Interesting article regarding online delivery costs

[DSLiverpool]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/fd88f556-70bc-11e5-9b9e-...

Then compare that with most ebay business models with free delivery, I ordered a camera case for £3 delivered and 10 (yes 10) LED light bulbs for £7.50 delivered. Its a golden age to be a consumer!!

[Simpo Two]

Delivery costs are a funny thing. You can charge a customer £2,000 for something and they'll be happy, but bh about £10 delivery. Sell it to them for £2,010 with free delivery and they're happy. The cost is the cost, how you dress it up and maintain margin is the thing.

In the case of online groceries, above a certain delivery cost people will simply say 'bks to that' and go there in person.

[anonymous-user]

DSLiverpool said:

Then compare that with most ebay business models with free delivery, I ordered a camera case for £3 delivered and 10 (yes 10) LED light bulbs for £7.50 delivered. Its a golden age to be a consumer!!

I really do wonder what the margin was on those sales. To me it just seems pointless to be packing 1000 orders a day for £100 for example. I've been toying with free delivery for a while, of course I'll have to increase all my prices anyway to cover the costs associated with the sale! (postage, packing, merchant fee).

[DSLiverpool]

I know a guy sitting on £200k+ of LED spots that he can now buy cheaper on eBay - a painful lesson on importing. In fact I also know a guy who has a very successful lighting business who must be having a few sleepless nights.

[TheEnd]

Stuff from China is amazing, In quite a few cases, it would cost you more to send back the empty envelope.

[Simpo Two]

TheEnd said:

Stuff from China is amazing, In quite a few cases, it would cost you more to send back the empty envelope.

Thank heavens China is in the EU, or we wouldn't be able to trade with them!

[tight fart]

And if you charge for postage on eBay, they take a percentage of that as well.

[chippy348]

I do post free over £100 and have a minimum spend of £10.00 but you can not please them all !!!!

Friday on a Facebook group a guy was bhing how we had put up our shipping price from £4.50 to £6.50 when in fact they have not changed in over 2 years! I responded with the facts and the reason why he had been charged £6.50 was he was in that bracket with the value of his order, hit prev order was lower value thus cheaper shipping.

He said why does it take 2 days to come then and i better get it Monday, i looked and he ordered at 7:30pm on Thursday night, shipped with DPD on Friday and in fact delivered on Saturday but as he was out left with a neighbor, i informed him this and he still moaned.

You can not win.

Just looking at starting a new site and planning on doing a shipping fee of flat £3.50 regardless of order value.