TheManWithNoName
Registered Shopper
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2023
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Following in the footsteps of Jewellery Maker, Gemporia has announced that postage prices will increase by £1 from 13th February, bringing standard delivery to £4.95 and premium delivery to £6.95.
Their excuse? "The economic landscape around us has changed significantly over the last few years, and the cost of packaging and shipping our products is no exception."
Absolute nonsense! This appears to be nothing more than an attempt to profiteer from postage and packaging costs.
Gemporia uses Royal Mail Tracked, and for the general public, Royal Mail Tracked 48 costs £2.70 for a 'large letter' sized box - the same size Gemporia uses for rings, pendants, and other small jewellery items. As a business, they will receive significant volume-based discounts, meaning their actual postage cost is likely much lower than this.
Even if we assume Gemporia is paying the full retail rate of £2.70 (which they won't be), that leaves £2.25 to cover the cost of the box.
The boxes they use are the "Brown Quick Seal Postal Box 152x107x20mm (Pack of 50)" from UK Packaging, costing £9.35 (including VAT) for 50 boxes - which works out to just 19p per box. At pallet rate (8,000 boxes), the cost drops to 11p per box.
So, even at full retail price, postage and packaging costs £2.89 per parcel. Realistically, Gemporia is likely paying no more than £2 at their business rate. That leaves a hefty markup on postage.
I defended their postage costs when they were £2.95, and even when they rose to £3.95, as that covered larger homeware items as well. But £4.95 is simply unreasonable.
A fairer approach would have been tiered postage pricing - for example:
I can think of a better way of cutting costs to get through the "economic landscape" - Get rid of Troth instead of paying him a wage to stand around chatting ***** whilst putting endless 30 second clocks on the screen.
Their excuse? "The economic landscape around us has changed significantly over the last few years, and the cost of packaging and shipping our products is no exception."
Absolute nonsense! This appears to be nothing more than an attempt to profiteer from postage and packaging costs.
Gemporia uses Royal Mail Tracked, and for the general public, Royal Mail Tracked 48 costs £2.70 for a 'large letter' sized box - the same size Gemporia uses for rings, pendants, and other small jewellery items. As a business, they will receive significant volume-based discounts, meaning their actual postage cost is likely much lower than this.
Even if we assume Gemporia is paying the full retail rate of £2.70 (which they won't be), that leaves £2.25 to cover the cost of the box.
The boxes they use are the "Brown Quick Seal Postal Box 152x107x20mm (Pack of 50)" from UK Packaging, costing £9.35 (including VAT) for 50 boxes - which works out to just 19p per box. At pallet rate (8,000 boxes), the cost drops to 11p per box.
So, even at full retail price, postage and packaging costs £2.89 per parcel. Realistically, Gemporia is likely paying no more than £2 at their business rate. That leaves a hefty markup on postage.
I defended their postage costs when they were £2.95, and even when they rose to £3.95, as that covered larger homeware items as well. But £4.95 is simply unreasonable.
A fairer approach would have been tiered postage pricing - for example:
- £2.95 or £3.49 for smaller items like rings and pendants
- £5.95 for larger homeware items
I can think of a better way of cutting costs to get through the "economic landscape" - Get rid of Troth instead of paying him a wage to stand around chatting ***** whilst putting endless 30 second clocks on the screen.
And maybe it's a ploy to encourage buying in their beloved multiples. They sell an item for a fiver, for example and you think, oo, that's good, I will get so and so, so it makes the postage worth while.
