy buyers why say their item hasn't arrived (which seems to be a national hobby in the likes of Italy)

That's why you never send anything of value through the Italian postal system. Use a courier like UPS.

 

[Pish_Pash]

That's why you never send anything of value through the Italian postal system. Use a courier like UPS.

there's obviously some secret club that I don't know how to get into, because when I ever get a quote from UPS for *anything* (either via parcel2go or via there website), it's about 3x the cost of royal mail & I have to lie down & adopt the foetal position.

Seriously...they might be fine for larger packages, but for anything up to 250g...they are off the scale.

 

[japancool]

there's obviously some secret club that I don't know how to get into, because when I ever get a quote from UPS for *anything* (either via parcel2go or via there website), it's about 3x the cost of royal mail & I have to lie down & adopt the foetal position.

Seriously...they might be fine for larger packages, but for anything up to 250g...they are off the scale.

Right - but if pretty much everything you send to Italy goes missing, what does that end up costing you?

 

[kulture]

Right - but if pretty much everything you send to Italy goes missing, what does that end up costing you?

I don't sell to Italy or Spain for just this reason. They are black holes.

 

[Pish_Pash]

Right - but if pretty much everything you send to Italy goes missing, what does that end up costing you?

That's the point, I now send only 'track & signed' to Italy to stop chancers (who have taken delivery but then said it hasn't arrived - & it works, I get no such claims now).

What I meant earlier, is that Tracked & Signed is pretty much useless when a package genuinely hasn't been delivered (lost en-route).

Kulture ...agreed about Spain, in fact - in my experience - here are the worst countries...

Italy
Spain
Mexico/Brazil
Vietnam/Thailand
Turkey/Saudi Arabia

...you can pretty much factor on having a lot of problems to the above countries *unless* you send tracked/signed.

 

[Mark Burch]

Hi.
If you need help setting up the reverse side of logistics for international returns let me know as we can help you save money and hassle on handling returns in USA, Germany, France, Italy & Spain.
Mark
Ezi Returns

 

[Damian Rushworth]

we use dpd domestically and for Europe. if you have the volume they will negotiate some good rates. We managed to get heavily discounted rates for Europe even though initially we were not selling much abroad, I argued that with good rates we could grow our business, they agreed and both companies have benefited since.

 

[Mark Burch]

Hi, I get asked this question a fair bit by some of my own customers (we do return services) and I recently came across a company called etail-USA. Their prices look to be better than Royal Mail for tracked services including small low weight items like yours So far all looks very good indeed for saving a lot of money each week.

 

[Parcelhub]

Depending on your daily volumes, office location and current eCommerce platform, we may be able to help.

 

[japancool]

Hi, I get asked this question a fair bit by some of my own customers (we do return services) and I recently came across a company called etail-USA. Their prices look to be better than Royal Mail for tracked services including small low weight items like yours So far all looks very good indeed for saving a lot of money each week.

That would be @KevinRockett .

 

[japancool]

Depending on your daily volumes, office location and current eCommerce platform, we may be able to help.

Meh. I tried to get a quote from you people for a few hundred a month and was basically told you weren't interested.

 

[Parcel Monkey]

Give Parcel Monkey a go, no need to have an account with anyone as we get the discounted rates from the couriers and out the orders on these. You can choose the courier you want like DPD or Parcelforce and track it in full until delivery. You only pay for the services you use, no sign up fee or minimum volume

 

[Mistahclarke]

What do people suggest is the best royal mail option? We used signed for, but they don't actually track it at all and lost packages can only be claimed at cost. We used tracked before but people just said they didn't get it and it was also lost.

I was thinking about My Hermes.

 

[Mistahclarke]

What's the cheapest anyone has found for European deliveries? Our warehouse charge us £15 worldwide and we have to put this cost onto our customers. I've been askign them for months for a cheaper European alternative.

 

[Mistahclarke]

Just checked as we currently only do International tracked. That bothers me as well as if they claim to have not received the item then that's the item and delivery charge lost.

 

[japancool]

What do people suggest is the best royal mail option? We used signed for, but they don't actually track it at all and lost packages can only be claimed at cost. We used tracked before but people just said they didn't get it and it was also lost.

I was thinking about My Hermes.

Pretty all the couriers will only compensate at cost, not retail.

 

[japancool]

What's the cheapest anyone has found for European deliveries? Our warehouse charge us £15 worldwide and we have to put this cost onto our customers. I've been askign them for months for a cheaper European alternative.

Depends on the weight of your parcels.

 

[Mistahclarke]

Yeah, but as a small business I'd much rather they weren't lost in the first place! It's not just the lost money, but the potential lost customer.

 

[Mistahclarke]

Depends on the weight of your parcels.

Clothes, so not particularly heavy. As a consumer I'd not want to pay £15.

 

[japancool]

Yeah, but as a small business I'd much rather they weren't lost in the first place! It's not just the lost money, but the potential lost customer.

We'd all rather that was the case, but the point is that when it does go wrong, replacement value is about the best you can hope for.

 

[japancool]

Clothes, so not particularly heavy. As a consumer I'd not want to pay £15.

@KevinRockett

 

[Mistahclarke]

We'd all rather that was the case, but the point is that when it does go wrong, replacement value is about the best you can hope for.

I can understand that from a fraud perspective, I would just like a tracked and signed for service I guess. Is it too much to ask for? It's the same postman, I just want to know where the package is and who it was given too.

 

[RedOnion]

If you want tracked and signed in the UK, you can use guaranteed next day delivery, that provides both.

 

[Karl Ciz]

Royal Mail's Click and Drop is the easiest solution by far - it was written by those good people at StoreFeeder and is ideal for ALL shapes of small business. If you want added stock control and listing tools then StoreFeeder is the logical upgrade but if it's just label print and order processing then Click & Drop is ideal

 

[FuturePro]

We provide Tracked Mail to all International countries. Our customers have a spend of over £200 per week on International mail and can save on average 22%.

Future Pro Mail : Percentage Savings
USA 36%
Germany 51%
France 20%
Netherlands 22
Australia & NZ 7
Canada 18
Spain 20
Ireland 17
Italy 17
Belgium 21
Austria 21
Switzerland 18
Average Saving 22% on Tracked Mail

 

[japancool]

We provide Tracked Mail to all International countries. Our customers have a spend of over £200 per week on International mail and can save on average 22%.

Future Pro Mail : Percentage Savings
USA 36%
Germany 51%
France 20%
Netherlands 22
Australia & NZ 7
Canada 18
Spain 20
Ireland 17
Italy 17
Belgium 21
Austria 21
Switzerland 18
Average Saving 22% on Tracked Mail

Percentage savings compared to what though?

For example, for a 2kg parcel to Germany measuring 45x35x15, I pay around £12 with DPD. Obviously RM is much more expensive so a saving of 51% over them isn't as good as it might sound.

 

[FuturePro]

Our savings are against RM OBA accounts for tracked mail.

Regarding your parcel 45x35x15 Tracked & Signed For Germany
Our rate to 2Kg £6.49
to 3Kg £7.49.

Germany Tracked
250g £3.99
500g £4.49
750g £4.99
1kg £5.49
1.5kg £5.99
2kg £6.49
3kg £7.49

 

[japancool]

Sounds good.

 

[Sparetoolparts]

I have to agree with Drop & Go Royal Mail, we send approx 100-150 parcels a week, with this service. Simply top up your card and leave off parcels (just keep it well topped up)

My local post office also has now removed the paper part of drop & go (a manifest with address and how I want it sent) If I want a parcel signed for I simply mark the address with a star and they know to send 2nd class Signed For. Another great trick that I've picked up is, because the post office is in a shop, I can leave down my bags even after closing.

This suits us great, it means we can work until closing then on way home the parcels can be left in the shop for the post office staff next morning. Obviously you need to have a post office near by and in a shop and build a good relationship with them.

The staff in the post office call me up when a large parcel is costing over £15-20 to send just to make sure I still want it shipped at that price. Now that's customer service!

 

[cracklepop]

Our savings are against RM OBA accounts for tracked mail.

Regarding your parcel 45x35x15 Tracked & Signed For Germany
Our rate to 2Kg £6.49
to 3Kg £7.49.

Germany Tracked
250g £3.99
500g £4.49
750g £4.99
1kg £5.49
1.5kg £5.99
2kg £6.49
3kg £7.49

Wow, looks like really great rates. Tracking is a massive bonus

 

[Ekim Saribardak]

I would recommend using Royal Mail, their service is cheap and also reliable.

 

[KevinRockett]

Ekim - When it comes to a tracked service RM are not cheap at all. As Mark has illustrated here with the FuturePro tracked rates to Germany being 1/2 the price of RM tracked.

Over at eTail-USA the savings over RM for tracked to USA are also 50% or more.

The etail-USA tracked rate to USA for a 200g parcel is £2.99 versus £6.55 for the RM equivalent tracked service - quite a big difference, particulary when judged over 100's of tracked parcels per week.

They are even doing a summer special offer at the moment at £1.99 for a 200g parcel - fully tracked to USA via UPS/USPS.

I am not knocking RM - service is indeed reliable - as you say but cheap - no - not for tracked on light/small parcels. Kevin

 

[Anon26357]

We are using Parcel2go and RM is still offer good value for money.

 

[Cococarb]

You'll try every other solutions and in the end settle for Royal mail.

Hermes - Very slow during Nov - Dec, Unattended parcel "safe place"

Fedex, UPS - Good if you get £4.7 or less per parcel