When A Price Rise Becomes A Price Benefit

The subject of Royal Mail's price increases has become a hotly debated matter over recent years. On one hand customers complain about the loss of collections and post offices. On the other hand few personal customers send much mail, using modern technologies like email, SMS and Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family instead. Clip on earring retailer www.make-me-beautiful.co.uk, say they are using this price increase to deliver a better service.

"Over the last decade the use of post has massively changed," spoke Misae Richwoods of Make Me Beautiful. "Letters are sent less but more people use the post to send their online shopping returns or eBay sales. We've enjoyed ultra cheap delivery with super fast shipping as a country for a long time - it's probably one of the reasons why the UK leads the world in eCommerce. I remember living in Canada and 1st class meaning anytime in the next two weeks rather than the next two days!"

Although Make Me Beautiful absorbed the last two Royal Mail price hikes without raising prices, for this raise there will be an increase together with the obsolescence of certain services while newer delivery methods launch. Services to be removed include 1st Class Standard Post which Royal Mail themselves have come to admit has a 92.3% delivery rate or a 7.7% loss rate. Replacing this will be the new courier-style Tracked 48 service which has a tiny 0.03% loss rate.

“Royal Mail Tracked has numerous benefits, both for our customers, as well as us as a retailer,” said Richwoods. “Track & Trace via royalmail.com updates every 15 minutes, compared to the service of a normal Signed-For parcel, which updates the customers of the location of their package only when delivery is attempted. On this new service customers can see where their delivery is right the way up to the door, something that was never possible before and it's a much more reliable service with only a fraction of a percentage point of post getting lost. It's only a pound more yet delivers the type of experience you'd normally only get from a much higher priced courier so although it's a small step for prices, but one huge step forwards for value delivered."

The new services are live on Make Me Beautiful for UK customers and are being switched on for international destinations through the month. For more details, see www.make-me-beautiful.co.uk/shop/shipping.html