BREXIT... and sending parcels to the UK.

Scotty # · 09-10-2020 10:16am #1

I'm amazed that with only two months to go there aren't more active threads on Board's business section or even a sub-forum dedicated to Brexit discussion and it's implications to small traders in ROI shipping to the UK.

Anyway, I have a small business based in Ireland. As part of that business I have a UK ecommerce website that's been running about 10 years. We send between 5 and 15 parcels a day to the UK (currently using DPD) with an avg order value of about £250.

We sell both B2B and B2C. If the purchaser is VAT reg'd in the UK we get their VAT number and apply Intra-community Supply (0%VAT) and submit to Revenue through VIES. For everyone else, we apply Ireland's VAT rate.

We already have an EORI as we have shipped some orders outside the EU in the past.

My brother is Operations Manager in Ireland for a large global freight company and he's taken on 12 extra staff to deal with Brexit. They charge €90 for each customs clearance processed.

So really I'm wondering, do other small exporters to the UK believe it'll still be worth it to keep exporting after 1st January considering the amount of extra paperwork and hoops we'll have to jump through? Do you for see a huge cost increase in shipping to the UK?

Luckily we don't depend on UK sales to keep us afloat but I wouldn't like to lose them either. I just can't see it being worth out while come January. Anyone else in the same boat?

Of course, after 4 years, and with only two months to go, this could all change as there's still no agreement set in place between UK and EU.

tacofries · 09-10-2020 2:07pm

Uk fulfillment centers offer great deals. I get UK postage for £3.55 including courier (Hermes admittedly), picking and labelling. Would it be worth your while sending stock over in bulk?

Scotty # · 09-10-2020 2:42pm

Hmm, good idea but how will these work post Brexi for non UK businesses?

Won't the goods have to clear customs before going to the fulfilment centre? Who is the importer then? and liable for the duty? I'd imagine this could be even more cumbersome than for those of us who ship straight to the importer.

My products are large and many are bespoke so it's not really an option for me anyway.

I wonder what Amazon and other large UK retailers who sell direct into Ireland are going to do? Will it be down to the postman/courier to collect the duty like it currently is for USA/China purchases?

I recently had to pay €9 on a US purchase to the DHL courier. The admin fee to collect the €9 was €14.

tacofries · 09-10-2020 3:44pm

I imagine you would have to get them through customs and pay the duty but at least it would only be for one bulk shipment rather than loads of individual orders?

Amazon was looking for an Irish warehouse early this year so who knows what they'd be up to- I hope to god they never actually follow through with it as retailers will be put under even more of a strain.

Darc19 · 10-10-2020 11:23pm

Scotty # wrote: »

I wonder what Amazon and other large UK retailers who sell direct into Ireland are going to do? Will it be down to the postman/courier to collect the duty like it currently is for USA/China purchases?

I recently had to pay €9 on a US purchase to the DHL courier. The admin fee to collect the €9 was €14.

DHL charged you €14 to do the customs entry paperwork, makes no difference whether it's €9 or €900

Large companies will do preclearance and charge you an inclusive price.

The leaders in this is based in Swords eshopworld - all done automatically.

Scotty # · 11-10-2020 10:29am

I'm familiar with eshopworld, old family friends, but there's still going to be customs charges, duty, and related admin fees no matter who processes the sale. Cost to the consumer will have to go up no matter what. This is going to be disastrous for thousands of small Irish businesses who sell into the UK. And, we'll have the reverse for all those UK retailers selling into Ireland, Screwfix, Sportsdirect, Boohoo, etc, etc...

The only positive I can see is that it may encourage Irish consumers to look for Irish retailers. Currently, for every €4 spent online, €3 is spent outside Ireland. It's a MASSIVE amount of wealth leaving our economy every day.

Darc19 · 11-10-2020 1:49pm

Scotty # wrote: »

I'm familiar with eshopworld, old family friends, but there's still going to be customs charges, duty, and related admin fees no matter who processes the sale. Cost to the consumer will have to go up no matter what. This is going to be disastrous for thousands of small Irish businesses who sell into the UK. And, we'll have the reverse for all those UK retailers selling into Ireland, Screwfix, Sportsdirect, Boohoo, etc, etc...

The only positive I can see is that it may encourage Irish consumers to look for Irish retailers. Currently, for every €4 spent online, €3 is spent outside Ireland. It's a MASSIVE amount of wealth leaving our economy every day.

Get over this bs of thousands of small Irish businesses selling to the uk and dependent on it. It doesn't exist.

A couple of hundred possibly, but I even doubt that.
A family member has an online business and they sell more to Slovakia than the UK. I think the UK is in the bottom 5 of countries she ships to (her online turnover is about €2m)

If people open their eyes, it means that all those uk companies they are competing with suddenly have barriers for both Irish consumers and European consumers. That's a phenomenal positive.

I know my sister is taking extra warehouse space as she expects to be selling a lot more to other eu countries once brexit is finalised.

People have to get over this dreadful irish trait of glass half full.

antoinolachtnai · 12-10-2020 11:29am

The OP is sort of in the bracket where things will be difficult. These sorts of trades would have been very difficult pre-single market. It is good that you have B2B customers. If you had regular customers that are in your 'trade', the least capital-intensive way to do this would be for an existing B2B customer to act on your behalf. They handle the import technicalities for you and then ship on to the actual customers.

You might even be able to find someone who will 'buy' your UK trade off you in one form or the other. Whether this is worth your or their while at this scale is another question. Depends on the margin I suppose.

Obviously the costs of this will either have to be passed on absorbed. And for bespoke items it is going to increase the lead time. But this is the case no matter what way you do it.

There might be some way to easily access the GB market via a northern ireland intermediary. Who knows? That is politically up in the air.

My suggestion would be to talk to as many potential partners as possible.

Whether brexit opens up potential gaps in new markets beyond the UK is an interesting question, but a separate question.

Scotty # · 12-10-2020 8:01pm

Darc19 wrote: »

Get over this bs of thousands of small Irish businesses selling to the uk and dependent on it.

A family member has an online business and they sell more to Slovakia than the UK.

2019 Imports From Ireland
Slovakia - $128M
UK - $17,000M +

The vast majority of Irish companies who ship to consumers abroad do so to the UK. That's what the thread is about.

Scotty # · 12-10-2020 8:10pm

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

You might even be able to find someone who will 'buy' your UK trade off you in one form or the other. Whether this is worth your or their while at this scale is another question. Depends on the margin I suppose.

This is something we've looked at before (pre-brexit) and may be something we look at again but I don't think the margins are there.

GLS sent out some info over the last few days. Here's a screenshot of their new system for UK parcels showing all the info you'll have to submit...

You can opt to assume all charges or let the receiver pay. They don't say what the extra admin charges will be though. Tariff codes are a pain in the ass too as one order might need several codes.

Any price increase or reduction in margins will make the UK unprofitable for me. Thankfully it's only a very small part of the business. Not one I'd like to lose all the same.

Scotty # · 12-10-2020 8:14pm

tacofries wrote: »

Uk fulfillment centers offer great deals. I get UK postage for £3.55 including courier (Hermes admittedly), picking and labelling. Would it be worth your while sending stock over in bulk?

I looked into this a bit more. Whoever you use will have to be 'bonded'. You should check that whoever you're using is.

tacofries · 12-10-2020 8:18pm

Scotty # wrote: »

I looked into this a bit more. Whoever you use will have to be 'bonded'. You should check that whoever you're using is.

Interesting. Are you sure that I need a bonded warehouse as we have a UK vat number?

Darc19 · 12-10-2020 8:20pm

Scotty # wrote: »

2019 Imports From Ireland
Slovakia - $128M
UK - $17,000M +

The vast majority of Irish companies who ship to consumers abroad do so to the UK. That's what the thread is about.

This thread is about a small online business sending parcels to the uk post brexit.

If it was a general brexit business thread, you'd be correct. But there are not a huge number of UK dependent small online retailers here.

tacofries · 12-10-2020 9:26pm

Darc19 wrote: »

This thread is about a small online business sending parcels to the uk post brexit.

If it was a general brexit business thread, you'd be correct. But there are not a huge number of UK dependent small online retailers here.

In fairness I would be very confident in saying that the vast majority of small Irish ecommerce companies sell much more to the UK than they do to Slovakia or most other EU states.

Scotty # · 12-10-2020 10:00pm

tacofries wrote: »

Interesting. Are you sure that I need a bonded warehouse as we have a UK vat number?

No. I suppose it depends on what way you run the business. Are you importing from the EU into your UK based business or are you exporting from the EU just to store it until sale? If your just storing it then as far as I can tell, you'll need to use a bonded warehouse.

I never registered for a UK VAT number although I'd be well over the threshold but it's never been questioned. If my customer is not VAT registered I charge them VAT as normal and if they are VAT registered they can enter their VAT number during checkout and I'll submit it to VIES.

Darc19 · 12-10-2020 10:57pm

tacofries wrote: »

In fairness I would be very confident in saying that the vast majority of small Irish ecommerce companies sell much more to the UK than they do to Slovakia or most other EU states.

That would be true, but the poster said that it would be "disastrous" for "thousands" of small Irish businesses.

That is a wild exaggeration and nothing from any source gives any credibility to this statement.

tacofries · 12-10-2020 11:10pm

Scotty # wrote: »

No. I suppose it depends on what way you run the business. Are you importing from the EU into your UK based business or are you exporting from the EU just to store it until sale? If your just storing it then as far as I can tell, you'll need to use a bonded warehouse.

I never registered for a UK VAT number although I'd be well over the threshold but it's never been questioned. If my customer is not VAT registered I charge them VAT as normal and if they are VAT registered they can enter their VAT number during checkout and I'll submit it to VIES.

Is it not mandatory to register for vat once you're over the threshold!? I'd be careful and double check.

3% difference in vat between the 2 countries so if your doing a good volume it could beworth your while especially if your using Facebook ads to drive sales.

Scotty # · 13-10-2020 12:37am

Darc19 wrote: »

That is a wild exaggeration and nothing from any source gives any credibility to this statement.

From the Central Statistics Office, 2017 (LINK)

There were 6,719 enterprises who exported goods to the UK in 2017, 78% of the total number of exporters. 3,214 enterprises, almost half of the enterprises who exported to the UK, traded with the UK only.

Approximately 50% of the total value of exports to the UK in 2017 was from SMEs, with a value of €8.1 billion. Large enterprises exported €7.6 billion of goods to the UK.

SMEs make up the large majority of the number of enterprises exporting to the UK, at 97% of the total number of UK exporters. Micro enterprises alone make up over half the number of firms exporting to the UK.

Exports to the UK in 2017 were €16 billion in total.

Exports-to-the-UK-by-size-of-Enterprise-CSO-Central-Statistics-Office-2020-10-13-00-14-50.png

Exports-to-the-UK-by-size-of-Enterprise-CSO-Central-Statistics-Office-2020-10-13-00-14-50.png

No wild exaggeration. Almost 6,000 small and micro businesses export to the UK.

Scotty # · 13-10-2020 9:27am

tacofries wrote: »

Is it not mandatory to register for vat once you're over the threshold!? I'd be careful and double check.

3% difference in vat between the 2 countries so if your doing a good volume it could beworth your while especially if your using Facebook ads to drive sales.

Mandatory is a strong word. I'm supposed to but I'm not sure if I'm legally obliged to. The threshold is £85,000 and I'd be well over. I'd rather charge the VAT in Ireland and give it to Irish Revenue. I've been submitting VIES figures to Revenue here for 10 years and they've never mentioned it. I'd imagine most Irish companies selling direct to the end user in the UK are not VAT registered there.

Regardless, that will all change on the 1st January and we'll have no choice but to allow UK Revenue to collect it.

Scotty # · 13-10-2020 9:57am

FYI, for anyone looking up Tariff Codes, I've tried several sites but by far the easiest to use is the UK Gov's own site... https://www.check-future-uk-trade-tariffs.service.gov.uk/

Thankfully most of my products are 0%.

FutureGuy · 02-11-2020 2:45pm

Scotty # wrote: »

FYI, for anyone looking up Tariff Codes, I've tried several sites but by far the easiest to use is the UK Gov's own site... https://www.check-future-uk-trade-tariffs.service.gov.uk/

Thankfully most of my products are 0%.

That is hugely useful!

Darc19 · 02-11-2020 4:18pm

Scotty # wrote: »

From the Central Statistics Office, 2017 (LINK)
There were 6,719 enterprises who exported goods to the UK in 2017, 78% of the total number of exporters. 3,214 enterprises, almost half of the enterprises who exported to the UK, traded with the UK only.

Approximately 50% of the total value of exports to the UK in 2017 was from SMEs, with a value of €8.1 billion. Large enterprises exported €7.6 billion of goods to the UK.

SMEs make up the large majority of the number of enterprises exporting to the UK, at 97% of the total number of UK exporters. Micro enterprises alone make up over half the number of firms exporting to the UK.

Exports to the UK in 2017 were €16 billion in total.

No wild exaggeration. Almost 6,000 small and micro businesses export to the UK.

The poster said it would be disastrous for "thousands of small Irish businesses"

It won't be.

Most of them will be well able to cope and fill in customs forms.

You are jumping between "small online sellers" (very few would depend on the uk) and general sme's (companies with up to 250 employees and turnover of up to €50m)

And for the vast majority of of these, brexit will not be disastrous as the information and support available is substantial.

Scotty # · 02-11-2020 5:28pm

Darc19 wrote: »

...

Have you any useful information to share regarding the implications Brexit is going the to have on small Irish businesses (c.3800 of them) who sell into the UK? Any at all?

antoinolachtnai · 02-11-2020 6:12pm

Scotty # wrote: »

Have you any useful information to share regarding the implications Brexit is going the to have on small Irish businesses (c.3800 of them) who sell into the UK? Any at all?

How are you getting on with it in your own experience?

Scotty # · 03-11-2020 6:07pm

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

How are you getting on with it in your own experience?

I intend to cease trading in the UK in mid December unless a deal is struck between now and then.

We operate on smaller margins in the UK and any increase in the cost of doing business will make it not worth while. I expect parcel deliveries to increase by at least €15-€20 with admin fees for clearance.

You also have the added time and expense with filling out customs declarations (BTW: Even if you're final destination is not the UK, Slovakia for example, if your parcel travels via the UK (as almost all euro parcels from Ireland currently do) you will have to provide customs declarations).

Then there's the fact that UK consumers will be less likely to purchase from outside the UK knowing they're going to get a VAT/customs bill on delivery. If they wish to return an item they will have to chase UK Revenue themselves to get the VAT/excise back.

All in all it's just not worth the trouble for me. The UK only makes up a very small part of our business. If I lose it I won't have to let anyone go. But if I want to keep going I'd likely have to take someone on to look after it.

I may look at setting up a UK company in a few months when we have a better idea of what's going on and things have become more streamlined. As it stands, you can register for VAT in the UK as long as at least one company director lives in the EU. I don't know how this will work after Brexit. Will you still be able to register for VAT in the UK without having any entity there? I don't know?

Scotty # · 05-11-2020 5:10pm

Interesting update from DPD today...

They WILL NOT be delivering orders of less than GB£135 B2C unless you are VAT registered in the UK and have already collected the VAT at POS. They will deliver goods <£135 B2B as long as you have your customers VAT No.

I wonder will this be the same UK → Eire?

You can register for VAT in the UK here > https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-application-for-registration-distance-selling-vat1a

They've also already opened direct lines to the EU so you'll bypass the UK and won't need to complete customs clearance.

JMR · 06-11-2020 5:31pm

I run a sideline ecommerce business, selling 95% to Ireland and the UK.
We currently use both an Irish based fulfillment house and a UK based one, this was primarily put in place to guarantee next day delivery, which is highly important for our product range.
I had been thinking of pulling it all back to Ireland as the Irish fulfillment house can now achieve next day delivery to the UK, this would simplify the business greatly.
I have trialled it and it works, I am only slow to make it permanent due to the uncertainty around Brexit. Thoughts?

The real question I have is around opening up EU markets to counter the loss of UK trade.
How have others done it? We have both a .ie and .co.uk website as I viewed this as important for each target market at time of setup.
Have others found ways of growing sales to other EU countries - language barriers etc?

Scotty # · 07-11-2020 10:27am

JMR wrote: »

Have others found ways of growing sales to other EU countries - language barriers etc?

You seem to have a fairly small range of products and products that are packaged small physically so Amazon might be a good option for you. Fees are 15% per item though plus a monthly sub.

https://services.amazon.co.uk/services/sell-online/how-it-works.html

andrewfaulk · 16-11-2020 4:46pm

JMR wrote: »

I run a sideline ecommerce business, selling 95% to Ireland and the UK.
We currently use both an Irish based fulfillment house and a UK based one, this was primarily put in place to guarantee next day delivery, which is highly important for our product range.
I had been thinking of pulling it all back to Ireland as the Irish fulfillment house can now achieve next day delivery to the UK, this would simplify the business greatly.
I have trialled it and it works, I am only slow to make it permanent due to the uncertainty around Brexit. Thoughts?

The real question I have is around opening up EU markets to counter the loss of UK trade.
How have others done it? We have both a .ie and .co.uk website as I viewed this as important for each target market at time of setup.
Have others found ways of growing sales to other EU countries - language barriers etc?

The real question I would have is if you Irish based fulfillment partner can give the next day service into the UK AFTER Brexit.. It may be possible now, but after will be a whole different ball game

tacofries · 17-11-2020 1:46am

JMR wrote: »

The real question I have is around opening up EU markets to counter the loss of UK trade.
How have others done it? We have both a .ie and .co.uk website as I viewed this as important for each target market at time of setup.
Have others found ways of growing sales to other EU countries - language barriers etc?

Regarding pulling back fulfillment to Ireland, I would keep your UK fulfillment company on board till late January at the earliest. Around then, I would do a trial for a few days where all UK orders are shipped from Ireland. This should be easy to set up on your website. If the Irish company works then continue to use them although I would still hold a small amount of stock in the UK for a while incase things go down hill. If the trial doesn't work then just revert your website to the old shipping settings and continue using your UK fulfilment company.

Language isn't too much of a barrier when selling to other EU countries but I imagine this is dependent on the product that you are selling. We get our marketing material translated on Fiverr.com and our website was translated by Star Translations (marketing material doesnt need to be 100% perfect unless you have the money and time to invest in getting it done professionally however your website should be perfect even to a native speaker). We actually got foreign voiceovers made on Fiverr.com also which we used on our videos which were originally in English.

When a customer email comes in, Gmail will automatically translate it for you and we found that foreign customers do not mind whatsoever when you reply in English. None of my staff speak a language other than English yet without issue we are dealing with foreign customers daily.

The hard part is finding companies that can consistently deliver internationally within a few days at a reasonable cost. We ended up using a fulfilment centre in Germany as it reduced delivery costs by 15% and allows us to offer next day delivery.

If you want to test a new market, I would advise using An Post Express for the delivery. Its not the best but its reasonable value and it gives you a cheap and quick way of understanding if the foreign market has an appetite for your product. If the market shows strong potential then ship stock in bulk to a fulfilment centre in the given country. It will reduce you customer service requirements 10 fold as you won't be dealing with endless customer complaints about where their parcel is.

Also just to note, Amazon can be pretty good in foreign countries. Their FBA fulfillment costs are cheap. If you are selling on your own website you will probably need to use PayPal, or at least try it out for a while, as it seems to be more popular then it is in Ireland.

JMR · 17-12-2020 9:28am

As an update to this, our Irish fulfillment partner has confirmed last week that the carrier currently used for next day to the UK has decided to exit the Irish market altogether.

For us, that leaves An Post, GLS and DHL for tracked to the UK with both An Post and GLS feeding into the Parcelforce (Royal Mail) network, which is less than reliable.

DHL prices quoted are €12.25 standard road (up to 6 working days!) and €22.11 next day, with further levies expected to be added to these prices.

All our products are < 1kg.

We will be retaining our fulfillment partner in the UK. What are others doing to combat the increased delivery charges?

Scotty # · 17-12-2020 10:49am

I've given up on GLS entirely. They've been disastrous during lockdown taking it upon themselves to decide that businesses are closed and returning parcels to us the day after they've been shipped.

An Post are much better but are too expensive.

I use DPD exclusively now which I've found to be very good overall.

One major problem I'm having though is that they are not obtaining signatures during the pandemic and are sometimes putting down the drivers name rather than the receivers name. I've had a small number of customers complain (one a month after the fact) that they never received the parcel (some >€500 worth) and with no sig it's hard to provide a POD. Thankfully, so far, in all cases the parcel has been found to have been delivered.

I'm having second thought now about quitting the UK as it's been so busy the last few weeks (I'm not seasonal). I've asked the accountant about Brexit and he'd no idea. I'm applying for UK Vat this week.

tacofries · 17-12-2020 11:13am

Fastway are performing brilliantly for me these days!

Make sure to get an EORI number (from Irish Revenue).

Scotty # · 17-12-2020 11:28am

Yea I always found Fastway reliable when we used them but unfortunately they only offer a 3 day service to the UK when DPD/GLS is 2 days.

JMR · 17-12-2020 11:35am

Scotty # wrote: »

Yea I always found Fastway reliable when we used them but unfortunately they only offer a 3 day service to the UK when DPD/GLS is 2 days.

Can I ask what prices you are getting from DPD or GLS for 2 day service to the UK and how reliable it is?
Have they indicated that they can maintain this service into next year?

Scotty # · 17-12-2020 11:53am

JMR wrote: »

Can I ask what prices you are getting from DPD or GLS for 2 day service to the UK and how reliable it is?
Have they indicated that they can maintain this service into next year?

DPD (up to 10KG)
€5.62 + 25c Surcharge - ROI (overnight)
€13.50 + 61c Surcharge - UK (2 days)

They will be continuing post Brexit but haven't given prices yet. I presume they, like everyone else, are waiting to see if there's a deal or not.

Interestingly.. GLS weigh every parcel themselves and charge accordingly. DPD don't, they go by the weight you declare on the form.

EDIT: Above prices are ex.VAT

Scotty # · 22-12-2020 12:48pm

Shipping has gone mad.

Just been quoted US$8,500 for a 40ft from China port to port. Normally $2,400.

DPD are switching to their new Brexit ready portal tonight. Today is your last day to ship to the UK without customs declaration, triple invoice attached, your EORI number and the receivers, and Tarric codes for all products.

silver2020 · 22-12-2020 3:27pm

Scotty # wrote: »

Shipping has gone mad.

Just been quoted US$8,500 for a 40ft from China port to port. Normally $2,400.

DPD are switching to their new Brexit ready portal tonight. Today is your last day to ship to the UK without customs declaration, triple invoice attached, your EORI number and the receivers, and Tarric codes for all products.

A UK supplier was quoted $13,000 and was told to expect prices to stay high - he's put a 20% price increase on his products (trade).

If I were an Irish business I'd be looking at the opportunity of additional local business and European business as UK online retailers have traditionally been very strong in selling here and Europe and that is now a problem for them leaving a lot of business to be mopped up.

DPD give very good rates to Europe (€13 - €17 +vat depending on country if you have decent volumes). Charge the customer 11.95 and subsidise the balance.

Scotty # · 22-12-2020 5:44pm

Anyone here already registered for VAT in the UK and selling to UK businesses?

Do you collect their VAT number and use 0% VAT (VIES) or do you just charge them UK VAT at POS?

andrewfaulk · 22-12-2020 8:01pm

silver2020 wrote: »

A UK supplier was quoted $13,000 and was told to expect prices to stay high - he's put a 20% price increase on his products (trade).

If I were an Irish business I'd be looking at the opportunity of additional local business and European business as UK online retailers have traditionally been very strong in selling here and Europe and that is now a problem for them leaving a lot of business to be mopped up.

DPD give very good rates to Europe (€13 - €17 +vat depending on country if you have decent volumes). Charge the customer 11.95 and subsidise the balance.

The shipping lines are charging congestion surcharges to U.K. customers as their ports are in gridlock since October.. Also seeing a lot of U.K. cargo offloaded in Europe as the ships are avoiding it.. Dover is just the tip of the iceberg.. can see U.K. based business losing business had over fist if this continues so a big push in Europe might reap dividends

JMR · 22-12-2020 8:18pm

Scotty # wrote: »

Anyone here already registered for VAT in the UK and selling to UK businesses?

Do you collect their VAT number and use 0% VAT (VIES) or do you just charge them UK VAT at POS?

Yes, charge the applicable UK VAT rate and make return to HMRC

paddylonglegs · 29-12-2020 9:05am

Hi folks,

Following this thread with interest, I must admit I have had my head in the sand a bit when it comes to trading with the uk.

(This is in some way related to this thread, but I have seen some discussion re courier companies here so I would like to ask here first)

I do a small amount of business with the uk of packages ranging from €50 - €150 under 2kg. I have been selling the items as “free shipping” ie, the shipping cost has been included in the overall purchase price. This was upended mid December however when my an post agent told me shipping costs worldwide were basically doubling...

The pre paid tracked labels with An Post have been working great until this year with the Christmas rush. I have been getting constant messages about delayed packages. Some sent on December 2nd are still in a sorting office in Dublin! (Uk or US bound) and others are stuck in sorting offices in their respective countries.

Coupled with the huge jump in costs, I’m starting to look at other courier options. I’m reading here that Dpd seem to be a good option, ideally I would like to avoid the postal services now having seen the backlog. I will be reconfiguring my shipping options now as I can’t absorb the rise in costs.

Where can I begin with getting quotes and comparisons? And overall, who is the most reliable service delivering worldwide?

We all seem to put our heart and souls into getting these products out together and shipped - such a shame falling at the last hurdle when it comes to shipping.

Thanks

Scotty # · 29-12-2020 1:41pm

paddylonglegs wrote: »

my an post agent told me shipping costs worldwide were basically doubling...

Yea I was shocked with the latest quotes I've been getting for 40ft containers from Italy and China. Almost quadruple the normal price. This will have to be added on to the product price of course so expect to see plenty of price hikes in the new year as this stock hits the shelves.

paddylonglegs wrote: »

Where can I begin with getting quotes and comparisons? And overall, who is the most reliable service delivering worldwide?

Couriers are a bit like mobile phone companies etc in that you'll get people who will swear by a brand and others that wouldn't touch that brand. A lot of it depends on how good your pickup driver is and the consignee's delivery driver. Some are really careful and professional and other couldn't give a toss so service and reliability can very hugely from one area to another and one company to another in that area.

Years ago I used Fastway, a good service except minimum of 3 days to the UK. I switched to DPD because of this but they were demons for damaging parcels so I soon switched to GLS. I was very happy with GLS's service until the pandemic broke out and they started to have issues due to volumes. They fell apart and became very unreliable. Note that when you send to the UK with GLS, the parcel is transferred to Parelforce (Royal Mail) in the UK so although you send it out with a courier, it's delivered by the postal service.

So in April I switched back to DPD again and thankfully have had no damaged deliveries as yet. Another thing to note... when I reported a damaged parcel to DPD they always settled the claim and some of them were for several hundred euro. GLS on the other hand, although they damaged far less parcels (less than 1%) they never settled a claim, ever. It was always deemed someone else's fault or not boxed properly or whatever.

DPD have added a few nice features lately, SMS to customer with estimated delivery time, live GPS tracking in some areas, GPS co-ordinates of where the goods were signed for, etc.

If you are sending large volumes you can definitely negotiate better prices. Who is the most reliable? Well I would say it's the big boys, DHL, UPS, Fedex, but expect to pay premium prices with these unless you have volumes.

JMR · 29-12-2020 5:05pm

paddylonglegs wrote: »

I’m starting to look at other courier options. I’m reading here that Dpd seem to be a good option, ideally I would like to avoid the postal services now having seen the backlog. I will be reconfiguring my shipping options now as I can’t absorb the rise in costs.

Where can I begin with getting quotes and comparisons? And overall, who is the most reliable service delivering worldwide?

We all seem to put our heart and souls into getting these products out together and shipped - such a shame falling at the last hurdle when it comes to shipping.

Thanks

Not sure if it suits your business but one of the best decisions I made years ago was to outsource the storage and fulfilment of our products to a fulfilment house.
I use 2flow.ie in Dublin and find them pretty good.

Previously I used the An Post prepaid labels but there was too much manual intervention from myself required to keep it up, as my operation is a side hustle for me.

The fulfilment company use various courier companies as they have relationships with most.
There was actually a saving when switching over to the fulfilment company.
€8.95 next day in Ireland with An Post versus €5.95 with the fulfillment company.

We use a separate UK based company to fulfill UK orders.

I had been trialing the exclusive use of the Irish fulfilment company and next day to the UK was achievable up to this month using APC but they have since pulled out of the Irish market, with the only viable orion remaining being DHL and the cost is prohibitive, so I need to keep the UK fulfilment company.

In general, I find less queries / complaints when the carrier used is DPD, both in Ireland and UK.
GLS are a lesser option, in my opinion.

Agree totally that shipping is a headache and it can be very frustrating that late delivery is by far the biggest complaint that I get and I would imagine most eCommerce businesses are the same.

I would advise, from experience, that it's important not to over-commit to the customer. If your website advertises next day delivery, the customer expects it in their hand the next day, even if the order is placed at 5 to midnight on a Sunday! Be very clear on cutoff times etc and do not bury this detail in the t&c's as it only creates more phone calls

manor · 29-12-2020 8:25pm

Hi.

Could you tell me the name of the UK fulfilment company, looking at options.

Thanks

JMR · 29-12-2020 8:31pm

manor wrote: »

Hi.

Could you tell me the name of the UK fulfilment company, looking at options.

Thanks

We use the following

https://www.sussextransport.com/storage-contract-warehousing-distribution-sussex-and-south-east/pick-and-pack-warehousing

Darc19 · 29-12-2020 10:07pm

paddylonglegs wrote: »

Hi folks,

Following this thread with interest, I must admit I have had my head in the sand a bit when it comes to trading with the uk.

(This is in some way related to this thread, but I have seen some discussion re courier companies here so I would like to ask here first)

I do a small amount of business with the uk of packages ranging from €50 - €150 under 2kg. I have been selling the items as “free shipping” ie, the shipping cost has been included in the overall purchase price. This was upended mid December however when my an post agent told me shipping costs worldwide were basically doubling...

The pre paid tracked labels with An Post have been working great until this year with the Christmas rush. I have been getting constant messages about delayed packages. Some sent on December 2nd are still in a sorting office in Dublin! (Uk or US bound) and others are stuck in sorting offices in their respective countries.

Coupled with the huge jump in costs, I’m starting to look at other courier options. I’m reading here that Dpd seem to be a good option, ideally I would like to avoid the postal services now having seen the backlog. I will be reconfiguring my shipping options now as I can’t absorb the rise in costs.

Where can I begin with getting quotes and comparisons? And overall, who is the most reliable service delivering worldwide?

We all seem to put our heart and souls into getting these products out together and shipped - such a shame falling at the last hurdle when it comes to shipping.

Thanks

Your best option is DHL. They'll offer air and road service. Good value for weights under 2kg.

An post like all postal services use scheduled flights and these were very badly affected. A decent freight / post agent should have known this and advised you.

Dpd are excellent for European destinations

JMR · 29-12-2020 11:12pm

Darc19 wrote: »

Your best option is DHL. They'll offer air and road service. Good value for weights under 2kg.

DHL prices I have been quoted for UK are €12.25 standard road (up to 6 working days!) and €22.11 next day, with further levies expected to be added to these prices.

paddylonglegs · 30-12-2020 12:41am

Thanks for the great advice. This gives me something solid to work with and begin to plan.

The fulfilment centres are a good idea, but most of the work is bespoke do doesn’t allow for it.

Thanks again

Darc19 · 30-12-2020 8:35am

JMR wrote: »

DHL prices I have been quoted for UK are €12.25 standard road (up to 6 working days!) and €22.11 next day, with further levies expected to be added to these prices.

Possibly your volumes are not high enough for a competitive quote.

Chicken and egg.

They tried to get our European business and UK was under €8 for 5kg. Dpd still beat them.

If it's just Europe and UK, then dpd will be hard to beat. But if other parts of the world are part of the business, DHL will be the best option at present.

paddylonglegs · 01-01-2021 1:26pm

Darc19 wrote: »

Possibly your volumes are not high enough for a competitive quote.

Chicken and egg.

They tried to get our European business and UK was under €8 for 5kg. Dpd still beat them.

If it's just Europe and UK, then dpd will be hard to beat. But if other parts of the world are part of the business, DHL will be the best option at present.

It may be worthwhile looking at one courier for Uk/Europe and one for rest of world? Or does that split things up to give less volume for each courier?

I’m hoping to be sending 20 to 25 packs per week this year

BREXIT... and sending parcels to the UK.

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