# Setting up an online business



## [email protected] (Apr 28, 2011)

Well my mrss wants to setup her own online business selling house hold cleaning products but the problem we're having is that most sites offer couriers charge of only £4.00 to £5.99 how are people doing this??

all the products are 5L thats adds up to about 5.5kg i think...

Any help would be grate

Thanks Dan


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## [email protected] (Apr 28, 2011)

Also some offer free shipping how does this one work also?


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## DE 1981 (Aug 17, 2007)

Pretty simple really the free shipping is built into the cost of the products, many make big claims about free shipping which normally coincides with price increases on products.


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## [email protected] (Apr 28, 2011)

DE 1981 said:


> Pretty simple really the free shipping is built into the cost of the products, many make big claims about free shipping which normally coincides with price increases on products.


that isn't how we want to do it.

I'd like to offer a fixed price.


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## MrBoJangles (Feb 18, 2011)

To make a business work online, in terms of shifting stock, you need to be moving around 50 items a day. That's when you can negotiate lower courier fees. The only other way to do it is to make a loss on your postage. It's not as easy as it seems. Ebay can be a better bet until you're well established.


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## MrBoJangles (Feb 18, 2011)

Also bear in mind.... some couriers won't ship cleaning products of a certain kind, and some won't ship liquids at all.


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## DMH-01 (Mar 29, 2011)

The more business you give the courier, the bigger the discount they give you.


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## justina3 (Jan 11, 2008)

also people use free postage on ebay to ensure there sellers dashboard doesnt allow the buyer to vote on postage and packing prices


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## chrisibiza (Aug 6, 2008)

The more you ship the cheaper the postage will be per item. I work for a large online retailler and shipping liquids is probably one of the hardest things to post as they can break in transit.

Also check with the courier you are going to use that they will accept the items you are sending like aerosols etc.


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## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

All companies pay postage - some build the costs into their products and offer free shipping. Others make their products artificially cheap then subsidize them by inflating the cost of postage or others just pass on their costs.

You can set your web page up to auto calculate your shipping costs and just pass them on. If you want to offer shipping cheaper than your costs you NEED to estimate what your average customer will buy - you could offer free shipping (avg cost £8) and add 50p to each product to cover the costs thinking each person will buy 16 products on average...but if each customer buys on average 3 products you will be majorly out of pocket!

On the other hand if you plan to sell bulk quantities with your added 50p per item and free postage you uncompetitive to people buying 100 items as they're effectively paying 100x50p for postage.


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## mrwall (Jan 31, 2011)

I work for a company with 300+ branches, they turned over a BILLION last year, we pay around £4.00 for a non guaranteed next day with either DHL (now called YODEL?)
or TNT, so I reckon half the postage/courier price is built in to the online prices already.


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