The Wholesale Forums

[biffa1965]

Folks Iam a powerseller on Ebay whose shop specialsed in unbranded headwear...all manner of hats and gothic accessories.I have built up the business to the extent where iam toddling off to the post office with approx 10+ items per day (Please note its never less than 10 items and i post 6 days a week monday to saturday) 95% of these are level 2 parcels which would be £1.45 to send first class. (i pay for all post via paypals service and it does tend to piss of the local post office staff for obvious reasons).
The point iam gettin here is...am I at the stage where i should be looking at a courier service or am I too small fry at the moment. Any advice would be most welcome......cheers Bill

[ADC]

Originally Posted by biffa1965

Folks Iam a powerseller on Ebay whose shop specialsed in unbranded headwear...all manner of hats and gothic accessories.I have built up the business to the extent where iam toddling off to the post office with approx 10+ items per day (Please note its never less than 10 items and i post 6 days a week monday to saturday) 95% of these are level 2 parcels which would be £1.45 to send first class. (i pay for all post via paypals service and it does tend to piss of the local post office staff for obvious reasons).
The point iam gettin here is...am I at the stage where i should be looking at a courier service or am I too small fry at the moment. Any advice would be most welcome......cheers Bill

If you can get up to 5000 parcels a year (about 16 per day), you can open a Royal Mail PacketPost Business Account. You would get first class 101-250g parcels for £1.26, which would save you about £950 over a year. They charge you by average weight. They give you some Royal Mail Bags and basically you just put all the parcels in one bag and weigh them. You then divide the weight by the number of parcels and thats your average weight. Then you just enter the details into your Online Business Account on the Royal Mail website. You can then take the parcels to the sorting office or Post Office yourself and you just hand them over. Alternatively you can pay £450 a year for them to collect or if you spend over £15K a year with them you get free collection. They take the payment monthly by Direct Debit.

[geosamm]

Originally Posted by biffa1965

.am I at the stage where i should be looking at a courier service or am I too small fry at the moment. Any advice would be most welcome......cheers Bill

Check with all the available delivery options, if you can save money be switching you have reached that stage.... you should also consider your time into the equation.

[Andy777]

Courier services won't be suitable for you as you're mainly sending small packages. If you pay £1.45 via Royal Mail, courier will ask as a minimum £5-£7. It's really not viable option if you're mainly sending out small packages.

[xcat]

You will have to keep toddling off to the post office for now im afraid, until you have enough sales to set up a royal mail collection service.

[btman]

Can you do your own franking online and print your own labels, etc using postoffice.com or paypal? You could then ask your post office if you need to queue or can you post the hats straight into the postbox?

[Saajan]

Yeah a franking machine would be worth buying. Here's more information on franking machines:

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/j...mediaId=600024

[biffa1965]

Folks thanks for all your advice, i certanly like the look of the Royal Mail packet post programme outlined by ADC. The problem is i think i literally fall just short (on average) of the required 16 per day.But with the business expanding as it is at the mo, i would hope to reach that level hopefully within the next 8 - 12 months. thanks again Folks.

[Popcorn]

you coul allways pay your Neybours child to go to the postoffice for you like 2£ per day or something

[biffa1965]

Next doors teenage lad wont accept anything short of £5 a day.....lol guess hes been reading the wholesale forums !! says he wants money for his own little business venture