Websites and minimum order for carriage paid

[Nostrum]

This is a risk I had been considering. If only one or two people do it, then to be honest it doesn't really matter in the bigger picture. But if lots of people started doing it, we would have a problem.

Could you you limit it to postcode so that anyone local to a branch is excluded?

 

[Ray Stafford]

Could you you limit it to postcode so that anyone local to a branch is excluded?

We probably could but I try to avoid p1ssing off local plumbers if I can. 🙂

 

[stevetheplumber]

if i was using a online merchant on a regular basis id go for it, when i was buying stuff i would always up the order and get the free delivery as theres always something you know your going to use

 

[Phil]

It would suit me down to the ground, I never have time during the day (doing mostly bathrooms where the days goes too quick) to get to the merchants. they close at 5:00pm and I work late so if I need anything urgent I have to go to Plumbfix before they close at 8:00pm.

I may want for example a BTW pan connector but I would never pay the £10 postage and so woud bump up to £100 EX Vat in your case but sometimes wouldn't have time to sort through exactly what I wanted in the way or fittings so that would put me off as well.

So yes I would do it.

 

[lame plumber]

I tend to try and order in amounts likely to give me free postage fm the likes of HWOS and BES, so payment up front not an issue. However last week I looked at your beta offer and compared my merchant and yourself for pricing and the tenner on the delivery made it not worthwhile using your services as I could drive down the road and get all I needed, and it cost me £3 more without having to wait for delivery. If you were down the road, your would get my business but paying for delivery etc doesnt make it worthwhile at present, unless you get my favoured boilers in stock 🙂

 

[smtplumbing]

ray tbh i order boilers of you abit so i would just sick with in my order.

 

[smtplumbing]

tho i may need a towel rad shortly and i happy pay postage

 

[kay-jay]

ray
im about to order the 450 fittings, send one fitting daily please so they fit through letterbox. thanks muchly:dizzy2:












to illustrate the point you may need to build in a fair usage clause🙂

 

[Ray Stafford]

ray
im about to order the 450 fittings, send one fitting daily please so they fit through letterbox. thanks muchly:dizzy2:
to illustrate the point you may need to build in a fair usage clause🙂

Yes. I looked at the Laithwaite unlimited terms and conditions which gives them that copout. They reserve the right to cancel it, and refund prorata.

We get this from time to time. You set something up which you think will be for the benefit of customers, and 99.9% of people happily take it in the spirit it is intended, but some prt@t thinks its funny to take the p1ss.

 

[Kev the gas]

I prefer to go into the Littlehampton branch, guaranteed to get a crap 5 year old joke from Steve, and your coffee keeps me regular :asshole:

 

[Ray Stafford]

I prefer to go into the Littlehampton branch, guaranteed to get a crap 5 year old joke from Steve, and your coffee keeps me regular :asshole:

5 year old? Has he updated his joke book then?

 

[TBServices]

I'd pay for it.

I wanted 3 pairs of pump valves and a box of black mambas from you Ray, but once you add the shipping on, the savings to be made from your excellent prices would have been wiped out, and I'm not in a position to buy £100 worth of van stock right now. And tbh, even if I was, I'm not the kind of person who would.

So yes, great idea and I'm sure the option would attract a lot of orders from a lot more people.

 

[Ray Stafford]

Thanks all.

I understand that its not a service that everyone would take up.

Thinking about it, we would probably still need a minimum to avoid the type of p1ss taking that Kev was talking about, but it could be as low as £10 or even £5. Or maybe we just rely on a "fair use" clause, and reserve the right to refund and cancel the service for the occasional to55er.

For those of you that would take it up, would you prefer to pay a lump sum once a year (say £48 for the sake of argument) or a monthly standing charge of £4?

The former would be a lower admin overhead, but I can see that some people, particularly those who don't know us, might be put off by being asked to stump up the whole lot in one go, and might prefer something that they could cancel if they didn't use it.

Again, your thoughts much appreciated.

 

[TBServices]

Monthly seems fair provided it doesn't cost any more than the one off fee, and you keep the bargains coming.

How are you going to manage the emails when the site comes out of beta? There won't be enough stock if they stay as they are now

 

[Ray Stafford]

How are you going to manage the emails when the site comes out of beta? There won't be enough stock if they stay as they are now

We don't plan a "big launch" campaign. The next step will be to open up the mailing list to all our existing customers, but probably in batches, so that we can manage demand and fulfilment. After that, we will probably just rely mostly on word of mouth, this forum sponsoship, and by adding references to the ecommerce site in our existing marketing channels (for instance in the Gassafe mag). Tony, our telemarketer, now asks permission to add people to the mailing list when he talks to them.

We aren't a "get rich quick" outfit, and I am happy to spend years building it up steadily, so long as we keep the service and value up.

The offers are sometimes underwritten by us, and sometimes by the manufacturer. Until I can accurately gauge demand, I wanted to keep it small - but as we get a better feel for it, we will be able to negotiate larger deals with the manufacturers.

The limit per customer will remain, because I want this to be for genuine customers, not chancers who just buy off our deals and then put them on ebay, undercutting proper tradesmen trying to make a margin on materials.

 

[Chalked]

We don't plan a "big launch" campaign. The next step will be to open up the mailing list to all our existing customers, but probably in batches, so that we can manage demand and fulfilment. After that, we will probably just rely mostly on word of mouth, this forum sponsoship, and by adding references to the ecommerce site in our existing marketing channels (for instance in the Gassafe mag). Tony, our telemarketer, now asks permission to add people to the mailing list when he talks to them.

We aren't a "get rich quick" outfit, and I am happy to spend years building it up steadily, so long as we keep the service and value up.

The offers are sometimes underwritten by us, and sometimes by the manufacturer. Until I can accurately gauge demand, I wanted to keep it small - but as we get a better feel for it, we will be able to negotiate larger deals with the manufacturers.

The limit per customer will remain, because I want this to be for genuine customers, not chancers who just buy off our deals and then put them on ebay, undercutting proper tradesmen trying to make a margin on materials.

you really talk some sense there mate.

 

[Killy Bing]

Ray could you do it as a perk too, if your account clears 5k a month or something then you get it for the next month?

Minimum order of £10 is reasonable i think, minus a few copper fittings (which would be taking the p!ss) its easy to pop over that.

 

[Nostrum]

If your clearing 5k a month are you really going to be bothered about £4?

 

[Killy Bing]

If your clearing 5k a month are you really going to be bothered about £4?

depends, the perks are there if you want to use it then 🙂
incentive

 

[Ray Stafford]

If your clearing 5k a month are you really going to be bothered about £4?

Its a funny old world, and people get bugged by the oddest things.

Since we launched the beta test of the website, we have taken 122 orders. Of these, more than 100 are miles over the carriage paid limit, so it clearly isn't having any effect. However, there are only 2 of the 122 where the purchaser has opted to pay carriage, and about 16 or 17 that are just over the carriage paid limit.

There are also more than 20 abandoned carts with items totalling less than £50. There are only a handful of abandoned carts with order values over £100.

It was this that made me think that we needed to find a better solution that the blunt instrument of the £100 threshold.