Postage costs - how much influence?

[ghostrider1971]

Evening each,

Any thoughts on the current position regarding postage costs and times for vape stuff? Does this influence who/what/where you buy from?

Vapeclub - Free postage over £20 and arrives next day even if ordered Sunday (Amazing...)

Ecigarettedirect - Free postage over £15 - ordered another Itank at 5pm yesterday and arrived at 8.30am today (also amazing...)

ELFC have put their 'free' postage up to orders over £35 from £30.

Washington Vapes (for example) seem to have cheap stuff on their site but more expensive postage.


Just curious too as to how it all works - are bigger companies getting the benefit of economies of scale from more sales and passing them on?

[Perpetua]

Is there actually such a thing as ' free postage ' I'm not sure. 

No disputing it's a nice incentive to feel like you're getting postage paid by spending X amount . . . but the cost has to be met somewhere if we want our Vendors to stay in business.

So it's not the be all and end all for me if it's not offered and the goods I'd like to purchase are a fair price.

( Personally I object more to being over charged for delivery when something arrives with a Large Letter stamp on it. )

[ghostrider1971]

Perpetua - Absolutely - agree that postage is being factored in somehow to the sales price. I guess the point I was making is that I wouldn't pay say 4 quid postage for a shortfill - would be totally self defeating.

Was curious that some vendors do 'postage included' over £50 but some can do it at £15

[Postmodern Smoking]

Jul 31, 2022 9:03:03 GMT ghostrider1971 said:

Was curious that some vendors do 'postage included' over £50 but some can do it at £15

I imagine that above the cheap limit on postage included, the purpose is to encourage the buyer to add something else to their order that they wouldn't otherwise have purchased, to reach or exceed the minimum sale amount for "free" postage.
When the threshold is low, it must be just to encourage the sale and presumably just trying to obtain a greater number of customers.

When I was a vendor, I did postage pretty much at cost, as I was only making a few quid on a typical order. There was also packing implications to try to keep things within the small parcel or large letter rates.

With larger vendors I'm not sure what postage discounts or concessions they can get. 

[Perpetua]

Jul 31, 2022 9:03:03 GMT ghostrider1971 said:

Was curious that some vendors do 'postage included' over £50 but some can do it at £15

Other than my first uncharitable thought, I guess some have overheads larger than others . . . Business Rates for example like Council Tax, Rent for premises depending on location are going to be higher than others - when I had my shop, those 2 expenses were significant costs. Same could well apply to wages depending on which part of the country a Vendor is located.

We have customers ( not all ) who are constantly carping at how prices have increased, which they have, but haulage costs have also dramatically increased with the price of fuel. This affects all businesses and those price rises have to be passed on somewhere . . . which I don't see as unreasonable. 

[DripDrop Vapour]

Being a vendor, every week we get extra surcharges on everything. Our collection from Royal Mail each night has a surcharge plus extra surcharge now for fuel. Then each delivery of bottles, base ingredients has a surcharge. We are absorbing all of those whilst our sales are declining. No way could we afford to offer free postage on top sadly.
We buy recyclable packaging so it's better for the environment as our industry is so wasteful and that is included for free.
We charge base rates but the actual price we pay is much higher on the postage.
We have huge overheads as our production area is large meaning high energy bills and wages for the shop staff etc.
Plastic prices are soaring and costs keep on rising but we won't put our prices up even though we really should.
Our loyal customers need our products and we love what we do.
Although if things decline further we won't be here next year.
But we aren't giving up easily

[ghostrider1971]

Jul 31, 2022 9:41:21 GMT Postmodern Smoking said:

Jul 31, 2022 9:03:03 GMT ghostrider1971 said:

Was curious that some vendors do 'postage included' over £50 but some can do it at £15

I imagine that above the cheap limit on postage included, the purpose is to encourage the buyer to add something else to their order that they wouldn't otherwise have purchased, to reach or exceed the minimum sale amount for "free" postage.

I've certainly bought the odd (hundred or so) 10ml plastic bottle or vape band to get to a post limit - buy something for 19.99 and postage is 'free/included' over 20 quid