Postal Charges - Online Shop

[Ziggy01]

Hi Guys, This is my first post so please be gentle.

I currently run a B2B ecommerce site and currently look into setting up an additional site to run retail.

However my only concern is the way we will need to send out customers orders. At present we use a courier service which is incredably cheap and guarenteed next day service but at a cost of £3.50 ex VAT per shipment for up to 10kg in the UK, alhohugh I sincerely doubt our customers who shall be purchasing items for £2.00 through to £15.00 will want to pay for a courier.

All of our competitors send orders by Royal Mail but I really don't fancy spending my entire afternoon at the post office (as I had done before change to our present courier).

Do you think it would be accept able to only use this courier or is there some sort of pre-paid recorded post boxes we could use?

Thanks

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

You can pay the PO an annual fee and they will collect from you. I think it's £400, although may have gone up.

 

[alanc]

Try phoning the Royal Mail Business helpline and explain your business and volumes and they should suggest your options. This will include things like PPI (printing your own stamp impressions and paying via an Onlien Business Account) or franking. You will need to be doing at least £5,000 worth of postage a year for this. You can then dump the bagged mail at a PO or sorting office. I think a daily collection costs £500 now (£800 if you want a specified time slot).

 

[gibby]

give your customers a choice of royal mail @ x £ & next day courier at your courier rate.
You may be shocked at how many want to pay the extra for next day

We find royal mail a pain timewise especially when things go wrong & don't use them near xmas its it gets really bad for lost items.

Nice rate with your courier, who do you use if you don't mind me asking?


G

 

[deadgoodundies]

Nice rate with your courier, who do you use if you don't mind me asking?


G

That was going to be my question as well
As others have said you can get Royal Mail to collect and if you are sending out enough you can get the collection for free (after a while once they've worked out you are sending enough stuff).
We use the online business account for actually sorting out the payment for the post and we do enough sending out to get reduced rates as well

You would be surprised at what some people will pay for postage if they want it badly enough for example we had some underwear in the sale for £7 customer in America wanted to buy it but the postage to USA is £8 but crazily enough they still went ahead with the purchase.

 

[alanc]

We find royal mail a pain timewise especially when things go wrong & don't use them near xmas its it gets really bad for lost items.

I've never found this a problem. They have always been at their best at Christmas. I stopped using the couriers because I found they were unreliable at christmas. I've also found the problem with lost items is the customers not bothering to arrange a redelivery or a collection.

 

[KateCB]

MMm, that courier rate is VERY interesting - c'mon, let us in on the secret - who do you use please?

 

[Tomasd]

We simply take all our orders round to our local Post Office and leave them. Our Post Master processes them for us during the day and we settle up with him the following day when we take that day's orders. We send everything by 1st class recorded delivery and ISF/Airsure to Europe. The system is simple, and cost effective. None of the private carriers offers a better and more comprehensive service to small e-commerce businesses. We have UK customers from Shetland to Guernsey and no private carrier offers the service we get from Royal Mail.

 

[deadgoodundies]

We simply take all our orders round to our local Post Office and leave them. Our Post Master processes them for us during the day and we settle up with him the following day when we take that day's orders. We send everything by 1st class recorded delivery and ISF/Airsure to Europe. The system is simple, and cost effective. None of the private carriers offers a better and more comprehensive service to small e-commerce businesses. We have UK customers from Shetland to Guernsey and no private carrier offers the service we get from Royal Mail.

That's what we used to do and the local post office loved the extra business and employed an extra staff member just because other local online retailers were doing the same. unfortunatley they had a memo from head office that they were no longer allowed to do it so we had to stop which is a shame as im all for supporting local people.

 

[Ziggy01]

Hey guys,
Apologies for the delay response and thank you for your comments.
Its really great to read everyones input. I had tried to call the post office buiness section but that was a waste time and effort - looks like I'll be staying with the couriers.

As for the courier name ....... we use UKMail and so far they haven't let us down, infact our experience with them has been great in comparison with past couriers!
Collections are on time everyday. No problem with lost packages. Customer services are always quick to get back to me. If a parcel is delayed customer service will call/email in the morning to let us know of delays or misrouted packages - couldn't recommend them any higher!

 

[sysops]

As for the courier name ....... we use UKMail and so far they haven't let us down, infact our experience with them has been great in comparison with past couriers!
Collections are on time everyday. No problem with lost packages. Customer services are always quick to get back to me. If a parcel is delayed customer service will call/email in the morning to let us know of delays or misrouted packages - couldn't recommend them any higher!

Ah, I remember those days, when I was young and idealistic.

My guess is you've sent maybe one or two hundred parcels with UKMail so far, tops. Give it time, you will be singing a very different tune.

 

[alanc]

Hey guys,
Apologies for the delay response and thank you for your comments.
Its really great to read everyones input. I had tried to call the post office buiness section but that was a waste time and effort - looks like I'll be staying with the couriers.

As for the courier name ....... we use UKMail and so far they haven't let us down, infact our experience with them has been great in comparison with past couriers!
Collections are on time everyday. No problem with lost packages. Customer services are always quick to get back to me. If a parcel is delayed customer service will call/email in the morning to let us know of delays or misrouted packages - couldn't recommend them any higher!

Ah, I see! You're fulfilling B2B orders. It's a whole different game when it comes to sending parcels to home consumers; which is what we're talking about.

 

[Ziggy01]

Ah, I remember those days, when I was young and idealistic.

My guess is you've sent maybe one or two hundred parcels with UKMail so far, tops. Give it time, you will be singing a very different tune.

so far my tune is a happy one but I'm sure when things go wrong I'll be sure to post on this thread so that I can get the whole "I told you so".

 

[keljane1980]

Thanks for this, I am having same issues, I will be sure to give UKMail a ring - thanks

 

[Tomasd]

For a company dealing with a high volume of packages a private courier may be ok, but for a small company like ours, with a relatively small volume of high value packages, the private couriers would cost us 3 times as much. We also have a large number of customers in remote areas, and to send to these, e.g. Shetland, would cost even more. Only Royal Mail is cost effective for us and in 5 years we have only had one package go astray completely.

 

[Jessies Little Angels]

UKMail aka Business Post...mmmm i paid a visit to one of their depos and you would be shocked to see what they do to your parcels! Needless to say their account was shut down almost immediately...

Jessica

 

[keljane1980]

So guys i am confused now....who do i use for a small online business - sending around 5-10 parcels a week?
DHL are a rip off - sent a bag the other day and it cost me £10!!!
parcels2go - supposed to be ok - but its a compartive site, DHl - expensive, RM have peeved me off - so who??????

Thanks K

 

[sysops]

So guys i am confused now....who do i use for a small online business - sending around 5-10 parcels a week?
DHL are a rip off - sent a bag the other day and it cost me £10!!!
parcels2go - supposed to be ok - but its a compartive site, DHl - expensive, RM have peeved me off - so who??????

What is the average value of the parcels you are sending, and what is the spread (min & max)?

 

[alanc]

So guys i am confused now....who do i use for a small online business - sending around 5-10 parcels a week?
DHL are a rip off - sent a bag the other day and it cost me £10!!!
parcels2go - supposed to be ok - but its a compartive site, DHl - expensive, RM have peeved me off - so who??????

Thanks K

I've sent thousands of parcels via RM without problems and they really are the best bet for a small business. What have they done to peeve you off?