Category Specific Delivery Methods/Size Based Delivery Royal Mail Large Letter v Small Parcel Prices

2 votes

On 21 August 2006 Royal Mail Royal Mail introduced size based postage costs. Category specific delivery costs would make more sense.

A 250g large letter is currently £3.45 whereas a 250g parcel is currently £5.55

Why can't EKM be the first to modernize and resolve this 16 year old snafu?

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2006/aug/21/postalservice.business

Not planned Delivery Suggested by: Jonathan Limbert (29 Jul, '22) • Upvoted: 09 Aug, '22 • Comments: 3

Comments: 3

01 Dec, '23
Eve Bolan Admin
Hi Jon, this suggestion has been marked as 'not planned' as the Royal Mail's pricing system can still be configured into the delivery methods on your EKM online shop.
02 Dec, '23
Jonathan
Hi Eve,
I don't always use Royal Mail but if I did it would still not be possible. I have asked this many times and nobody at EKM has told me how it can be done. In fact I was told to request it on the suggestion board.

If it is now possible could you please tell me how to configure a price for a 500 gram large letter at £4.45 and a 500 gram small parcel £5.39 to UK because the customer will always pick the cheaper option if there are two prices for a 500g item.

And the same overseas, for example to USA a 500g Large letter costs £13.30 and a 500g small parcel costs £23.75... How can this be configured across site?

If a customer is buying a large format magazine bigger than a Large Letter and they don't select the correct postage cost and go for the cheapest (like most people do) I will lose over £10 posting it.

Since I joined in 2011 I've had this problem and not once has anyone at EKM ever managed to configure it.

Thanks

Jon
04 Dec, '23
Eve Bolan Admin
Hi Jon,
To set this up to work, you would set up your weight-based delivery methods, using the weights and prices for letters - the cheapest option of the two (letters and parcels) from the Royal Mail. Then - and this does take some time, but bear with me - you would need to export your products to a spreadsheet and highlight all the products you know would be 'parcel only'. If you scroll along the row for each parcel-only product, you'll see columns for each of the Delivery Methods you have set up where you can add additional charges.
In the case of a single 500g product, if it was a 'large letter', it would not require additional charges and would accrue the relevant costs in the delivery method = £4.45. However, if the item was a parcel-only product, the additional charge you would add to your spreadsheet would be 94p. This is the difference between large letter £4.45 and small parcel £5.39. Repeat this on each delivery method. Hope this helps! :)