Best postage options for weighty items

pjs493

I have a small business that sells items of a relatively low value, but they are somewhat bulky and heavy. Most of my sales are done via craft and trade events. I also offer local delivery for free.

I have a website and I'm considering taking the leap to offer postal delivery. Previously I ruled this out because I think of the cost of postage may put people off. For example, if someone wants to by items worth about £10, they'd have to pay at least  £3.29 just to cover the Royal Mail small parcel costs before I think about the cost of packaging to add on to that. So if P&P was going to cost £5, I can't see many people wanting to spend 50% of their order cost in postage.

Are there any cheaper options around that people find reliable to use?

JGB1955

Have a look at the cost of using couriers.  People love or hate the likes of Evri but I've (personally) had no problems sending or receiving parcels via that route.

pjs493

JGB1955 said:

Have a look at the cost of using couriers.  People love or hate the likes of Evri but I've (personally) had no problems sending or receiving parcels via that route.

I've just done a price comparison and Evri is actually more expensive than Royal Mail. I think this is because Evri work on weight and not size (up to a specific weight).

LessImpecunious

We're in a very similar position, and have posted items (some low value, some high) for years, using Royal Mail, which we charge at cost price plus 20p or so for packaging. If your items are unique, and people can't buy them elsewhere they seem, in our experience, to be happy to pay the postage costs (though we don't know how many are put off by them...). We get lots of sales from abroad too, with even higher postage costs. No harm in trying if you already have the website...

[Deleted User]

pjs493 said:

For example, if someone wants to by items worth about £10, they'd have to pay at least  £3.29 just to cover the Royal Mail small parcel costs before I think about the cost of packaging to add on to that. So if P&P was going to cost £5, I can't see many people wanting to spend 50% of their order cost in postage.

How bulky/heavy are the items? 

For pricing, think differently. You could increase the pricing for your items by a little to discretely cover costs and offer shipping for £2. Or, offer free shipping for orders over X amount, encouraging customers to add another item or two to reach the threshold (though all this does depend on how heavy and bulky your items are, because if they’re huge, promotional ‘tricks’ might cause you more grief than it’s worth). 

Royal Mail small and medium parcel prices, for their tracked services, are fairly reasonable. That you could send a parcel across the country, eg. from Portsmouth to Edinburgh, for £3.29 is a bit of a bargain, to be honest. 

pjs493

[Deleted User] said:

pjs493 said:

For example, if someone wants to by items worth about £10, they'd have to pay at least  £3.29 just to cover the Royal Mail small parcel costs before I think about the cost of packaging to add on to that. So if P&P was going to cost £5, I can't see many people wanting to spend 50% of their order cost in postage.

How bulky/heavy are the items? 

For pricing, think differently. You could increase the pricing for your items by a little to discretely cover costs and offer shipping for £2. Or, offer free shipping for orders over X amount, encouraging customers to add another item or two to reach the threshold (though all this does depend on how heavy and bulky your items are, because if they’re huge, promotional ‘tricks’ might cause you more grief than it’s worth). 

Royal Mail small and medium parcel prices, for their tracked services, are fairly reasonable. That you could send a parcel across the country, eg. from Portsmouth to Edinburgh, for £3.29 is a bit of a bargain, to be honest. 

A typical example is one item that weighs 1.5kg and costs £6.00. Some of my products are the same but offered in different packaging which reduces the weight (and cost), so I'm hoping most online sales will turn people towards the lighter packaging options. But the heavier packaging is designed more as a gift and the lighter packaging for personal use.

My website and in-person sales prices are the same and use the same platform for recording sales etc, so pricing things on the website at a higher cost and offering cheaper postage would be a massive headache. I'd essentially have to redesign the website and list all of my stock items in the app twice with different costs. I do offer free local delivery for customers who spend over a certain amount. But if I did this on the website I'd have to set quite a high spend and we'd then be looking at a heavy medium parcel (with Royal Mail) which is £9.99 before considering packaging costs.

I set up shipping on my website over the weekend and used Royal Mail as my service and priced postage and packaging in accordance with their rates and the cost of packaging materials. I'll see over the course of the next couple of months if it is successful.

We also increased prices slightly in the autumn last year to account for higher costs and I don't really think I can push prices up much more without people being put off by the price. At the moment people think my goods are reasonably priced and often end up spending a bit more because they see it as good value for money. In turn I get a lot of repeat business from people who see the pricing as reasonable. If I make things much more expensive I can see people buying fewer items and having less repeat business. Another price increase at some point will be inevitable due to rising costs of materials, but I'd like to put that off for as long as possible.

martindow

If your items are unique or difficult to source, people who want to get them will pay for the postage.  If you are selling something with lots of competition or where they can easily source something similar locally you may not get many distance sales, but what have you to lose adding a postal delivery option on your site?  I certainly would not subsidise distance sales by discounting the price and I would charge, perhaps £3.50, if the actual postal cost is £3.29. 

Savvy_Sue

Don't feel bad that any charge needs to cover more than postage. You'll no doubt be able to streamline the process, but having spent a couple of hours wrapping and posting a small present, it's not painless ... Granted I was working out how much I could include to keep it under either 250 or 500g, and whether it could be kept within Large Letter dimensions, and then how best to wrap it, but even so!

One other thing: I found before Christmas that letters posted 2nd class but with a Certificate of Posting arrived very fast. It's tedious having to queue at the Post Office but it seemed worthwhile. As a business, you might want to check out the tracking services which gives you slightly more comeback if it doesn't arrive. 

pjs493

Thanks for the further suggestions. I’ve launched shipping in my website and have priced it to cover postage and packaging. As someone mentioned, what have I to lose by offering it? 

Hopefully people won’t be put off too much by the cost, especially if it’s repeat business from in-person customers. I often have repeat in-person customers who have purchased one or two items the first time and the next time I see them they buy four or five items because they like the products so much. So it might bring in some sales. 

I’ve gone for the Royal Mail 48 hour tracked service because it insures packages up to a certain value and I can supply customers with a tracking number. 

LessImpecunious

Good luck! let us know how it goes