Next day delivery - what do you charge?

[deniser]

I am finding more and more that customers are demanding that items are delivered by a certain timescale yet won't pay for fast (1-2 working days) delivery.

RM seem to be routinely taking over a week to deliver 1st or 2nd class parcels - up to two weeks in some cases.

We charge customers £6.50 for 1-2 day delivery (actually a next day service but only 95% reliable so we say 1-2 days) for any size parcel.

What do others charge for next day delivery and do you subsidise the cost at all or make it free and if you do subsidise it, do you cover the shortfall in the cost of goods somewhere?

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

I'd check with the carrier firm as to how much a next day before 12pm would be. Then providing it's below £13.00 (i.e. double your 1-2 day delivery charge) then I'd be charging that.

 

[roydmoorian]

Next Day before 12 is usually an acceptable compromise between cheap & effective.

It also gives you or your customer the opportunity to "chase" the package whilst it is still on the delivery van.

Shouldn't cost more than an extra £5.00 per consignment and should it not get delivered then a major rant down the phone to customer services should result in result them arranging a dedicated delivery.

 

[deniser]

Just to clarify, the current options are £3.50 RM (slow) or £6.50 courier (fast)

But customers are picking the £3.50 option, ignoring the timescale and then emailing saying they must have it by a certain date which is less than the timescale given. They don't want to pay the £3 extra.

I was wondering what other people who are B2C actually charge for next day delivery and whether the cost is subsidised or not.

I am not looking for a new carrier. £6.50 isn't what I actually pay but it is what I have chosen to charge. I need to know whether this is an acceptable amount for a next day service.

 

[AndyP]

If you can I would charge £5.95 for your express service...it's a nice price point, looks significantly less than over £6.00 and isn't that much more than your standard delivery charge. Also, look at how you "market" it in terms of how it displays on-site...it could be as simple as customers not really seeing the option. We charge £5.95 for next day courier and get plenty of people choosing that. Given that our standard shipping is free I'm always surprised at how many people consciously decide to pay for express. Hope that helps....

 

[Leather Briefcase Company]

APC Couriers next day delivery recommended.
Depends on your volume but you should be able to be in the right price range.

 

[moo-tique]

We charge £6.95 (Special Delivery) for our medium parcels, and £11.00 (TNT Express Next Day) for our other more bulky orders. We factor these costs into the advertised price for each product, and advertise free delivery whilst still making a sizeable profit. We stipulate up to 5 working days for delivery, and both these methods deliver well within this timescale.

 

[theRB]

This will probably make you feel better about what you charge, the following delivery cost is from a large online sports retailer.

Standard: £4.99 (2-5 business days, RM Standard non-tracked for smaller items, Hermes for shoes etc)

Expedited: £8.99 (Next business day, RM Tracked Next Day)

Saturday: £9.99 (RM Tracked Next Day from what I can tell, they just send it on the Friday)

Based on those prices I'd say that your delivery costs are quite reasonable. Could you incorporate your delivery prices into your items and offer free delivery whilst still remaining competitive?

This may encourage people to upgrade to the express service for an extra £3.

Kind Regards,
Ryan

 

[urban33ltd]

We offer free standard delivery and then £3.99 for next day, the reason it is lower for next day is I want people to upgrade as RM loose parcels and offer a crap service on delivery.

I work the price of standard RM delivery into the price of an item, then you can offer next day cheaper as some of the cost has already been worked into the price of the item.

Also by the time you factor in all the problems with RM and the lost and broken items it makes more sense to get more people to upgrade.

 

[deniser]

I work the price of standard RM delivery into the price of an item, then you can offer next day cheaper as some of the cost has already been worked into the price of the item.

Can I ask whether your products are easily compared to other websites pricewise?

 

[gibby]

We charge 4.99 and most orders get there next day. We do have a few lines that we may need to order in and can take 7 to 10 days.
No matter how simply you explain it, add it into confirmation emails etc customers often don't read this and then hit you with an email or call.

Even though we charge only £4.99 we still get customers moaning about the price but most of our competitors charge about the same.

We have made some changes lately which have really helped.
We dropped royal mail and moved everything to courier. This has saved us quite a bit of time chasing missing and lost orders.
Some customers have complained but they were the type that ordered small amounts, wanted cheap delivery and usually a pain to deal with no matter how hard we tried.
This has also resulted in some great feedback from customers and increased repeat orders.

We also introduced a min order value of 12 on our stores.
We expected a drop in the number of orders but its been very small and our order values have gone up by 30%.

Really we are trying to move away from the cheaper customers and focus on better customer service for those who place bigger orders on a regular basis.

 

[sebsuma]

I charge what it costs, I dont make a profit

 

[gibby]

I think most of us are charging less than it costs us.

 

[sebsuma]

gibby - why?

 

[sebsuma]

I sell random stuff on ebay, so don't have a full time shop but am considering one. If you explain why you charge less i would be grateful i must be missing something.

 

[deniser]

I sell random stuff on ebay, so don't have a full time shop but am considering one. If you explain why you charge less i would be grateful i must be missing something.

Because it's so expensive now to send anything, sometimes more than customers will bear.

 

[gibby]

Many firms subsidise delivery charges as it looks more attractive to customers.

We charge 4 99 to customers but we pay around 6 to the couriers with vat.
We take a hit of about a pound on each order. We used to charge what iit cost but found orders increased dramatically when we reduced the delivery charge.

Non of us like to pay delivery charges but we also want things quickly.
Getting the balance right boosts orders and keeps the right customers happy.

 

[j600com]

If possible do free standard delivery and factor it into your price. Many retailers fear doing this hurt them on shopping comparison sites etc but those customers who are driven by price will compare on the total price anyway.

Free delivery on your website can help build customer loyalty, repeat orders and improve conversion rates.

 

[j600com]

"How Free Delivery Improves E-commerce Sales
One of, if not the, biggest killers of conversions on e-commerce sites is the delivery charge. Having to pay for delivery is consistently the number one objection that consumers have to shopping online - and more and more retailers are moving towards a 'free delivery on everything' model, meaning consumers are beginning to expect free shipping as a right.

The love of free shipping on e-commerce sites isn't necessarily a logical one - when you consider the costs involved in driving and parking to buy the same product in a shop, a delivery cost of a few pounds is probably not much different, but the barrier is a psychological one more than a financial one.

The results of a recent 'split test' that we saw really highlighted the negative impact of delivery charges - and the positive effects of removing them. A product being sold for £10 with a £3 delivery charge was measured for its conversion rates over a month - and tested alongside the same product being offered for £14 but with free delivery. The latter was £1 more expensive to buy in total - but delivery was free…

The results of the test were clear - and suprising; it was the latter (more expensive in total) product that won! It seems customers dislike delivery charges so much that they'll even pay more for a product if they think they'll get the delivery for nothing!

Of course not all retailers can implement free shipping - it's very dependent on the nature of the product, profit margins and delivery costs, but undoubtedly the recommendation is that, if you can find a way, it can be very beneficial on your conversion rates.

Ways to implement free shipping can include…

Rolling your delivery costs in to your product pricing
Offering free delivery over a certain order value (a good way to increase your AOV)
Taking the lost profit margin on the chin, in the knowledge that increased sales will compensate for the lost margin
If your margins, delivery costs or product type make free shipping impossible, the next best measure is to simplify your delivery costs in to clear, easy to understand bands. As with everything related to e-commerce, the simpler, the better!"

 

[BrightIdeas]

I'm looking to trial reduced/subsidised international delivery charges. Currently use Royal Mail, but they do tend to be slow. Any recommendations for a faster service (courier) who has comparable pricing?

 

[deniser]

We have implemented free shipping as a trial. It hasn't made any significant difference yet after 5 days.

 

[Import&Export]

Hi everyone, as this thread is over a decade old, I was curious to see how things have evolved in terms of what you're paying now compared to 11 years ago. How are you sourcing your rates and services these days—are you going directly through carriers or working with intermediaries/courier brokers? For SMEs shipping 5-50 parcels per week, what do you consider to be a competitive carrier rate?

Looking forward to hearing your insights as we try to better understand the current landscape.

 

[Byzantium]

I think resistance to chargeable delivery has gone, perhaps largely due to the delivery charges for food during the covid nonsense.