How to Calculate Shipping Costs For Your Parcels
You've got a brilliant item to sell on Tradem and worked out how much you're going to charge for it. You jump for joy as you imagine what you are going to do with that money when someone has bought it…. But, don’t forget to work out the right amount to charge for the postage! You don't want to undercharge your buyer and end up having to use your hard-earned cash to supplement the postage when you come to send it.
Why don’t we have one set price for all parcels?
The cost to send a parcel differs, depending on their size and weight! As you can imagine, smaller, lighter ones will be cheaper to send than larger, heavier ones! Think of it as payment for the space that they take up in the delivery lorry… AND for the postman's muscle power.
Sometimes an item may be too big or heavy to send, so you may want to advertise the item as a ‘local collection only’.
How do we work out the price for our item?
It’s easy to do if you follow our 3 simple steps…
What you will need
- Weighing scales out (ones you cook with work for lighter items and human weighing scales for heavier ones!)
- a ruler or tape measure
- a pencil and paper
- a postable box or envelope that your item fits comfortably into.
What to do:
1. First, work out the weight of your parcel. Pop the item that you are selling in a postable box or envelope and place it on the weighing scales. Have a pencil to hand to record the weight, in grams (make sure the scales are set to zero before you put your parcel!).
2. Then, you work out the size of your parcel by measuring its width, length and depth with your ruler or tape measure. Write these down too.
3. Finally, you can use all this information to work out the price of your parcel! You do this by visiting the Royal Mail website (or you can download their app) and filling in the details that you have recorded.
First or second class?
Are you sending it 1st class so it arrives quickly but is more expensive? Or 2nd class, which will take longer to get there, but will make it a bit cheaper for the buyer?
PS. When you send your parcel… be sure to track the item with proof of postage, to reassure the buyer that you have sent it. You can photograph this and send it to your buyer on Tradem.
Good luck! And don't forget you can access all our top tips and tutorials, HERE
