The currently sharply rising prices have now also arrived in the mail order business. Unfortunately, the cost of sending parcels has increased sharply. On the one hand, this is due to increased material prices for cardboard boxes and packaging, and on the other hand to rising fuel prices, which are affecting the transport companies, the freight companies and ultimately the post office.
In April, this already led to a noticeable increase in the shipping rates for postal parcels. Specifically, the price increases affect all types of parcels, both small parcels up to 10 kg and large parcels up to 31.5 kg that are sent using the parcel label.
This self-franking via parcel stamp used to have a manageable price for a small parcel of EUR 3.90. A weight limit of 10 kg has now been introduced by the post office and with heavy honey jars you can get there quite quickly. Small packages that are heavier than 10 kg now cost at least EUR 8.90 domestically instead of EUR 3.90. If the volume should also be larger, then the price for shipping even increases to up to EUR 12.90. That means up to + 330% price increase overnight!
We have used the last few weeks to take a close look at the online ordering behavior of customers and to weigh up how much we are affected by the increases in shipping costs. Unfortunately, we have come to the conclusion that cost recovery can no longer be achieved with the previous practice and we are therefore forced to adjust our shipping rates as well. We will implement this as follows:
The shipping costs for an order within Germany cost 6.95 EUR baw as a fixed price and the free shipping from a certain order value has unfortunately been discontinued. Unfortunately, free of charge is a thing of the past! With one exception: Manuka products face more competition than other products. Therefore we will continue the free shipping for Manuka from 50 EUR.
It is similar for foreign packages - especially packages to Germany - but there we have to pass on the increased postage costs for smaller orders as well. In summary, we are changing the shipping costs from a tiered system to a fixed price regardless of the weight and size of the order and if that is not sufficient in the future, then we will have to consider further measures to achieve cost recovery. Personal shopping in the shop is and remains the cheapest, because there are no additional costs and if you do the shopping by bike, you are even doing something positive for your health!
Link to the Swiss Post website with the new tariffs for parcel brands (new window opens): https://www.post.at/p/a/paketmarke
Link to the chapter with Welthonig shipping costs for packages: https://welthonig.at/policies/shipping-policy