Postage Price Increase Incoming?

Jewellery Maker has increased their postage price to £4.95 per day.

I'm wondering if they'll apply the same on Gems TV in the near future?

The last time JM increased their postage price, Gems TV followed - although it was much later (maybe a good 18 months or so?).

When postage was £2.95 on Jewellery Maker, it was good value for money. £3.95 was just about OK. Now, charging £4.95p to send a small strand in a jiffy bag is excessive in my view - and I think that could cause a further decline on a channel that appears to have declined in recent years anyway.

If they do the same on Gems TV, it could be the final nail in the coffin I think. £4.95p would still be good value for money on homewares, where boxes are quite big and heavy - but £4.95 for a gold tone bracelet or a pair of earrings would be taking the mick!

£5 a pop? Bonkers. Will make a mockery of Under £10 hours. Not all, but some people still see P&P as somehow being "extra" to the already silly prices for some items. Every time a presenter says "Where can you get a pizza/coffee/whatever for £7.99?" I always shout "It's not £7.99, It's £11.94!".

Taking into account economies of scale across a day's trading across the Group and assuming that TGGC has negotiated favourable terms with all its carriers, this amounts to an embedded price increase.

Last night, Gem Collector had an hour of "Foxy's Whoppers". What was the predominant stone? Sandstone - yes, sandstone. I can't find quickly another retailer of sandstone cabochons anywhere. At £18 for one, if they added £5, you'd be paying £23 for a pebble. There's something quite wicked about that, if it wasn't laughable.

A company I used to work for won a big order. Unfortunately, they under priced it. The only profit they made was on the freight costs that I’d negotiated down from those originally quoted. I sometimes wonder well actually often wonder if that’s how Gemporia make their profits

TheManWithNoName said:

Jewellery Maker has increased their postage price to £4.95 per day.

I'm wondering if they'll apply the same on Gems TV in the near future?

The last time JM increased their postage price, Gems TV followed - although it was much later (maybe a good 18 months or so?).

When postage was £2.95 on Jewellery Maker, it was good value for money. £3.95 was just about OK. Now, charging £4.95p to send a small strand in a jiffy bag is excessive in my view - and I think that could cause a further decline on a channel that appears to have declined in recent years anyway.

If they do the same on Gems TV, it could be the final nail in the coffin I think. £4.95p would still be good value for money on homewares, where boxes are quite big and heavy - but £4.95 for a gold tone bracelet or a pair of earrings would be taking the mick!

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And didn't Gems used to do the occasional free postage & packing days way back when? No chance of that these days, they need to claw in every penny they can get.

AndyW said:

£5 a pop? Bonkers. Will make a mockery of Under £10 hours. Not all, but some people still see P&P as somehow being "extra" to the already silly prices for some items. Every time a presenter says "Where can you get a pizza/coffee/whatever for £7.99?" I always shout "It's not £7.99, It's £11.94!".

Taking into account economies of scale across a day's trading across the Group and assuming that TGGC has negotiated favourable terms with all its carriers, this amounts to an embedded price increase.

Last night, Gem Collector had an hour of "Foxy's Whoppers". What was the predominant stone? Sandstone - yes, sandstone. I can't find quickly another retailer of sandstone cabochons anywhere. At £18 for one, if they added £5, you'd be paying £23 for a pebble. There's something quite wicked about that, if it wasn't laughable.

Click to expand...

£5 a pop on Jewellery Maker is certainly ridiculous because it's not as if they sell big bulky items like Gems TV ship out. Jewellery Maker tends to be findings, strands and small items that can be shipped in a jiffy bag. People are not going to pay £5 postage on an £8 strand of Apatite. It's bonkers.

It would appear that not only are they not content with making a profit on items, but they want to extend that to profiteering on postage too. In my opinion, postage should only ever be sold at 'cost price'. The profits should be made on goods only.

As for the Sandstone cabochons - they used to sell those in packs of THREE on Jewellery Maker for about £12. Now they're trying to flog them on Gem Collector for around 20+ EACH! I'm struggling to see how they can justify such a considerable price difference.

historymystery said:

And didn't Gems used to do the occasional free postage & packing days way back when? No chance of that these days, they need to claw in every penny they can get.

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Not sure about Gems TV - but they did on Jewellery Maker. They've done a couple this year on JM - but I saw a couple of items sell for more than they did previously, so it looked to me as though they may have absorbed the 'free postage' by increasing the price of certain items instead.

Battiola73 said:

A company I used to work for won a big order. Unfortunately, they under priced it. The only profit they made was on the freight costs that I’d negotiated down from those originally quoted. I sometimes wonder well actually often wonder if that’s how Gemporia make their profits

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I've never really criticised Gems TV's postage prices because, even with the discounts that they're going to get from Royal Mail, it's clear that they don't make a big profit on postage costs. On big and bulky homeware postage, they're almost certainly losing out - and I suspect the smaller profits on the 'normal' sized postal boxes subsidise the losses from the bigger parcels.

Gems TV orders come via Royal Mail - and they usually arrive in about 3 days. Fairly quick service.

However, JM use Whistl. They're cheaper than Royal Mail - but JM don't pass those savings onto customers. Orders via Whistl are also slow - with orders taking up to a week to arrive (even long on rare occasions).

Asking customers to pay £5, and waiting a week for delivery, for a small pack of findings or a strand in a jiffy bag, will go down like a lead balloon - and will almost certainly annoy whatever customers they have left.

£2.95 was fine. £3.95 was just about pushing their luck. £4.95 smacks of greed and further profiteering from inflated postage costs.

I can only presume that postage prices have possibly increased because sales have declined, and therefore they ship less orders, and therefore, couriers no longer give them the same level of discount as before.

However, regardless of that, even if their discounts have been slashed, it still does not cost £4.95 to send a jiffy bag with a strand inside.

Even as a member of the public paying full price for postage, I can send a jiffy bag with a strand inside for £2.70p via Royal Mail Large Letter 48-hour Tracked. Even at the worst, if its slightly too thick to go as a large letter, it will cost £3.39p to go as a Small Parcel. A jiffy bag costs around 50p.

Sorry JM, but £4.95 is a p**s take.

Not that I frequent that channel (as a buyer, nor really as a watcher), but knowing it's part of the 'family', will HM join in the upper pricing? Although, they do occasionally send 'big' stuff out, don't they?

A slight postage increase would just be pass through costs from courier companies and packaging costs. In Australia the shopping channel charges that much per item, no bundling and stupid people pay!

So here's a real example, just to prove that TMWNN isn't having a fit of the vapours. I just picked the first item under "silver jewellery findings" that looked generic.

a) JM £7.99 + £4.95
b) Cookson Gold £7.18 + £3.49
c) Amazon from £4.99 + £2.95 (or free)

Just three examples. There are plenty of other sellers of this item.

AndyW said:

£5 a pop? Bonkers. Will make a mockery of Under £10 hours. Not all, but some people still see P&P as somehow being "extra" to the already silly prices for some items. Every time a presenter says "Where can you get a pizza/coffee/whatever for £7.99?" I always shout "It's not £7.99, It's £11.94!".

Taking into account economies of scale across a day's trading across the Group and assuming that TGGC has negotiated favourable terms with all its carriers, this amounts to an embedded price increase.

Last night, Gem Collector had an hour of "Foxy's Whoppers". What was the predominant stone? Sandstone - yes, sandstone. I can't find quickly another retailer of sandstone cabochons anywhere. At £18 for one, if they added £5, you'd be paying £23 for a pebble. There's something quite wicked about that, if it wasn't laughable.

Click to expand...

I think the gemstone trends tend to come through the Tucson gem shows. Lots of hippies and costume jewelry makers looking for the latest cheap crappola to sell in their gold filled, premium vermeil, stackers, neck messes, meditation stones. I saw some sandstone junk on Australian home shopping at a stupid price (Dee Berkley brand). They also had riverstone which I presume is the quartz pebble you put in your garden as mulch? What’s next? Bluestone and flint? With Jade Troth you can bet your quartzshite!