Buyers addresses on eBay - reliable?

lovinituk

theonlywayisup wrote: »

I don't tend to have problems with addresses as I use Linnworks and DMO (dispatch manager online from Royal Mail), it uses the Royal Mail database to check postal codes are correct (you would be amazed at how many don't know their own!). It flags up if something isn't right - ie Joe Bloggs missing his house number off, so I can check with the buyer before I send.

I definitely need to look into Linnworks. I believe the basic version is free now.

theonlywayisup wrote: »

I don't include an invoice either, it's just a waste of my paper as far as I am concerned. I include VAT receipts when asked, or if selling to another company.

This is definitely one of those personal preference things. The amount of cross-sells I get from the advertising I put on the invoices is worth it for me. I can offer a 5% discount if buying from my website, which attracts people, and still make 5% more than if I had sold on ebay because I don't pay the FVFs!

theonlywayisup wrote: »

If you get your PPI image emailed to you/downloaded it's a bit fiddly but you can get it into Aimco and it will print beautiful labels with the stamp on. So easy, you will wonder how you ever did without it.

You can create your own PPI image here - http://www.royalmail.com/produce-ppi

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Amico is just an open list of addresses and orders, not sure I would bother if I had to open each individual record to check. The dispatch process is fairly efficient, the biggest thing I 'waste' time doing is posting here!

The compensation is of concern, like yourself not many INR issues, it's just getting used to looking at the big picture, if a £6 order goes missing in one month it's nothing from overall profit but for one low margin item it may require 13 more sales of that item just to break even on the loss from the missing parcel so from this perspective it's a bit disheartening.

No website here at the moment otherwise I would include something to encourage the buyer to shop again away from eBay. With a lot of sales being low margin it's not worth the effort, I could add say 10pence per sale for the time and cost of invoice but the buyer would rather save the 10pence and the market is very competitive at the moment (hoping to see a difference in April once my competitors should be paying VAT rather than shipping from the CI).

at 14 labels per A4 very little room for PPI & address so used to use 2 labels - one for address & one for PPI

We use the 14 per sheet and get the address and PPI number on OK, my only concern is labels peeling off in the post, for boxes the labels go on before the celloptape so it won't happen, for jiffy bags I do wonder if any labels have ever come off but other than celloptaping over all of them (I already cellotape the jiffy bag shut and my head can't take much more tearing of cellotape with my teeth!) I can't see how it could be stopped.

theonlywayisup

My average item is £50 retail so RMT is perfect for me. The fact it actually tracks properly 3 times along it's journey means the buyer (and me) can see exactly where it is. Its not for everyone, but certainly with the change in PPI and claims is just another reason I like it. It comes with a free collection too, so saves the expense of that if you are under or near the target.

I'm sure when you get familiar with Aimco you will love it. 1 sheet for picking, 1 for packing with name and address order details and 1 with PPI labels all done. The other nice thing with it, is that if you are using PPI labels, it will capitalise names and postal codes. So it automatically looks more professional.

theonlywayisup

I thought there was somewhere to get the PPI image, I don't use it anymore, so couldn't think where I got it.

I do a Royal Mail flyer every so often. It takes the addresses from the database (another good reason to have RMT) and then you can send out flyers/coupons/offers relevant to what the person bought or what you think may be interested in. I guess it's horse for courses!

Linnworks is slightly more time consuming to get up and running, but again, it's probably due to tweaking it to suit.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

I don't think that tracked is really worth it for me

On their site is a tool to calculate costs for tracked, 500,000 parcels a year (no chance!) at 99grams and it still come out at £2.40 each. RM really need to look at a low cost tracked service for lighter, smaller parcels.

marie-20

ludovico wrote: »

I don't think that tracked is really worth it for me

On their site is a tool to calculate costs for tracked, 500,000 parcels a year (no chance!) at 99grams and it still come out at £2.40 each. RM really need to look at a low cost tracked service for lighter, smaller parcels.

Hahahahaha! 500,000!! I'll be lucky to do 40,000 a year!

I think that on average I/we send out around 500 parcel p/w - in the past month (bearing in mind that it was Xmas so RM were stacked out) I think we only had 2 INR's - one of which I expected and the other was to China.

theonlywayisup

ludovico wrote: »

I don't think that tracked is really worth it for me

On their site is a tool to calculate costs for tracked, 500,000 parcels a year (no chance!) at 99grams and it still come out at £2.40 each. RM really need to look at a low cost tracked service for lighter, smaller parcels.

Yeah I don't trust that online thing. You can ring and get a better quote. The first quarter is immaterial in some respects as each quarter thereafter they review you, by weighing what you send etc.

I pay just over £2 (plus VAT) and my average weight is just over a kilo. It also depends on your areas, 97% is mainland, 2% area 2 (Highlands) and 1% area 3 (Jersey NI etc) for me so this keeps costs down. I've just had another review and my price should have increased 11p but because it was within tolerance it stays the same.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

To be honest even an extra 1pence per parcel would increase posting charges by £300 a year which is more than the cost of loses.

theonlywayisup

ludovico wrote: »

To be honest even an extra 1pence per parcel would increase posting charges by £300 a year which is more than the cost of loses.

I don't do it for the losses, but it gives me insurance to £50 so can be up to £120 retail. I get a free collection. I have a full database of addresses which I also get reduced marketing flyers/vouchers with. Easy software. Free thermal labels (have you seen the cost of those!) and a fantastic account manager at RM who really should be nominated for employee of the firm!

I wouldn't go back to PPI, but that's because it doesn't suit my product. The tracking is secondary to me but is entirely helpful as the buyer can nominate a 'safeplace' and there is no need for a signature unless I request on. The losses are nil for me (I've been on it a number of years now) and only ever had one problem, which was down to a sorting office double scanning a parcel back to me when it was waiting for delivery (the RM intranet sorted this query quickly).

So for me, it's just plain convenient!

lovinituk

theonlywayisup wrote: »

Linnworks is slightly more time consuming to get up and running, but again, it's probably due to tweaking it to suit.

1stoporders took some time to configure to get it exactly how I wanted it but then thats why I went for it over Aimco. I did trail Aimco when I was deciding and from what I remember it couldn't be tweaked enough for my liking.

The cost of Linnworks put me off when I first looked at it but with the basic version reportedly being free, I need to find some time to put into it to give it a try.

With selling on Amazon and my website as well, I believe Linnworks might be able to retrieve all the sales from each platform in one go - is that right? It is a bit annoying at the moment having to download and import 3 different sets of information!