Hands up who’s ever brought something from eBay?

eBay has had a huge impact on the way we shop. It’s also created a lot of parcels to be despatched by courier so it was interesting to see in the news recently that eBay is planning to move off-line and into the high street.

But don’t worry. This doesn’t signal the end of on-line bidding. Instead the new shop will run as an experiment and will only open for 5-days. The shop will be on Dean Street, just off Oxford Street in Central London and will open from 1^st – 5^th December. That’s perfect timing for a spot of Christmas shopping.

But before you rush to London be warned. You won’t be able to take any purchases home with you. Instead the till-less shop will stock only a small range of items and will be purely for window-shopping. Customers will be able to browse and check out 200 of the best selling items. What’s more an in-store tablet section will enable shoppers to check out the 200-million eBay products currently available.

Shoppers will still be directed back to the on-line eBay store. If they see something they like they can scan a QR code (similar to a barcode) with their smart phone which will automatically take them to the payment section of the eBay website.

Meaning couriers will still be in demand to ensure anything you order arrives at its destination safely and in one piece. Leaving you with another choice. Will that be Next day or 48 hour delivery?

Source: http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/eBay-open-first-UK-shop-tele-3719113408.html?x=0

Are you starting to get into the Christmas spirit?

If you’re a retailer it’s likely you are preparing yourself for the busiest time of the year. What’s more if you have an ecommerce site or an eBay store you’ll probably be getting ready for some serious parcel distribution to fulfil all those orders.

How can a courier help?

Couriers offer lots of added value to businesses such as yours. At this busy time of the year one of the biggest advantages is they’ll collect parcels from an address you specify. This can be a real bonus especially if you have more items than usual to post.

Just imagine, instead of popping out on a cold, dark afternoon carrying an armful of parcels to the car the courier will collect directly from you.

A further bonus is a courier delivery comes with inclusive parcel tracking. This means you can follow the movement of your items as they move through the network, and confirm when they’ve been delivered. This information gives you peace of mind that you are in fact your fulfilling customer orders.

Do you fancy saving some money too? You can if you book your courier collection through a parcel middleman service. These on-line websites allow you to access the courier products of big name companies like City Link and Yodel only cheaper!

If you’ve never used a parcel middleman before they’re easy to find. Simply search “cheap parcel delivery” and you will find collectmyparcel.com.

Is it too early to wish you a Merry Christmas?

In a word YES! What’s more with courier services offering such competitive prices it’s possible to make some cash as well as some room!

The bike’s been sold – now what?

You’ll be pleased to know that with internet courier brokers you can arrange it all on-line. What’s more because a courier will collect from your house, you can even avoid the hassle of trying to get the bike to the Post Office. Now that’s a relief considering how awkward and heavy bikes can be.

If you want to post a bike, here’s some handy tips for sending them through a courier network:

1.  If possible remove the front wheel, handle bars and peddles from the main frame.

As well as making your bike easier to wrap, it will shorten the length of your package and make it easier to send through the network.

2. Make sure your bike is securely wrapped and protected for transit.

• Wrap the frame, handle bars and peddles in bubble wrap to protect the paintwork against any small knocks or bumps during transit.
• If you have dismantled the bike it’s a good idea to tape all the bits together as this will minimise the risk of parts going missing if your package comes loose in transit.
• Package the bike in cardboard – or even better see if you can get an old bike box from a bike retailer.
• Make sure the box is sturdy and robust and secure any openings with strong tape to prevent items being lost.
• If you can get hold of some plastic taping to wrap around the box for extra security this is a good idea.

3.  Finally affix the address label to the bike securely

Now all you have to do is wait for the carrier and wish it well on its journey to a new home.
Don’t forget, you can log on to the collectmyparcel.com website and track the parcel by entering the CMP number on the tracking page.

So you’ve seen something on eBay and won it!  Congratulations!  Trouble is the seller put the item as “Collection only”.  Now what do you do?  Not to worry, with collectmyparcel.com you can arrange your own Parcel Delivery.  With our services you don’t have to be the one sending the parcel.  You can be the one wanting to receive the parcel.  Once you’ve spoken to the seller and they’ve packaged up the parcel and provided you with the weight and dimensions, you can then visit collectmyparcel.com, click on Quote & Book, enter the details and there you go, an instant quote!  Now all you have to do is enter the seller’s address as the collection address, your address as the parcel delivery address, pay and then sit back and track your parcel on-line until it’s delivered.