When I started looking at selling products online one of the initial operational items that you need to sort out is how you’re going to ship the products. Obviously you need to decide how you’re going to fulfill both Irish shipments and overseas. I thought the only way to ensure on safety, security etc.. was to go with a courier company. I found that a lot of online business seem to use Fastway couriers. I got in contact with them and discussed with the area manager about volumes etc…and he came up with a price per shipment. The way they work is that you pre-buy booklets of labels which you attach on each order. I bought a lot of booklets at the start (too many to be honest). Anyway, after they ran out I found that when I went to re-negotiate the price – it wasn’t as keen as the first time around. I thought to myself why do I need to courier deliver low bulk childrens products around the country. For items such as clothing, surely I could use the An Post network. I tried it out – I came up with a matrix for postage based on number of items people bought. It is much cheaper for my customers and I have had no problems with An Post at all. The An Post network is great for small non-damagable items. In fact I have more problems with Fastways than I do with An Post.
On a number of occasions deliveries have gone missing with Fastways. And they are slow to honour any mishaps on their part. I only use Fastways for bulky items where An Post would be more expensive or when customers explicitly state that they want it courier delivered.
So my advice to people setting up online businesses is to consider An Post and not to reject them out of had – it may make sense for your business and customer love lower postage prices.
