If you have an on-line retail business you probably have to contend with parcel delivery costs. Deciding how to manage these costs can be a headache so here are some ideas to get you started.
- Offer free P&P but factor the cost of this into your product price (your ability to do this is going to depend on how much your items typically cost to despatch.
- Offer free P&P if the customer places an order above a certain threshold (for example collectmyparcel.com offers free delivery on packaging supplies brought from our on-line store if you spend over £35).
- Give customers the choice of a delivery option. If they want a Next Day delivery they pay more than a longer delivery window.
- Shop around and find the best price depending on the size and weight of the parcel you are sending. For example:
Royal Mail is a good bet if your parcel is <2kg (although this won’t guarantee a Next Day service and there is no tracking on a 1st class mail product).
City Link lets you post a Next Day parcel up to 20kg from £6.99 + VAT (that’s a good price). - Get cheap parcel delivery by using a middleman service such as collectmyparcel.com. It’s a great way to access and compare the delivery products of a range of major UK couriers from just one website.
If you’ve got some other ideas why not share them by leaving a comment.
