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Alternatives to Royal Mail for International Postage

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Clariman
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Alternatives to Royal Mail for International Postage

#410874

Postby Clariman » May 10th, 2021, 8:40 pm

Are there any alternatives to Royal Mail for International Postage? I have recently started publishing some small items which I have sold as PDFs. However, I am looking at offering printed copies which I would post. Royal Mail's pricing is OK, but with separate prices for UK, Europe and 3 other World Zones it is a bit messy. Is there anything else out there that might simplify it? We are not talking about high volumes.

Thanks

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Re: Alternatives to Royal Mail for International Postage

#410895

Postby csearle » May 10th, 2021, 10:13 pm

Think outside the box. Email them the PDF file and order to their address the cheapest printer that the internet offers. ;)

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Re: Alternatives to Royal Mail for International Postage

#410926

Postby servodude » May 11th, 2021, 1:16 am

csearle wrote:Think outside the box. Email them the PDF file and order to their address the cheapest printer that the internet offers. ;)


..or "print-on-demand" through the likes of Amazon?

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Re: Alternatives to Royal Mail for International Postage

#410979

Postby Clariman » May 11th, 2021, 10:03 am

csearle wrote:Think outside the box. Email them the PDF file and order to their address the cheapest printer that the internet offers. ;)

:lol:
That might be cheaper than first class post to Australia, to be fair :P

Although A3 Duplex printers don't come that cheap!

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Re: Alternatives to Royal Mail for International Postage

#410983

Postby Clariman » May 11th, 2021, 10:16 am

servodude wrote:
csearle wrote:Think outside the box. Email them the PDF file and order to their address the cheapest printer that the internet offers. ;)


..or "print-on-demand" through the likes of Amazon?

That would have been ideal except the publications aren't books: they are sheet music. They need to be on heavier paper than Amazon offer and they wouldn't be bound like a book. The score would be bound as one, but the playing parts have to be separate.

I have the facilities to print them in excellent quality, but postage calculations are a bit of a pain. I'll just need to set up about 9 postal rules based on weight and customer's location. There are postal calculation add-ins which work with Wordpress and some more sophisticated ecommerce software, but not for freewebstore which I am using at the moment.

C

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Re: Alternatives to Royal Mail for International Postage

#410989

Postby gryffron » May 11th, 2021, 11:01 am

Lots of alternatives for bulk volumes, larger parcels or faster. But IME nothing that comes close to ordinary mail for non-priority small parcels.

If you need the facilities, move to a better eCommerce platform that can do the calculations for you. Should even be possible these days to prepay the postage online and print the postage label yourself.

Sounds to me like you're using an inadequate tool for the job, and trying to make the job fit the tool.

Gryff
Last edited by gryffron on May 11th, 2021, 11:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Alternatives to Royal Mail for International Postage

#410992

Postby servodude » May 11th, 2021, 11:06 am

Clariman wrote:
servodude wrote:
csearle wrote:Think outside the box. Email them the PDF file and order to their address the cheapest printer that the internet offers. ;)


..or "print-on-demand" through the likes of Amazon?

That would have been ideal except the publications aren't books: they are sheet music. They need to be on heavier paper than Amazon offer and they wouldn't be bound like a book. The score would be bound as one, but the playing parts have to be separate.

I have the facilities to print them in excellent quality, but postage calculations are a bit of a pain. I'll just need to set up about 9 postal rules based on weight and customer's location. There are postal calculation add-ins which work with Wordpress and some more sophisticated ecommerce software, but not for freewebstore which I am using at the moment.

C


Can scores count as "printed papers" for sending abroad?

-sd

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Re: Alternatives to Royal Mail for International Postage

#411044

Postby Clariman » May 11th, 2021, 2:07 pm

gryffron wrote:If you need the facilities, move to a better eCommerce platform that can do the calculations for you. Should even be possible these days to prepay the postage online and print the postage label yourself.

Sounds to me like you're using an inadequate tool for the job, and trying to make the job fit the tool.

You are probably correct, but the tool is just about up to the job :? It suits my purposes for the moment. My arrangements are published on a 3rd party music site which takes 55% of the revenue. Having my own website is an experiment to see if I can increase sales and margin, so I am doing it on the cheap as a bit of an experiment. If it gets some traction, then I'll spend the money on better technology and invest more time learning it.


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