As the seller you decide the shipping options you would like to offer customers, the delivery service(s) you will use to ship, your timescales and your shipping charges. This guide outlines the configurations available to you on Yumbles and also the best practice.
Shipping options
To keep thing simple and standardised for Yumbles buyers we have defined 5 possible shipping options that you can offer, as follows:
Bespoke Shipping Options
If you have some items in your range that need much longer dispatch timescales compared with the rest of your range e.g. bespoke corporate gifts or wedding cakes, we can create bespoke shipping options . Just contact Seller Support.
Next Day Delivery
We do not have a shipping option called "Next Day Delivery". This label sets clear expectations for buyers and we have found that nuances of cut off times, delivery days of the week and changes in dispatch times, even if reflected in the settings and therefore the calculated actual delivery dates shown to buyers, can often mean delivery is not achieved to meet that expectation.
However, if you do provide guaranteed next day delivery - meaning if a customer orders today (by a certain cut-off time) you can ship today on a guaranteed next day service - then you should specify that in the settings for your Tracked Express Delivery option as follows:
- # Days to Dispatch = 0
- Cut-off time = the time you can accept same day dispatch orders up to
- # Days to Deliver = 1
- Guaranteed Delivery = yes
Buyers will then still see that if they order today they will get it delivered tomorrow with that Tracked Express option. If the time has passed your cut-off time they will see that deliver is the day after tomorrow (which is why the label Tracked Express Delivery is more flexible to manage expectations).
Guaranteed Delivery / Named Day Delivery
For your Tracked Express, Saturday and Sunday delivery options you can confirm via a checkbox in the settings if the option is being offered as a guaranteed service. This means that the calculated delivery date shown to buyers for the option is a guaranteed date. It will state "Guaranteed Delivery on [DATE]".
If this guaranteed delivery checkbox is not selected then the timescales shown to buyers for that shipping option will state "Estimated Delivery by [DATE]".
If you can manage consistent operational processes for dispatching orders then we recommend that you do select guaranteed delivery. We particularly recommend this for sellers who target gifting, or who make highly perishable items.
It does set a promise so you need to be confident you can meet it.
If you have selected guaranteed delivery and you also have advance ordering activated (see below) then it also means that buyers can select a named day for delivery in the future. A great service to offer, again particularly for sellers who offer gifts or highly perishable items.
Signed For Services
If you would like extra piece of mind to help mitigate some of the risk against lost delivery reports then you may decide to use a signed for delivery service. That is your own judgement call. However we do not recommend that you offer buyers the choice between a signed for shipping option or a unsigned one. In our experience buyers will inevitably opt for the cheaper unsigned service and offering multiple options like this just adds unnecessary "noise" for buyers and complexity for you.
If you decide to use a signed for service then you may want to add that to the name of the shipping option so that buyers are aware that their order will need signature on delivery e.g. "Standard Delivery (signed for)".
Recommended Shipping Options
Offering an expedited Tracked Express option is becoming more and more the standard expected by online buyers so we recommend that all sellers offer it. It is absolutely essential for shipping perishable items (and so we require it), and also strongly recommended for sellers focused on gifting.
For sellers who offer non-perishable items we would recommend that you also offer a Standard Delivery option.
Finally, if your items are non-perishable items that buyers typically buy to consume for themselves, and they are lower in value (e.g. chocolate bars) then we also recommend you offer Economy Delivery.
Shipping charges
While you set your charges and obviously need to cover your costs, we do ask that you keep them fair and reasonable and within our delivery policy limits (with some exceptions for specialist and large items).
High shipping charges (typically anything more than £5) presented at checkout do have a significant impact on sales, as you would expect. If your Standard Delivery shipping costs are above £5 we recommend you consider whether to offset some of the cost in your product pricing to reduce the shipping charge shown at checkout.
For each delivery option you offer your charges can be specified by any one of the following:
- Order weight e.g. £3 for orders up to 2kg, and £4.50 for orders over 2kg
- Order value, e.g. £5 for orders up to £30, and £5.50 for orders over £30.
- Number of items ordered e.g. £3 for 1 item, £5 for 2 or more items
- or of course a flat fee for all orders
These charges are applied for your Yumbles "shop" across all of your orders irrespective of items ordered.
Extra delivery charges for specific products
You can separately define incremental delivery charges for specific products - to do this complete the Shipping Freight field that you will find on the Shipping Properties tab within your product listing.
The amount you enter here will be added to your overall charges for each unit ordered. So if your usual shipping charges are £4 and you enter an incremental shipping charge of £2 for Product X then a buyer would be charged £6 shipping if they ordered 1 unit, or £8 if they ordered 2 units and so on.
Free delivery
Offering Free Delivery is a great tactic that can help increase conversion of sales and/ or average order values.
You can choose to offer free delivery for all orders, or above certain order values/ order weights/ number of items ordered, or for specific products.
Generally speaking offering free delivery for orders above a certain order value rather than based on order weight (buyers won't understand it nor spend the time calculating it) or number of items ordered (while easy to understand for buyers, this might become unpractical for you if your range expands to include very differently priced items).
For all products that you wish to offer outright with Free Delivery (including those that qualify because of your free delivery order value threshold) be sure to mark the Free Shipping checkbox within the product listings (find it on the Shipping Properties tab), and confirm what delivery option it relates to.
Shipping locations
Currently the Yumbles marketplace is only open to shipping within the UK. You can define your charges between four distinct UK locations:
- UK mainland,
- Non-mainland UK (Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man),
- Scottish Highlands & Islands,
- Northern Ireland.
Delivery timescales shown to buyers
On all of your product listing pages, at checkout and finally on their order confirmation emails, buyers will see a projected delivery timescales for their order.
These timescales are automatically calculated from checking the following settings:
- the settings you have specified in each of your shipping options via the Shipping Methods page. Here you specify for each of your options the # dispatch days needed, cut-off times, dispatch days of the week and so on.
- if you have any Holiday dates set-up. See the guide.
- bank holiday dates
- if the particular product is being offered by you on a pre-order basis. See the guide.
- if it's Christmas time and your last order date for Christmas has been passed. See the guide.
It is key that the timescales communicated to your customers are correct as it sets service expectations. These settings will inevitably need updates over time to reflect changing realities. We recommend that:
- If your operational processes change to alter your cutoff times or dispatch days of the week that you amend your settings accordingly
- if the delivery services you use are temporarily suffering from reduced service (as experienced during the pandemic) that you alter the # delivery days settings
- you regularly check and review that you are communicating the right delivery timescales for your products (by checking any one of your product listing pages) - and adjust the above settings accordingly if needed. We always recommend that you do this before peak periods like Christmas and Easter.
Advance Ordering
A very popular feature on Yumbles, buyers can choose at checkout to request their delivery at a later date than your default timescales.
This is popular for a range of reasons - advance ordering for Christmas (or Easter), receiving perishable items closer to the date when they need them, arranging for a gift delivery on or closer to the recipients birthday, or receiving items when they are more likely to be home to receive them such as after a holiday.
These orders will be clearly flagged to you when you are notified about their order - and identifiable in the Seller Portal.
If the shipping option they have chosen is offered by you as a guaranteed delivery option (see above section on Guaranteed Delivery) then the advance order will clealy state to you "GUARANTEED DELIVERY ON [DATE]". You should of course aim to deliver the order accordingly on the date requested.
If the shipping option the buyers have chosen was not offered as a guaranteed delivery option then it is made clear to them that delivery will be made later as close to that date as possible but it is not a guaranteed delivery day. These advance orders will be labelled for you as a DELIVER LATER by DATE. You should aim to dispatch these orders later, and as close to the requested timeframe as you can.
You should confirm new advance orders as usual by changing their status to Processing but not dispatch them until later. In the Seller Portal you can view all undispatched Advance Orders to help manage them via the dedicated "Advance Orders" tab.
If operationally you find it too difficult to manage advance orders then you can disable this however it is really not recommended if you can avoid it. It will impact your sales - particularly if your range has perishable items and / or gifts, as it is very popular.
Updating your shipping
You can view and update your shipping timescale settings in the Shipping Methods page.
To make changes to your shipping options or charges simply send the changes to Seller Support.
Related articles:
Offering products on pre-order
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