Hi all,
I have a problem with my wife and the postman..........no, I didn't mean to say that, I mean I have a problem with how to work out the best way of charging my customers a fair postage.
Here is the problem; on my website I sell books and our wonderful happy chappies at the Royal Mail have decided that not only have we got to weigh the book we now have to measure the damned thing as well! This has led to a complete restructuring and complication of the postage prices.
To make this short I will have to illustrate this the best way I know how:

small thin book = £1.00 P&P.Easy
more than 1 book - not so easy, it means I have to weigh not just the thin books but any other size as well.
I have looked at postal sliding charges which are complicated and I have thought about weighing each book and putting that price beneath each book but there are over 6000 of them!
What is the best and fairest way of charging postage costs to the customer? I can put the script into my website - I think - that will give the customer a price based on the weight but if the customer does not know how big or heavy a book is how can they use it?
Any help would be appreciated

Hi,

I would say the best way and fairest way to do it would be to calculate the cost of 1 small book as you say in your example through to larger books and your biggest, heavier book. Then calculate an average price for your postage. Okay so it may cost you on some orders but you're gaining on other orders so it will even itself out. That's the best way to do it and the way most people already do it. Hope this helps,

Problem with all mail companies, is they are trying to get the most money out of your shipment... I haven't worked with Royal Mail, but I worked with UPS, DHL, and severl other similar transportational companies... They calculate the shipping cost in the following way... You need to weigh your package, and you need to measure it, WxHxD... Then, WxHxD is divided by some number, generaly 1000, then, they see which value is greater, weight or WxHxD / 1000, and use that value to calculate the cost... You don't have an easy task ahead of you, but you can precisely calculate the shipping cost for the entire collection... The only problem is, you will need to measure all of your books, and the new ones you get, measure them immediately... The good thing is, books usualy have similar dimensions, only their weight is different... Tough job is ahead of you, but once done, I'm sure your customers will be the quite happy...

Maybe you could select one small book, one medium book and another large book to provide "sample" postage pricing for shipping.
And then display the sizes/weights of each item on its description so the customers will know approximately what to expect for the item they are considering.

I would say go with what the second poster said and just go with an average weight.

Myself, I didn't know that it was so complicated. I was wondering why a lot of companies will do a flat rate of let's say 4.95 a book, even when the book is only 99 cents or whatever.

Going with a median range though should be the most efficient way to go as it's faster and people will know even before they are ready to purchase a book how much the cost will be. It is nice being able to just say "Oh, 4.95 for first item and 1.00 per item thereafter" before even shopping. Let's you see ahead of time what the overall cost will most likely be.

Most small paperback books fall into the Large Letter category, so are going to cost a maximum of around £1.50 for First Class, or £1.30 for Second Class in actual postage costs. Charge a flat rate of £1.50 for paperbacks, which will cover pretty much all paperbacks (even thicker ones, as £1.50 covers up to a 500g Packet (£1.63 Second Class)) and any extra costs are covered by smaller books costing less.

Hardbacks, being larger and much heavier are going to be Packets, and most likely have to be send First Class (as Second Class only covers up to 1kg). £3 will let you send a 1kg Packet First Class, £5 up to 1.5kg and £6.40 for 2kg.

Personally, I would go with a flat rate of £1.50 for paperbacks and £3 for hardbacks for the time being, and see how it works out. You can always make the change gradual. Charge those 'default' prices if the dimensions and mass of the book aren't available. If they are available, then calculate the exact postage cost.

Well, while going for the median price is easy, I don't think there are a lot of people willing to pay 5 euros for a book that costs 1 euro... I mean, I wouldn't... Unless it's some extremely rare book... It's just my oppinion, but I think paying 4 times the value of something, to get it - it's just not worth buying... But then again, that's just me... Providing unique price for every item, tells your customers you care about them, so that may increase your sales... But that's just going into "running the business" topic...

Jobel602. check with Fedex or DHL. I think they
have a script for delivery according to where it's
to be delivered globally.

Tell them (either one) you intend to let them handle
your delivery and you need a web script that easily
lets your customers know the cost fast without you
nor your customers having to fiddle with weights
of every book.

The script as I know it (as of 2006) is free so I do
not know if it still is but check with them anyway.
The codes were available publically to anyone who
wanted the php codes.

Good luck!