Collect+ have just introduced a new jiffy bag service priced at £3.99 including VAT. The new Jiffy Bag service allows sellers to take a packet to their local corner shop and have it delivered within 3-5 working days to any address in mainland UK, with its journey tracked throughout.
The service is pretty generous as you can get some reasonably sized jiffy bags, for instance a JL8 jiffy bag measures around 43cm by 66cm.
This is starting to look an attractive option in comparison to some Royal Mail services. Standard Parcels with Royal Mail would cost £4.41 up to 2kg, but that’s not a tracked service. There are faster services on offer but 2nd class mail is slightly cheaper but is limited to a maximum of 1kg at £3.92 for a signed service. 1st Class signed for services range from £4.48 for 1kg up to £7.95 for up to 2kg.
Collect+ also cater for heavier items with a 5kg service for £4.99 and 10kg service for £6.99. Collect+ customers can drop off parcels at one of over 3,700 Collect+ outlets which open seven days a week and, normally, early in the morning until late at night.
It may not be the ideal service for high volume sellers, but if you have a lower volume or parcels, want to offer an economy option to buyers at a lower price point, or just have the occasional heavier parcel to send then the service is well worth considering.
11 Responses
Royal Mail will take 2nd class upto 2KG if you’re on PPI, combine this with the (useless) ‘signed for’ option and there’s not a lot of price difference.
The real issue is what incentive is there to use these alternative services.
I don’t benefit as a seller. The customer pays shipping.
If I charge shipping at Royal Mail rates and use an alternative provider and pocket the difference then I get marked down on my eBay DSR’s.
Buyers seem happy to pay Royal Mail shipping rates as they are visible and transparent and buyers understand why the shipping costs what it costs.
Start messing and offering lower cost alternatives and buyers have expectations of these lower costs going forward. The DSR system on eBay has a lot to answer for and reduces incentives to actually do anything that might benefit my bottom line.
Tell me, from an eBay DSR point of view why should I use a cheaper alternative service when buyers are already scoring 5* for Royal Mail for both cost and despatch?
And don’t mention eBay search or eBay competition as all my eBay competition charge similar or higher shipping than I do.
If i told any of my customers they would have to wait 3-5 working days for delivery they would neg me even faster than I would neg any seller who said it to me.
The future is in next day delivery in a 1-2 hour time slot (if not a bookable slot, at least notification of the estimated time slot). 3-5 days is like something from the 60s.
Parcelmonkey do a similar tariff (£4.85 + VAT) for upto 10 klg’s with Citylink, collected & next day delivery.
instant personal hand delivered with a box of chocolates ,cash back and free dog walking, grass cutting ,and car wash for a year ,is the way foward with ebay