Not sure if anyone’s already mentioned this (couldn’t see anything) but we’ve got more Royal Mail price changes in October: https://www.royalmail.com/prices2025
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Is the insured amount on Tracked services reducing or am I reading it wrong? Currently £150 but looks like going down to £75.
I use Tracked 48 which I think has only a 5p increase but if they’re reducing the insured amount then I’ll end up having to pay more to insure for more.
Lou x
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Oh I hope not, all of mine go Tracked 48 as well and I need the £150, i had better have a read.
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yes it definitely says only £75 compensation.
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I am shocked that they are increasing the postage again! I don’t know what else to say. Are they trying to close all the businesses that post items? It really feels like they are. Surely they are shooting themselves in the foot.
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I’m losing the will with my online business, Royal Mail have brought the compensation down again and now only have £75 on Tracked parcels… I might as well just close the door because adding another £7 onto my current charges will just ensure even less customers. I can’t and won’t factor the extra into the cost of my bears so I think the chance of gaining new customers will be very slim if I increase postage to where it needs to be.
I’m going to have to do some serious thinking about the future of my bears. It seems at every turn small businesses are suffering, I’m not surprised so many are closing. Royal mail certainly have more price increases than the rest of us.
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It looks like they have increased the weight for tracked to 1kg from 100grams, but are reducing the compensation. Should work out cheaper for some folk.
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They have also increased the price from £3.45 to £4.25 for Tracked 48 small parcel whilst reducing f the compensation, I wouldn’t have minded as much if they had just increased the cost and kept the compenstation cover as it was but doing it this way is unfair and will affect a lot of small businesses again.
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The weight limit for Tracked 48 large letter was increased to 1kg quite a while ago.
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Ah thanks, I didn’t realise the price was the same for all weights now, most of my items are under 100g, but I know I had paid more for 250g in the past.
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I haven’t looked at International prices for a while since it no longer applies to me, but wow! I didn’t realise that the price is different for countries within Europe now, as well as all the other mucking about. I don’t see I will ever go back to exporting.
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A search of the t’internet has found a company that offers insurance on parcels including those sent through Royal Mail. To insure a parcel worth £100 they charge £1.50 so for a small parcel sent by RM Tracked 48 with postage bought online and with it collected by the postie it would cost £5.35 which is a lot less than having to pay for RM Special Delivery to get the insurance cover. So may be worth checking out this type of company to send more valuable items.
L x
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Although… as long as you select the RM postage that will cover the retail value of your item, even using the standard non-tracked service, if it gets lost, they have to reimburse you for it. There is a tedious form to fill in and you provide proof of retail cost (easy with an online shop).
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I have changed my mohair bears to £10 postage as I need the compensation cover on them, no doubt my sales will suffer but there isn’t much else I can do.
I have also gone through all the baskets of items already cut out waiting to be sewn and plan to make them all up then discontinue those products and perhaps move on to much higher end bears which is where the artist in me has wanted to go for a long time. Making far less products but with even more time and money involved in them. I don’t know whether I will find a market for them but if I don’t try I will close shop as I have spent today comparing the past 3 years sales values, number of Sales etc and this year I am at 50% of where I was 2 years ago at the same time of year and September has been my worst month for years.Even my smaller items have been slower at selling this year so I will be happy to discontinue some in the new year. I’m not going to make any rash decisions until the financial year end in March but I probably won’t be making as many mohair bears as I would have. A lot to think about and consider over the next 6 months.