Cost of Shipping Goods To UK (Maybe from Northern Ireland)

bigalk

Hi guys,

I'm wondering if any business owners out there have managed to get shipping rates to the UK that are affordable enough to make competing with UK companies viable?

One option I am considering is sending a van to NI once a week, to deliver a bulk lot of items to a courier depot there as it seems that if i cross the border with the goods i should be able to get very reduced rates, as i am now shipping "within UK"

Has anyone had an experience or is dealing with a courier who might be able to help me? Some of my parcels can be (reasonably) large or heavy, or both.

JMR

bigalk wrote: »

Hi guys,

I'm wondering if any business owners out there have managed to get shipping rates to the UK that are affordable enough to make competing with UK companies viable?

One option I am considering is sending a van to NI once a week, to deliver a bulk lot of items to a courier depot there as it seems that if i cross the border with the goods i should be able to get very reduced rates, as i am now shipping "within UK"

Has anyone had an experience or is dealing with a courier who might be able to help me? Some of my parcels can be (reasonably) large or heavy, or both.

I run an eCommerce business and store products in the UK as well as in Ireland. From each I can achieve next day delivery within the region at a reasonable price. Might be an option for you....?

VincePP

bigalk wrote: »

Hi guys,

I'm wondering if any business owners out there have managed to get shipping rates to the UK that are affordable enough to make competing with UK companies viable?

One option I am considering is sending a van to NI once a week, to deliver a bulk lot of items to a courier depot there as it seems that if i cross the border with the goods i should be able to get very reduced rates, as i am now shipping "within UK"

Has anyone had an experience or is dealing with a courier who might be able to help me? Some of my parcels can be (reasonably) large or heavy, or both.

You would need to consider the vat implications of this - if shipped from within UK you will charge UK vat. On a vat inspection you would need to show where you exported direct to the customer.

All the parcel delivery services offer good rates to UK and europe if you have the volume. DPD charge me €6.50 + VAT for UK up to 20kg and €9 - €11 for most "near Europe" countries (Germany, Benelux France etc.) Nightline tried to get our business and were willing to match, but not beat those rates.

I find substantially more business from Germany / Austria / France than UK and I also find UK customers are quite dishonest. (we weigh and photograph every UK parcel due to fraudulent claims - but don't do this for any other country)

bigalk

Hi @ VincePP - tried to pm you there but "VincePP has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her."

any thoughts?

VincePP

bigalk wrote: »

Hi @ VincePP - tried to pm you there but "VincePP has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her."

any thoughts?

simply contact the main players - DPD, GLS, Nightline and get them to give you a quote.

bigalk

Hi Vince,

i have been in contact with different companies on various occasions, but the barrier is that i wont have the volumes at the start to make this affordable to ship - a eral chicken and egg situation. I presume you had the same issue when you started. Any advice on how you crossed this hurdle?

kevin212

There is a company providing a royal mail service within Ireland they are operating throughout Dublin and i know of a few companies which drop their items off or have set collection times if the volume is there its a pretty efficient 3 day service

bigalk

Hi Kevin212 - thanks for the comment and could you pm me the details. sounds like exactly what Im after!

VincePP

bigalk wrote: »

Hi Vince,

i have been in contact with different companies on various occasions, but the barrier is that i wont have the volumes at the start to make this affordable to ship - a eral chicken and egg situation. I presume you had the same issue when you started. Any advice on how you crossed this hurdle?

I built up a local Irish business first and rates gradually reduced - hoping for a further reduction this month.

Once we had built up Irish business we felt we could manage UK & Europe, so it was easy enough to get good rates.

Always good to concentrate and get one market rght and then use that experience for other markets. Germany, Netherlands, France and Austria give us more business than UK, so we tend not to target the UK much and plenty selling similar products there. For some reason Europeans prefer to deal with an Irish company than a UK company - we also have 3 staff with very good German & French, so even if the German, Austrian & French customers email us in English, we'll reply in German or French.

So its something to look at if your product suits a mainland European market. Be very aware of quite dishonest UK customers who will claim a product is not delivered or is broken or is missing from the box - so signature on delvery is essential and its also a requirement to prove valid credit card payment if there was a dispute.

bigalk

Hi Vince,

thanks very much. there are some very valuable comments in there and duly noted. I am particular intrigued by your comments re the UK market. I think we may have face similar issues - UK is highly competitive with the ranges we plan to sell there and with the hassles you mention i think we may concentrate our efforts on the continent where we can get better margin, and less problems!

One last question - did you go with a multi language strategy on your site to target Europe? If so did you go with multi domains or did you stick with an .ie or .com?

Particulary interested to see if you are reaching Europe with a .ie domain!

thanks again!

VincePP

just .ie but we have a very good seo and web manager (full time staff) and within the ranges we carry we stock "unusual" items that a regular stockist may not carry, hence if that item gets searched for, we appear in search and we have "European Delivery" within some code somewhere. we also do paid search.

With Europe so big, you don't need a lot of search hits to get a decent number of customers.

No multi language - google will translate if people want, but most Europeans have a good grasp of English. They also tend to have a liking for Ireland, so that helps too.