Post Code Hell!!!

[gibby]

Does anyone know where I can find a list of all UK postcodes?
What I really need to know is which ones are classed as Highlands by Royal Mail & so charged at a higher rate by courier companies.

I have tried with Parcel Force to get a list, as I would expect to be able to find, but they can't help me.


Thanks

G

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

You need to go to your specific courier, as these do vary, there is no standard list.

However if you look here; you will see what boxby parcels (using DHL home service) exclude from the same day deliveries.

 

[gibby]

Thanks for that.

It would be so much easier if I could get one price for all the UK

G

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

The problem is that it costs so much more to go to many of these places. Many of these have a ferry - and calmac ferries are VERY expensive. And the quantities of parcels going there don't make it possible. There's not the volume of parcels to spread the extra costs over.

We offer a Highlands and Islands, and "anywhere with a ferry" price. For these areas, if that help at £14.99.

 

[sysops]

It would be so much easier if I could get one price for all the UK

You can't, and never will.

Consider charging just one price for the whole of the UK. That's what we do, and the numbers work just fine - the % of non-mainland orders is small enough to not matter.

 

[ThaiFoodOnline]

Unfortunately areas like the highlands & Islands are difficult to get to with very low population density - hence the higher cost. It's a tricky business to try and program this into your ecommerce system, but worth the effort as it will save you umpteen headaches later!

The couriers update their postcode lists every month or two, hence you really need to get in touch with one of them to get their latest list.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

This I would definitely agree with. Your orders will be determined by where the population is, and the reason that the prices for highlands & islands etc are so expensive is because there is no population there.

Unless you're specialising in products which are more relevant to people in H&I than elsewhere in the UK.

 

[gibby]

You can't, and never will.

Consider charging just one price for the whole of the UK. That's what we do, and the numbers work just fine - the % of non-mainland orders is small enough to not matter.

We thought about doing this. The problem is that we sell alot of shoes & customers do return them for different sizes. This could mean we get stung for £20 - £30 an order that could be only priced at £10.00

G

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

Yes, but how many of these come specifically from the postcodes in question?

 

[sysops]

We thought about doing this. The problem is that we sell alot of shoes & customers do return them for different sizes. This could mean we get stung for £20 - £30 an order that could be only priced at £10.00

You're still thinking about it on a per-order basis. You need to think about it on average - over 1000 orders, how much more would it actually cost you?

In our case, the answer is it costs way less that it costs to stream the orders into mainland and non-mainland.

There will always be the odd order where a £10 item ends up costing you £30 to ship, have returned, ship again etc - that's just the nature of online retail, whether it's mainland or non-mainland. What matters is averages.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

Returns should be at the customer's expense. Most of the big mail order companies make customers pay for their own returns. It stops speculative ordering.

 

[gibby]

I agree, we state on the site that customers have to pay to return goods to us but we do allow one return shipment at our expense of UK mainland, but ask highlands, islands & int customers to pay for this, which we do get complaints about.

Quite a few of our competitors are offering free returns but if we did this we would really have to hike up the prices, we try to keep prices as affordable as possible

Im just looking for the best way to do this.

G

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

GO back through your sales, and count how many have been to these highland & island, and offshore postcodes.

I bet you that it's a very very small proportion. But once you have real numbers, you can then quantify how much the cost is. And if for example you find that you get 20% returns on average, and you send 100 parcels out to these postcodes, so that's 20 returns from these problem postcodes, each of which is costing you an additional £5 in postage.

You can then make a proper decision about whether £x in postage costs is worth the extra programming work, etc. And if you think that having one simple UK wide price, and including 1 free return will generate you extra sales revenue and make you web visitors convert into customers.

You need to really look at this one on a "big picture" basis, and not on the individual transaction level.

 

[gibby]

thanks for that, I shall sit down & try to sort it.

I do know at the moment it costs us about £250 a month more than we pull in for delivery costs.
This is made up exchange delivery costs & us giving free delivery for orders over certain values.

thanks

G

 

[sysops]

I do know at the moment it costs us about £250 a month more than we pull in for delivery costs.
This is made up exchange delivery costs & us giving free delivery for orders over certain values.

Again, this really isn't a useful way of thinking about it.

Look at it this way - you're not sitting down and factoring in the cost of your packaging materials, or the time it takes to pick & pack, or the rent cost of storing the stock. You think of these as just part of your cost of sales. Well, you need to view your delivery charges in the same way. It isn't useful to compare the delivery costs going out with the delivery charges you collect.

At the end of the day, you need to look at your bottom line. Are you making enough money on your sales, on average? If the answer is yes, then all is well. If it's no, then you need to increase your margin, either by increasing prices, upping your delivery charges, or reducing your costs.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

P&P cost is made up of;

Your postage costs per item
Fuel surcharges
Reverse item collections - Check this - this may be one of your problems, many couriers charge an additional £7 - £15 to collect from an address that isn't yours.
The packaging materials costs
The computer costs - printing labels etc.
Costs of returns
Costs of rectifying damages
Fuel & time for taking things to the post offices
Costs of rectifying/chasing up wrong/missing deliveries
And the time that someone spends packaging and getting every item ready for collection

And probably other stuff depending on your process. Work your process and think of every step and action involved in despatching an item, and attribute a cost to it all.
That will calculate your true P&P cost. And i bet that it's things you never really thought of which are making up this cost.

Secondly, now you have a true P&P cost you can work out how you want to recouperate it.

What you pay for P&P is totally different from what you charge your customers for P&P (DO you REALLY think it costs argos £5 to deliver your sofa?)

Either fully charge it as a P&P cost.
Or give "free delivery" and put it on your product prices
Or do a halfway house somewhere inbetween, give one headline "UK WIDE" delivery cost and put a bit on the product price.

But make proper decisions based on proper information!

 

[Kasumi]

I totally agree with Sysops you need to work out averages.
On a personal note for those living in well populated areas in the Highlands with good postal systems it is hugely annoying to see websites add on extra postage costs for "Highlands and Islands" It would be good to see more retailers absorb this cost.

 

I believe that its the following that are classed as highlands and islands postcodes

AB31, AB33 - 38, AB44 - 56, FK17 - 99, G83, IV1 - 28, IV30 - 39, KW1 - 14, PA21 - 33, PA35 - 40, PH18 - 26, PH30 - 42, HS1 - 9, IV40 - 51, IV55 - 56, KA27 - 28, KW15 - 17, PA20, PA34, PA41 - 48, PA60 - 78, PH42 - 44 & ZE1 - 3.

 

[itaufait]

All "big" shipping companies provide online API for checking shipping rates; or just call their cust. services

 

[mydogisthebest]

Does anyone know where I can find a list of all UK postcodes?
What I really need to know is which ones are classed as Highlands by Royal Mail & so charged at a higher rate by courier companies.

I have tried with Parcel Force to get a list, as I would expect to be able to find, but they can't help me.


Thanks

G

Goto www.ukdelivery4u.co.uk/postcodefinder or just book with them on one of their fixed price services ie: Highlands & Islands.

 

[edmondscommerce]

i would be nervous about the averages method - its a risk that you might suddenly become really popular with the highlands or get one problem customer who repeatedly returns things..

also - i am sure people in the highlands are used to having to pay a little extra for shipping so why not charge them it?

 

[liams7]

You should try ajgparcels for highland delieveries as they are the biggest up there by far.