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Royal Mail Postage prices gone up today - Will the rise affect you on eBay?
 

As of today April 30 prices went up - I was in for a shock today at the post office paying just over £100 for my items which normally cost me about £80 - may not seem much of a difference but long term it's a huge a loss in profit overall.

Many businesses that sell on eBay and other internet platforms will be affected i think.

Increasing any postage charges may affect sales, some may even choose to go for 2nd class if they are sending items out 1st class already - which in turn may affect dsr's.

:pout:

I don't think it will affect my Amazon sales as much though - amazon postage prices up there are ridiculously high anyway.

How will the rise in postage prices affect you guys in the UK?

pretty much the same as you buddy 10% increase is BIg to me

especially as it lowers margins AGAIN

in a year thats a hell of alot of cash :yar:

Yeah thing nearly everyone is on the same boat now.

But i think buyers will understand postage prices have gone up and theres nothing we can do about it.

Tough times for us brits :rant:

I hate bloody Aprils rises every year.

didnt it go up ages ago? lol i swear my post office started charging me from last week. lol

As of today I will be using MyHermes for every package
I sent some gift cards out today and it cost me £1.55 for 1st class letters going by recorded delivery ouch!

Package/s with the Royal Mail are now set at £2.70 for 0g to 750g.

For business customers the prices went up on 2nd April

Schrib I think that was for something else.

But for my packets i sent send today 1st class were £2.70 just last week they were £1.99 - 0-750g.

Grab the royal leaflet next time your there, some shocking prices i think.

How is myHermes for costs? when it comes to packages 0-750g? does it come out cheaper than Royal mail?

Unless your offering free p/p then it shouldn't be an issue as you can pass the increase on to buyers.

Everyone knows how much postage costs were increasing by, it was all over the tv and press so people are expecting to pay more.

As long as your prices are reasonable and you ship quickly there should be no negative effect from buyers imo.

I suppose it all depends on your business model but increases in postage costs can always be factored in ahead of time as Royal Mail are only allowed to increase their prices once a year, every April. And they increases are publicised weeks ahead of that time.

I would go with Hermes. My packing are royal mail recorded. I rather pay Hermes.

Is Herme's tracked?

I didn't think it was on their standard service.

Update:

Packages up to 1Kg £3.30 inc VAT + £1.02 inc VAT if you what it tracked. a total of £4.32

I don't get it? your packing is is royal mail recorded? but you rather pay hermes?

Are you actually using Hermes atm?

Have used Hermes in the past and they were absolutely shocking to say the least.

Average 4/5 days for delivery, lost and damaged packages on an all to regular basis.

May have changed but once bitten etc.

Argh don't sound good at all... :boink:

If the price difference between them and royal mail is small which it prob is - then i won't bother with them - stick to what i know best.

Either way be nice to hear if someone is actually using them currently - "ryanba" said he'll be using them as of today i guess i could get some feedback from him on how there service is in the following weeks.

I've changed my prices for postage on most of my lists today - my competition on the other hand has not yet which is rather worrying - perhaps its still early and they may change it later today.

What worried me most about them was the amount of stuff that went missing/lost 'apparently'

They use agency drivers a lot of the time who are no doubt are a bunch of thieving bar stewards.

Thats problem with these companies there not regulated properly like royal mail is.

I bet them thieving ones hardly ever get the sack.

Your right because they're all at it, even the depot managers.

RM might not be perfect but they do the job for e/b better than any of the alternatives imo.

All very true corruption everywhere these days - no matter how much we put down royal mail no one offers services like they do currently :(

currently, I pay £3.25 if the price has gone up. I rather pay Hermes that come to collect in the house, instead of me going all the way to the post office and wait for ages.

£3.25? for 0g-750g? that would cost £2.70 at royal mail now.

I was hoping for some good prices.

Total rip off i think, sounds like an extra charge because they collect from home.

Trying to minimize my costs and considering my post office is a 2 min walk away from me - works out better for me with royal mail for now.

Any complaints though? losts? damaged?

Well I had a heart attack when the girl at the post office told me my total postage costs.

I was paying £1.58 1st class standard .

Sometimes paying £2.36 for 1st class recorded, so today I go in to do some recorded items and its £3.60 1st class recorded and £3.15 2nd class recorded.

Postage costs are killing me and yes my prices are now going up!!

i myself was shocked to find out the increase in postage price.. items costing 3.25 has now gone up to 3.65 that's a considerable amount and on ebay you can only charge 4.00 for regular post & packing which in now way takes into consideration the tissue, boxes, jiffy bags based on what i sell. havent heard any announcement from ebay regarding the postal prices

Depends on the category how much you can charge on e/b. Clothing for example which was £4 is now £4.75

Actually most of them increased at the beginning of April.

ok thanks I think tomorrow I'm going to review all my pricing etc

I've called a few friends who also use e/b 1 of them is seriously considering changing his whole business model because of the rise.

TBH I can t understand what all the drama is about :confused:

Royal Mail increase their postal charges every April, surely people running a business should be aware of this and plan their business accordingly.

Basic business principles, forecast your budget, control your costs.

royal mail do increase i agree but never by this much!!

The amount of the increases was published nearly two months ago.

As I said if your running your business properly then you should be aware that there will be an annual increase so when it is made public you adjust your budget and business model accordingly in advance, not getting in a panic because you've done nothing and 'suddenly' find postage costs have gone up and your still charging at the old rate.

Buyers know that postage costs have increased, they are using RM the same as you and they'll expect to pay more for their e/b postage.

As I said in an earlier post as long as your charging within reason and ship quickly then it should all be as before.

I wouldn't touch MyHermes with a barge pole.
I have used them in the past and there postage was roughly £5 and if you wanted tracking you had to pay for that over and above.
There service was BAD and the tracking updates were appalling, it also took around 5 days to reach the destination. Never again!

Another reason not to use them, overpriced and slow.

I think it will always a Royal Mail trip then unless i deliver myself.

Agreed.

RM just sneak in.

Where possible it's preferable to have a variety of 'delivery' methods.:pop2:

I have a franking machine, and even with that I have seen a rise from £1.14 to £1.92 per item sent out for one of my main items, and that is for 2nd class,

It is eating into my profit margin quite a bit, I am waiting for my main competitor to raise their prices before I do to incorporate the price rise otherwise my sales will slide loads

I totally agree with noneother im pretty sure customers will understand the increase on postage charges they just have to pay a little extra on what they want.

So i don't see what this fuss is all about

Unless you are offering free postage I don't see how this can be as the customer pays the cost, your profit I would assume comes from the item sold.

If you are making a profit from what you are charging for delivery then I would say that you must be overcharging.

Customers expect to pay a fair cost for delivery so an increase in those costs is unlikely to upset them when the whole country knows that RM have raised the costs substantially.

Don't get me wrong I'm not criticising your business model as such but imo it is not good business practise to rely on profits from delivery charges.

I don't think it's profit from item sold that people will or are losing, more the drop in sales due to the postage increase, perhaps.

I Still don't get it.

Why should sales drop because postage prices have increased. Everybody knows RM have increased their prices and it happens every year.

In fact they only changed yesterday so how can people say they are losing sales based on one day?

Doesn't make any sense to me I'm afraid.

I wrote a little note in my item description page and explained to my buyers why im increasing the postage cost. in case of they didnt watch the news.

Noneother - You would be surprised how many buyers don't actually know, i've got some of my regular buyers already msging me asking why my postage went up.

I think it would affect sales - alot of buyers on ebay come to ebay looking for good prices or bargains, slight price changes can affect sales for sure, especially with a saturated market were it's already competitive as it is.

With Amazon it's different most buyers will spend more money on the same item thats cheaper on eBay, without thinking twice.

As I said I don't get what all the fuss is about, it happens every year.

In two weeks time the buyers will take no notice and carry on buying regardless.

Sellers are their own worst enemies sometimes, seeing problems where none actually exist instead of just getting on with it.

Every business, everywhere has cost increases every year, that's the way of the world.

I like this guy !

You would be surprised, you really would. I forecasted my items would need to go up £2 per item to make the same as before the postage price increase but yes I can see what you mean people should know but Thankful is right there are some right idiots out there, some being on this forum