UK readers may well have seen headlines saying that the cost of postage within the UK is to increase by 30%. This is only a headline figure that applies to inland first class postage stamps. Regrettably the increase for small packets and parcels (the mainstay of our business) is considerably more. Prices for this category will increase in some cases by a whopping 80% within the UK, and even higher for overseas. Furthermore the costs of posting to European countries, that used to be on a par with the UK, will now have their own costs charged by Royal Mail and the less expensive airmail small packet rate has been discontinued. In the past we have absorbed cost increased such as VAT and supplier costs where possible. We have not instigated a price increase of our own products for many years; for example, a set of our needles today costs the same as in 2006 when we bought the needle making business. Sadly, we are unable to fully absorb increases like these exceptional postal charges, and will need to partly pass on, however regrettable some of the increases. The cost that we pass on in postage and packing is only, in most cases a contribution to our costs, even now they don’t cover the full costs.
So what does this mean for us and more importantly you?
Well we have thought about this a lot and decided that we think it fairer that the items attracting more of the postal increase should be charged accordingly. Without going into complex detail, the postage increases are not particularly driven by the value of the items, but by size and weight of the parcel. It is possible for us to weigh and measure everything then let the web shop calculate the postage costs at the end of your shopping. However, we have rejected this option as we feel you would rather know if you spend x it will fall into a defined postage band that you can check before you start. So we will be keeping our postage bands based on value and country of destination. We will however continue to send all overseas parcels by airmail.
As stated above one of the main drivers of the postage cost in the UK is the size of the parcel. For example, a set of flat knitting needles is less costly to post than a ball of crochet cotton. Given that we are sticking with our value based postage bands then the only way to make larger size items carry their fair share of postage costs is to slightly increase the cost of those larger items themselves. That way some of the additional shipping cost will be spread across the bulkier items and not unfairly penalise the less bulky items.
Postage and packing increases in detail.
PLEASE NOTE: All orders received after 12 noon BST on Friday 27th April 2012 the following new postal rates will apply.
UK:
Orders up to £ 7.50 postage is £ 2.50
Orders of £7.51 to £14.99 postage is £3.00
Orders of 15.00 to £24.99 postage is £3.50
Orders over £25.00 postage is £ 4.00
Europe:
Orders up to £ 7.50 postage is £ 4.00
Orders of £7.51 to £24.99 postage is £6.50
Orders over £25.00 postage is £ 8.00
Rest of the World:*
Orders up to £7.50 postage is £4.50,
Orders of £7.51 to £24.99 postage is £ 9.00,
Over £25.00 postage is £ 12.00.
* Royal Mail will in fact have two charging bands for the rest of the world, zone 1 and zone 2, with zone 2 being more expensive based on geographical location. Our postage rates however for the rest of the world are based on the lower zone 1 costs and we will bear the higher costs where applicable.
We regret having to take this action and had the increases been more manageable would have considered absorbing all the costs again. We still believe even with the new postage rates we offer excellent value for money and an easy way to shop online. It goes without saying that these increases make our Ravelry online pattern shop even better value for money with no postage costs at all and immediate availability. We hope that you continue to enjoy shopping with us from the comfort of home (or work!) despite these unavoidable increases.
