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The UK cost of postage is a great disincentive to your online sales


styreneboy

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Is Airfix planning on any type of "click and collect" facility for their online sales? I ask this as the present cost of UK postage rather looses the point of your Black Friday money saving offers.

I imagine Airfix have accounts with outlets all over the country and if you could offer some sort of free collection service I'm pretty sure your sales would improve quite a lot.

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The problem is of course, who pays the messenger? I don't know of any that will offer a free service... Equally, the outlet will want their cut as well... Not a prob if you have your own retail operation of course, but how many Airfix shops do you see? Short answer- none.

 

Airfix supply to stockists, in the same way that Heinz do- and it is noticable that the only companies offering a free 'click & collect' are ones with their own retail operation.

 

Equally, with parcel delivery- you get what you pay for... Funnily enough the supposedly poor and expensive Royal Mail, much maligned and frequently abused- is actually one of the better ones from a first time delivery basis (92% within target times, and less than 1% loss or damaged). Not bad considering they're the only carrier that legally has to offer the same price to anywhere in the country, six days a week. So bad they are, that they also carry 60% of their competitors mail as well as their own. Also not bad when you consider they carry 3/4 of all mail.

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i'd be OK with a fee approaching £2.80 , which is what buyers on ebay and facebook are able to ship them for. the £5 is a real stlumbling block to impulse purchases and i'll tend to shop elsewhere, which means smaller share of profit goes directly to the company. £5 is a massive psychological barrier.

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I found enough items across the Airfix, Hornby and Humbrol sites to get my order up towards the free postage threshold - once I'd got that close it was an easy call - pay for postage or add a Mig29 to the order for a penny more and get it all delivered free!

 

I do tend to leave online orders until I can do this - it does mean that some projects go on hold for a while but at my glacial pace it doesn't make a huge amount of difference!

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i'd be OK with a fee approaching £2.80 , which is what buyers on ebay and facebook are able to ship them for. the £5 is a real stlumbling block to impulse purchases and i'll tend to shop elsewhere, which means smaller share of profit goes directly to the company. £5 is a massive psychological barrier.

The average seller on eBay that charges £2.80 is someone thinning their stash, or maybe a small business with one or two staff.  Airfix are neither - they are a large company.  The costs of packaging and employing staff to handle the orders is not insignificant, so expecting them to charge at cost for postage is unrealistic for small purchases.

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Is Airfix planning on any type of "click and collect" facility for their online sales? I ask this as the present cost of UK postage rather looses the point of your Black Friday money saving offers.

I imagine Airfix have accounts with outlets all over the country and if you could offer some sort of free collection service I'm pretty sure your sales would improve quite a lot.

 

'Click and collect ? you 'avin a Larf ? There's hardly ever any stock to choose from as it is, as what IS on its way is on a perpetual 'slow boat from china'... And I cant even use my club members voucher as part payment towards a 24th Typhoon... If it wasn't so sad, it'd be FUNNY.

 

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Ayup Vimal...

 

Does it really matter where the 'slow' boat comes from ? If its slow, it's slow. The phrase is actually from the title of the song '(I'd like to get you) on a slow boat TO China'. But when in Rome, eh ? Its my misspent youth acting up again...

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  • 2 weeks later...

I don't know about postage in UK but posting to South Africa now costs an arm-&-a-leg that ordering on line is now a no-no, also you have to have the parcel tracked & or insured otherwise it just goes missing. (Had that happened twice last year and had to re-order. Not from Airfix.) I now always try and order new models from a local model shop & not online. A few years back I ordered several WEM sets and had no problems & they were postage free ( I think the VAT payed for the postage ). Now my question is with VAT now at 20% do Airfix use that money for over-seas to off-set the postage, or do they discount the purchace price by 16% to bring it back to the pre VAT price? 

Remember we do this for fun

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  • 4 weeks later...

Airfix don't collect VAT on orders/purchases from outside the UK so the item price is VAT free (e.g. Hawker Typhoon MkIb 1:24 GBP 99.99 less VAT GBP 16.66 = VAT free GBP 83.33).

So in short, no Airfix don't use VAT to offset postage costs as its not collected. To get no cost to you (free postage) you generally need to order a certian dollar/pound amount, GBP 150 for Airfix to ship O/S, otherwist its cost prohibitive.

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I don't know about postage in UK but posting to South Africa now costs an arm-&-a-leg that ordering on line is now a no-no, also you have to have the parcel tracked & or insured otherwise it just goes missing. (Had that happened twice last year and had to re-order. Not from Airfix.) I now always try and order new models from a local model shop & not online. A few years back I ordered several WEM sets and had no problems & they were postage free ( I think the VAT payed for the postage ). Now my question is with VAT now at 20% do Airfix use that money for over-seas to off-set the postage, or do they discount the purchace price by 16% to bring it back to the pre VAT price? 

Remember we do this for fun

John, browse over to Aramex.com and check out their Shop 'n Ship service. I believe they have a presence in Jo'berg. I've been using their services for a long time now, they run a sort of PO Box cum courier service for online shoppers. Their charges are reasonable and you get your stuff delivered in about five days. You will have to pay VAT as Hornby sees it as a UK delivery, but if you buy for over GBP 30 (USD 50 from the US site) you get the UK postage waived off.

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I don't know about postage in UK but posting to South Africa now costs an arm-&-a-leg that ordering on line is now a no-no, also you have to have the parcel tracked & or insured otherwise it just goes missing. (Had that happened twice last year and had to re-order. Not from Airfix.) I now always try and order new models from a local model shop & not online. A few years back I ordered several WEM sets and had no problems & they were postage free ( I think the VAT payed for the postage ). Now my question is with VAT now at 20% do Airfix use that money for over-seas to off-set the postage, or do they discount the purchace price by 16% to bring it back to the pre VAT price? 

Remember we do this for fun

 

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  • 1 month later...

Airfix collect VAT for orders inside the EU, not only for orders inside the UK. For those inside the EU and outside the UK, the overall cost is really high.

Airfix is really expensive to order directly from. I've had kits from Japan for less than it would cost to order from airfix.

I think Eduard is onto something, especially if you combine their shipping rates with an overtrees sale.

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  • 10 months later...

I've complained to Airfix a number of times about the postage rates to Malta.  I really wish they could do something about it.

To give you an idea of what I mean I've just checked what it would cost if I ordered the Jet Provost:

Purchase Price     =  9.99 Euro

Postage to Malta   = 45.00 Euro

Total cost              = 54.99 Euro

Need I say more??

 

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  • 5 weeks later...

You should try ordering from Australia! I don't order anything from this site due to the mad postage price, I know that isn't Airfix's fault, it is just disapointing that postage from the UK now costs as much as it does from the USA.  

How much is it for you, Saxony? Ordering from New Zealand shows a GBP25 cost for postage. Unfortunately that's why, much as I'd love to support Airfix by buying direct, I backorder/preorder with Hannants.

It's crazy I should be able to get stuff shipped cheaper than MALTA!

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You should try ordering from Australia! I don't order anything from this site due to the mad postage price, I know that isn't Airfix's fault, it is just disapointing that postage from the UK now costs as much as it does from the USA.  

How much is it for you, Saxony? Ordering from New Zealand shows a GBP25 cost for postage. Unfortunately that's why, much as I'd love to support Airfix by buying direct, I backorder/preorder with Hannants.

It's crazy I should be able to get stuff shipped cheaper than MALTA!

 

Same as you 25 GBP ($40 AUD!!) and that was the test I did to have a GBP 5.49 1/72 P-51 to be delieverd! What I don't understand is if I go on Ebay I see UK based sellers providing free postage and at a decent price for the kit itself. 

 

 

 

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In the UK buy a 30 quid kit or equivalent and theres no Postage so I dont know what the oriuginal posters problem is, can see though that Maltese and SA fans have a problem though with 250 quid min order for Free p+p, for the rest for the most part an order of 100-125 quid gets it there for Free.... would say its easy to spenf a hundred quid on Airfix kits but to be honest I think I can get them for the same or less in germany...

If you have to complain about postage check out Evilbays rates....

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