After much thought I’ve made some smaller priced items to go in my shop to hopefully generate some interest and sales. The only problem is when I look into posting, it’s £3.90 for 2nd class signed for and that’s without factoring in packaging. I’d prefer signed for so as to know the customer has received their item.
It’s for this bird (which size wise sits in the hand) and they’ll be £12 each (with new photos to follow, this was just my prototype).
After making them I’m now worried people will be put off by the postage costs! Any advice?
Thanks
I love your little bird, so pretty.
Personally the postage price wouldn’t put me off, but have you looked into using MyHermes? I use them all the time and prices start at £2.78 for 0-1kg tracked with insurance up to £50…
No advice on postage but will birdy be available in other colours? There are plans a foot to redecorate our living room to a creamy colour (plans have been a foot for a while though) and I could never smuggle Ophelia (who is adorable) past the other half a small bird could be secreted onto the mantel piece without him noticing…
Personally, for something that size/price, I would only start to think ‘ouch’ if the shipping charge was over £5, so I think as long as you can keep it under that it will be fine. And the bird is gorgeous!
I understand that it is good to use a signed-for service, however you are insured for losses of up to £20 from Royal Mail, provided you have a proof of posting. Maybe worth having a think about?
That’s a good point, I dislike receiving ‘signed for’ mail as it often means a trip to the sorting office for me. but then I have a nice safe front porch for the postie to leave stuff in, not everyone does.
From a seller’s point of view, I don’t use signed for (except for the really big wholesale or wedding orders), the majority of my parcels will not fit through a letter box, and yet out of literally hundreds of parcels over the years (across all my shops) I can count the number of losses on one hand.
If you’re concerned about the cost then consider not using signed for. You’re still covered if the item gets lost since it’s under £20 so you won’t be out of pocket.
Using signed for (and tacking the cost onto your item’s shipping) is sort of making your customers pay for your own peace of mind … they’re not getting any benefit from paying that extra money.
I understand what you’re saying but No, I’d not be put off & I’m tight with postage. I dont like signed for though for exactly the same reason as Helen. I’m surprised when people pay £3.50 for one soap retailing at £4 but they do.
This wee birdy needs to live with my mum - it’s adorable & she would love it. Let us know when its on sale please
I’ve read of quite a few horror stories of people saying their customer hasn’t received their item only for it to have actually been signed for and customer was trying to get refund too. All my larger items are Signed for, so just automatically thought to do the same.
Think with these wee birdies though I’ll try for normal postage and see how it goes.
I agree with @FunkyMosaics if you shopped around you could find a courier cheaper than Royal Mail. I just sent quite a large parcel to someone with over £150 worth of goods and I was quoted £7 plus (Without added insurance) & it was next day delivery. OK I did take out insurance because it was stock for a shop so it cost me a little bit more. I’m sure Royal Mail was a lot more than that.
I do also send a lot of small items via Royal Mail 2nd class and touch wood had no problems at all.
I’ve listed them at 2nd Class postage and they are now live:
I’m a bit twitchy over postage as my first ever sale on Folksy had delivery issues where I was having to ring round the PO and the depot trying to locate the bird! It did turn up in the end, but for a few days I was worried where it had ended up.
That’s rather a problem with horror stories though, those are the ones people tell, no-one comes on here and says ‘Yay, I sold x number of things this month and none of my parcels got lost!’
Could someone clarify what you are covered for in terms of insurance from RM. As I understood it you are covered up to £20 but you are only covered for the cost of the item to you not the cost to the customer i.e… materials but not labour so if you sell an item for £15 but the actual materials used only cost £1.50 then you are only covered for £1.50. I may be completely wrong but I’m sure that was what the PO told me.
haha, good point @HelenSmith !
i don’t want to curse myself… but in 5 years i’ve only had 1 thing go missing, and the majority arrive next day.
so there’s a not-horror story for first class royal mail
I have claimed for one lost item in all the years I’ve been selling online (another non-horror story! :D).
On the RM claim form I listed the cost of the materials and then made up the rest of the value as a ‘labour’ charge. I was reimbursed for the full retail value of the item plus the £s I spent on the postage.
On the one occasion I claimed I just attached the customer invoice and was reimbursed in full including postage, I seem to remember I made something on the exchange rate too as it was back in the days when Etsy was all in USD.
I think it’s probably one of those things where if you act confident and claim the full amount you’ll get what you want whereas if you ask what to claim for they’ll run rings round you
I generally don’t used signed for - for all the above reasons, plus the fact that in my experience, the signature is frequently not collected if it’s something that can just be pushed through the letterbox, which makes me really cross!
I’d recommend this: try using regular postage for a while and put away the cash you would have spent on signed-for fees. I’d like to bet by the time you encountered a problem, you would have way more in your “kitty” than it would cost to replace and resend the missing item, even if you didn’t get compensation at all, but it’s still worth claiming that too, as others have said.
If you get somebody claiming item not received, rely on the proof of posting document - if you can scan it and upload it somewhere, then give the customer the link to look at it, it’s surprising how often “missing” parcels miraculously get delivered soon after. Honestly it doesn’t happen often, this is based on experience over a lot of years, so it’s relatively few. My kitty is pretty healthy though!
