What do you do when your product is oversized for most low cost delivery methods? That’s the problem Wine Boxes Etc had when they started selling online.
How Wine Boxes Etc. Saved Time, Money And Headaches When Shipping Unusually Large Items
When their business began to take off around a year ago, had to overcome one of the most familiar problems that a fledgling eBay business will face – finding a way to offer free shipping to their customers without wiping out the business’ profits margins.
It’s incredibly important to offer free shipping to your customers when selling online, whether you run an e-commerce platform such as Amazon, or a cottage industry on Etsy. Free shipping has been repeatedly shown by studies to dramatically improve sales. But sending hundreds of parcels to customers each month would soon cost a fortune!
The dilemma was particularly considerable for Wine Boxes Etc, due to the unusually large volumetric size of their items. As the name suggests, they found a niche selling their specialist, vintage, wooden wine boxes – which can be used as part of the “shabby chic” trend in interior design, or can even as demonstrated by some of his more innovative customers.
Online marketplaces such as eBay and Etsy were perfect for finding customers for their repurposed items, but delivering the product to the online shoppers would be a costly nightmare.
Wine Boxes Etc send over 150 parcels a week to customers, with average dimensions of up to a meter cubed. Sending these large packages (which can weigh a over 10kg) to locations across the UK would cost up to £9.98, if you were to send them via Hermes directly.
In November 2013, Wine Boxes Etc signed up with ParcelBright, who offer cheap parcel delivery aimed at small to medium sized e-commerce businesses and eBay sellers. By using ParcelBright, Wine Boxes Etc were able to make enough savings on their oversize parcels that they gained a competitive edge on eBay.
ParcelBright tailored their rates to find the optimal prices for Wine Boxes Etc’s parcels, and the cost was reduced to £3.99 inc VAT a go. That’s a saving of £5.99 on every item sold, or just shy of £3600 per month. ParcelBright also offered them next day delivery (up to 25kg) for £5.99 inc VAT.
Now, on eBay, Wine Boxes Etc has a fiercely positive feedback rating of over 7560 points. By tapping into this very specific market, the business was able to scale up quickly and now lists many tens of item variations on eBay at any time – different styles of wine boxes, different ages, different quantities. They’ve even started to sell other French vintage items that would suit customers who enjoyed their original offering. Good move!
“ParcelBright beat the prices of the competitors allowing me to reduce my rates so I now have a lead in the marketplace ”, said Matt, who runs Wine Boxes Etc.
“Lower prices and personal service from the director – very friendly and have the ‘can do’ attitude”.
