Delivery Charges

[Amateur]

I wanted a new rule. £3.99 on one of our favourite suppliers sites. Found what I want then when the pay page comes up I find a £5 carriage charge for orders under £50?
So, off I go to Amazon, who will deliver free for orders of £10. So I top up with another couple of items to make the £10 total.
I fire off an e mail asking customer service if maybe they should be re looking at this £50 minimum purchase for free delivery, after all if it was say £20 you'd top up with another couple of bits and bobs, only to be told they would pass the request on.....and that was the end of that...........
Maybe it's not feasible to reduce the deliver charges on smaller items and compete with Amazon...but they could say offer incentives, five orders and the next delivered free, or incorporate a delivered price in the printed product price with a % reduction in the overall total cost if you have a bigger spend........
Something to make you want to spend some dosh with them instead of googling Amazon.

 

[MickCheese]

My wife runs a postal business. Her biggest overhead is postage.

On top of the actual item is the packaging and her time packing thing then getting them to the post office.

£5 is not an unreasonable sum to charge. After all, how much profit do you think a company makes on a £4.00 order.

Amazon must sell some things at a loss.

Mick

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

My wife runs a postal business. Her biggest overhead is postage.

On top of the actual item is the packaging and her time packing thing then getting them to the post office.

£5 is not an unreasonable sum to charge. After all, how much profit do you think a company makes on a £4.00 order.

Amazon must sell some things at a loss.

Mick

Agreed. Especially if the item is quite heavy. Axy do that. Minimum order for free delivery is £50. I don't begrudge it one bit, entirely reasonable. I'm sure Amazon suffer the loss as a "cost of doing business" because they know that fickle consumers would not have it as their go to site otherwise. They know the volume will more than offset that loss and their business model factor'd it in when they made the original "land grab" for the majority of internet customers.

 

[flh801978]

My gripe with the supplier is that if you spend £48 you have to add the £5 for postage and it comes so much more slowly than the free postage if you have spent over £50
The free postage comes via FEDEX
The paid for comes via royal mail
3 times my paid for postage wasn't dispatched until the next day then took 2 days to arrive
the free postage over £50 is always dispatched the same day and is always next day

Why can they not act upon all orders in the same way and same courier and speed
I cant believe thats theres so much more profit in £51 spent rather than £48

I know the plan is to get your spend up

 

[tool-me-up]

I looked into this before to offer free delivery on bigger orders.
I found it not feesable to be honest.

Tools are heavy - they are expensive to post.

i charge 6.99 for up to 20kg mainland uk ( aslong is not a very long item) but I PAY £7.54 for each delivery made, and that is before wrapping, printing, boxing etc etc.

I keep my margins as low as possible to have some chance of been competitive, so by the time ive earned that 7.54 you have spent easily £100 and then if I deliver for free then I make zip...

 

[iNewbie]

I wanted a new rule. £3.99 on one of our favourite suppliers sites. Found what I want then when the pay page comes up I find a £5 carriage charge for orders under £50?
So, off I go to Amazon, who will deliver free for orders of £10. So I top up with another couple of items to make the £10 total.
I fire off an e mail asking customer service if maybe they should be re looking at this £50 minimum purchase for free delivery, after all if it was say £20 you'd top up with another couple of bits and bobs, only to be told they would pass the request on.....and that was the end of that...........
Maybe it's not feasible to reduce the deliver charges on smaller items and compete with Amazon...but they could say offer incentives, five orders and the next delivered free, or incorporate a delivered price in the printed product price with a % reduction in the overall total cost if you have a bigger spend........
Something to make you want to spend some dosh with them instead of googling Amazon.

Companies have a tendency to offer the best postage cost(s) they can - the cheapest they can do them for. Theres no benefit but lost revenue if they don't. Amazon's turn-over is astronomical.

Today I paid 89 pence for a Lion Bar in a WH Smiths thats operating inside a hospital. The guy in front of me was told £1.99p for a can of fizzy drink - he returned it at that price. That to me was daylight robbery.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

same in a petrol stn for me....I went thirsty!

Its got to the stage where a can of coke is ludicrously expensive anywhere but the supermarket.

 

[Rhossydd]

Amazon must sell some things at a loss.

Not as many as you might think.
The thing to remember is that Amazon are one of the biggest users of delivery services in the UK, so they negotiate exceptionally good rates. They also have the whole packaging system down to fine art, low cost packing that takes very little time to use.

 

[Amateur]

Amazon was once small so they just didn't arrive at the lower shipping costs overnight they went through a learning curve and addressed their shipping costs as they grew.
Ok they are massive now, but they still change shipping charges every now and then to cater for low value orders and give you an incentive to buy from them. There is no reason some of the woodworking suppliers couldn't do the same is there?

 

[iNewbie]

Look at the amount of products they sell compared to a tool company its like apples to oranges. Its the amount of product they shift.

 

[tool-me-up]

Look at the amount of products they sell compared to a tool company its like apples to oranges. Its the amount of product they shift.

This is exactly right when, prices are tiered in unit per week, when you shift a lot you pay less.
Amazon even have it where you ( as a seller) dont even have to touch the products now - you get them delivered to an amazon warehouse and they are picked and packed for you!

things is they charge that much for it that they are the only winners! the seller get VERY little out of it in most genres anyways. Ebay isnt far behind on that score either - 10% of sale, 10% of postage 2.8% paypal - theres £13-15 on a £100 item, then there's a huge battle of seller trying to be the cheapest....

 

[Grahamshed]

I regard Axi £50 then free delivery to be pretty good value. Yes I often wait til I have enough stuff before ordering but there is always something you need

 

[Lons]

I regard Axi £50 then free delivery to be pretty good value. Yes I often wait til I have enough stuff before ordering but there is always something you need

I agree with that 100% and just wait until I can make up an order.
I placed one at 7.30am last Monday and the parcel was there when I arrived home on Tuesday. Great service and decent price even if I'd paid a fiver. It can cost that to park the car in town for heavens sake!

Bob

 

[mailee]

I have just had a surprise with postage recently as I wanted to send a unit to Newcastle. It only weighs around 10kg but is 1500 x 250 x 450. Due to the size it had to be shipped as an item which weighed 46kg! and that made the cost £130!! I can lift it with one hand! :shock: Every company i tried quoted in the hundreds to courier it! Needless to say I am delivering it for the cost of my fuel....and a cuppa. :lol:

 

[Grahamshed]

Needless to say I am delivering it for the cost of my fuel....and a cuppa. :lol:

Don't sell yourself short.
Make it a big Mugga.

 

[brianhabby]

To the OP, did you not consider buying your new rule from a local shop. No postage charge at all then.

We should not forget the local high street and need to support them where we can, if I wanted a new rule I wouldn't even think of mail order.

Remember the old Post Office slogan - 'Use it or lose it'.

What makes you think I work in a shop

regards

Brian

 

[skronk]

I live on the Isle of Skye so web shopping is a must.

Toolstation offer free PP over £10
Screwfix offer free PP over £50

No brainer who to use ?

One wonders if one can do it why can't the other.

Another bugbear is free UK mainland only delivery. They post to John O'Groats.....almost 200 miles further than me but not to an island, although the island is connected to the mainland by the Skye bridge....free to cross...no tolls.

Explain that one !!

Just paid £52 for TNT (cheapest) to deliver bandsaw from Twickenham (ouch). I did come in 22hours though.

 

[iNewbie]

2 small latte's in Costa Coffee, £4.30. If it wasn't so pee-poor in taste it'd be funny. Ah the value of things...

 

[rafezetter]

My wife runs a postal business. Her biggest overhead is postage.

On top of the actual item is the packaging and her time packing thing then getting them to the post office.

£5 is not an unreasonable sum to charge. After all, how much profit do you think a company makes on a £4.00 order.

Amazon must sell some things at a loss.

Mick

I have to agree, tbh many people just don't think about that side of things when they buy small value items, and have been spoiled by amazons shipping policies. I would bet important parts of my anatomy that Amazon are break even or taking a loss on things valued only a few pounds. They do it to generate a happy customer who in turn creates repeat business for bigger things later.

mainland shipping = planes, trains and ahem..lorries on motorways. Skye isn't included in that network. I've been to Skye and the roads are B roads at best, not 65mph + cruising along nice and quick. You aren't being singled out - it takes longer to get to you; it's as simple as that.

Screwfix's £50 free delivery price model is actually very astute - considering they sell machines and other bulky items that TS do not. £45 pair of boots, hmm ok free delivery on £50 - Ok I'll bump it up - net result = more profit for SF. I think TS made a rod for itself when they said free delivery over £10 and I'll bet there's been more than one board meeting to discuss this but with the same result; they just can't raise the price without annoying the public regardless of how logical it actually is, because as has been demonstrated in this thread people don't actually USE logic to compare like with like, they just think "company X can do it, so I'll expect it from Y".

Toolstation revenue £150 million give or take. Screwfix revenue £540million. speaks for itself really.

TBH expecting free delivery on £3.99 ruler is naively unrealistic.

 

[beech1948]

I recently bought 4 things from Hong Kong via The Bay............a wifi dongle was £2.06, a branded Sd card was 1.98 and so on...ALL were post free....delivery was about 10 days. What !!

The packing would be more than that in the UK.

Al