Best priced postage courier for high value item?!

[NothingIsGoing2GetBetterItsNot]

Ok not expecting to be bowled over with responses here but hoping for some leads at least!

I have a small business making personal care products which I sell individually with some success on Etsy/ Ebay; they are small items and quite low value so I despatch them via royal mail for a reasonable cost. However this last couple weeks I have had a few retailers approach me wanting to buy wholesale (hooray!) which obviously puts the price up considerably, and everywhere I look wants £12-15 for delivery! This seems a lot to me? Does anyone know of any lower cost couriers for higher value deliveries or do I just have to suck it up?! I would love to do more larger orders but also want to find the balance wrt delivery costs...!

Many thanks in advance if anyone can help!!

Congratulations! Sounds really wonderful that you’ve got wholesale prospects!! I use DPD local as you can drop off at a local point for £8.99 and it’s a next day delivery. I take immune straight to the depot as it gets processed the same day. I’ve dropped off at my depot at 7 o’clock and it’s been delivered the next day at 9. Never had any issues with them either. Generous size and weight coverage and it seems to be a flat fee. Insurance is covered up to £50 but I insure via a separate service which is very reasonably priced for orders over that.

Avoid using the comparison sites and booking through them. I’ve had really poor experiences with the collection side of things and it doesn’t help to the stress of running a business.

BF thanks so much for your reply! Dpd local does look a good option but yes their insurance ad on is crazy!! Can I ask which separate insurer you use, and how much do you pay?

There are courier broker sites which will find you the cheapest for what you want to send. What sort of value are you talking about? We often use Hermes for up to about £80. Anything else is a mix of DPD, TNT, Yodel, just depending. But for most retailers £12-15 is not unusual and you should pass those charges on.

For a parcel under 2 kg I think, Royal Mail Special Delivery can be a cost effective solution, but in reality £12-15 to send several items of significant value isn't expensive at all, especially for wholesale quantity where the cost per item is probably a lot less than it is for you to send one item on it's own in normal post.

If it's the insurance that's making it uneconomical and you're going to sending regular parcels you can always self insure.

In reality almost all parcels will get there safely and it will only be 1 or 2 that don't so you just replace the minority that do get lost because you haven't spend money insuring tens/hundreds of parcels that did get there safely.

You’re welcome, theyve been the most consistent too never had any issues there was only once a delayed parcel which was because it was taken to the wrong depot and they rang to notify the customer about it.

For insurance I use www.secursus.com/

I’ve never had to claim but the reviews are really good for those who have. It does depend on the amount that is being sent but it works out around £5/6 for deliveries of value around £1000. I know the used to have an initial min. Payment of what it would be but I’m not sure if that would change.

It’s worth me noting that I often pay from my suppliers delivery charges of £8-£16ish. I don’t mind when it’s business because I calculate the retail price based off of the cost price etc. It’s remembering that it’s definitely different in mindset selling to a business than a consumer, the direct retail customer you have may have an issue with higher postage but businesses generally don’t unless it’s an unwarranted charge, because they can recoup it back through their retail pricing.