Primary Audience: West Midlands DTC founder (secondary: SME planning first UK launch)
Summary: Shipping costs aren’t an ops afterthought — they’re a commercial decision. A one-page shipping P&L stops founders guessing.
Suggested Posting Day: Thursday
If you don’t have a one-page shipping P&L, you’re guessing.
Royal Mail’s current online prices put Tracked 24 from £4.65 and Tracked 48 from £3.65.
That’s before you’ve paid for packaging, pick/pack time, and the returns that always follow a promo.
I see founders obsess over CAC and creative… then offer “free Tracked 24” like it’s a rounding error.
It isn’t.
This is the bit nobody wants to hear:
shipping isn’t a courier problem.
It’s a commercial decision.
Mini-example from the depot floor (anonymised):
A Birmingham apparel brand ran a “free next day” push to beat a competitor.
Orders jumped.
So did the number of £40 baskets going Tracked 24.
They didn’t change the free-shipping threshold, didn’t tighten their returns window, and didn’t exclude the Highlands.
Two weeks later they were wondering why the month felt busy… but the bank balance didn’t.
Practical takeaway:
Build a simple spreadsheet with three lines: average parcel cost, average packaging/handling cost, and return rate.
Then stress-test it against your real AOV.
If your numbers only work when everything goes perfect, they don’t work.
What’s your current rule for when a customer gets Tracked 24 vs Tracked 48 — and is it written down anywhere?
Source Notes
- Royal Mail current postage prices (online): Tracked 24 from £4.65; Tracked 48 from £3.65. https://www.royalmail.com/current-postage-prices