Hi I’m new here and completely knew to online selling. I’ve a couple of questions regarding postage. 1 is there a cheap and reliable company people would recommend. 2 how on earth are people charging postage at £2 for small but weighty fragile items? I can’t seem to find any postage for less than £2.50 and that’s without any packaging costs and the transaction fee PayPal will change. I’ve not listened anything yet as I’m still trying to get my head around this. Thanks for any advice.
I use Royal Mail 48 hour tracked at a fixed rate of £3.50 up to £24.99.
Any order £25 to £49.99 will automatically be upgraded to 24 Tracked free of charge.
Any order £50 and over the postage will be refunded in full. Never had it affect my sales.
Most larger companies use a fixed rate.
I would never use Evri, they are the cheapest and rubbish.
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Sometimes I think people put some of the postage costs in the item cost, sometimes I think they get it wrong and don’t realise until they have to wrap and ship an item that they haven’t charged enough (and then get a nasty shock).
Personal preference is for royal mail both for sending and receiving. I know some people love their evri delivery drivers but round my way they are a bit of a nightmare. Yodel is worse.
DPD are the worst of the lot for me. I always use Royal Mail 48 tracked.
The other thing to remember if you include postage in your costs you are paying commission on that part of any sale.
I always use Royal Mail, Tracked 48 parcel and charge £3.95 or I upgrade to Special delivery for my high end items and just charge the customer £5.00, I pay the extra £6 - £7 on those items myself, I’ve never factored it into the price yet but I don’t mind paying it to ensure I have the correct compensation level on high end bears, I make the decision on price and the amount of time needed to make another if it goes missing. The cost of my boxes, packaging, tissue paper, etc is costed into the item but only at £1 which has remained the same for 12 years (think it’s time I checked my invoices to see what I’m paying per box now).
I sell my work through shops and galleries as well as here. They take commission of 40%-50%. My prices here have to match the galleries (nobody would stock my work if I was undercutting them!). So I am able to absorb some or all of the shipping cost.
I always use Royal Mail too and as I’m not in walking distance of a post office any more I use their collection service for larger items.
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I always use Royal Mail. I have had such bad experiences as a recipient of Yodel and Evri, I would never use them. I have never had an issue with Royal Mail.
I always use first class standard postage for items up to £15 and charge accordingly. Items over £15 I send tracked24 (they are usually large letter size) and charge accordingly. Items over £50 in value go at medium parcel rate but I do absorb that cost into the item. I am rethinking the first class postage though as it’s so expensive. I may revert to second class and offer first class as an upgrade.
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Postage on Folksy is just postage, not P&P, so packaging (and fees) are included in my item price - with all my other overheads.
I always use Royal Mail as I find it the most reliable. They have never once lost my items, and generally arrive on time. I really like tracked services, so I use Track 24or Track 48. T24 is obviously quicker, and it generally arrives the next day,. But I find T48 pretty good too - I did have one that took a week - but that is unusual.
I keep postage charges down by having a flat charge no matter how many items are in the parcel. I bear any extra cost out of my profits, but I’m actually saving on packaging and things like business cards with multiple purchases so it’s often swings and roundabouts.
I appreciate I may be losing the occasional sale as people may not want to pay a percieved high postage. But I won’t consider any of the other carriers even if they are cheaper - based on my experience having parcels delivered to me as a buyer.
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I too only use Royal Mail and (touch wood), have never had an issue.
I send 2nd class as standard, but I also have a ‘listing’ for a 1st Class upgrade available (something I saw mentioned a while back in one of the conversations on here). If I have a large/multi product order, I now send these 1st class as standard and will refund any over payment of postage.
As for your observation, I would reiterate what has already been mentioned - either sellers are absorbing part of the postage costs themselves, factoring it into their product price, or aren’t aware of the true postage costs.
I only use Royal Mail 48-hour tracking service or Royal Mail Next Day Special Delivery service on expensive jewellery items.
I have always found rm excellent and using tracked if a delay you are kept informed, I also get regular updates from them of any post code area which are having problems,
I’m still trying to get compensation from Royal Mail for a bag sent 48 hours tracked £4.50 in November which at one stage was in Belfast although it was sent to Luton. Also a card I sent in February was wrecked so I think it’s the luck of the draw maybe. ?
I use Royal Mail Tracked 48 Large letter for jewellery which says 2-3 days and it usually is - even had next day on a few occasions too. I use Royal Mail standard large letter for the keyrings but get proof of posting at the Post Office, probably just for my own peace of mind, it may not help if there was a problem but it’s free so why not? I’m lucky, 3 PostOfices within easy walking distance. I’ve been doing this for years and I’ve only had one missing piece.
I’ve only ever had one bear go missing with RM, no idea where that poor little fella is to this day and two bears went to US and took 3 months, they even flew back to the UK before starting the journey again, my customer forgot she had even ordered them so when they eventually arrived she had a lovely surprise, lucky bears I don’t even have a passport. Other than that I havn’t had any issues at all and Postie now collects from my door.
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Welcome to Folksy @jenpotterykent . Like most of those who have replied, I use Royal Mail. Sometimes just ordinary 2nd class, and sometimes tracked 48.
Recently my husband had a bad experience trying to receive a parcel via Evri. Once they were supposed to deliver to a local shop for him to pick up, but he got a message saying the parcel had been returned to sender as they were unable to deliver - along with a photo of the brick wall on the opposite side of the road! If they had just turned round they would have seen the shop! I guess sat nav just came up with that spot as the post code and as it wasnt immeditely outside the shop they failed to use any common sense.
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I hope the poor lost bear found a good home somewhere.
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Evri are a nightmare. They recently delivered a parcel to us with a photo showing the item on our front step. However, it wasn’t there. We assumed it had been stolen, although it’s very rare for that sort of thing to happen where we live. We informed the sender that the parcel hadn’t been received.
However, the parcel had been moved after the photograph was taken and had been placed behind our water butt. I can’t imagine anyone other than the Evri delivery person doing this, persumably because it looked like a safer location. Unfortunately, due to very high levels of rain at the time, the water butt leaked like a sieve all over the parcel. Fortunately, the parcel contained a raincoat, so it was a good test of it’s abilities! 
We then had the hassle and embarrassment of contacting the seller again to say it had turned up after all.
If only the photo had recorded the correct location, so many difficulties could have been avoided.
This is why I won’t use Evri.
I always track any orders I have, I use Royal Mail track 48 service and sometimes use Evri, have never had an issue, I know some people have, the Royal mail 48 service has been reliable so far, not sure it’s actually a 48 hour service though or at least it’s not guaranteed. You would be hard pushed to find any postal service for less then £2.50 unless it’s a stamp, they have just gone up in price though! Most people will factor the cost of postagge in with the price of the item otherwise it would be impossible to make any profit atall.
I would just add that my preference is Royal Mail track48 since the cost is comparative to Evri for a larger parcel