You may or may not be aware that Royal Mail yesterday launched an online postage stamp service. The idea is you can open an account online pre fund it with your credit or debit card and print postage labels with bar codes at home for your packets.

PLEASE PLEASE take the time to read this, this new service is not only bad for your local post office it could be worse for you!!!!

Before you go rushing off to use this new Royal Mail service there are a few things you may want to consider, that you may not think about in the rush of excitement.

First Reactions

I would imagine the reaction of most ebayers on hearing of the new 'pay your postage online service' would be 'Great I don't have to queue in the post office' but let us just take a look at the pros and cons of "Do it yourself postage"

The Costs

Firstly, petty as this may sound consider this:

Who will be paying for the adhesive labels and ink to print all these trendy new labels'

That is correct YOU will, while your first reaction may be 'but it's only pennies' is it? Do you know how much a4 sheets of adhesive computer printable labels are' You already know that ink is expensive right' And don't forget you need to print a full sheet at a time so you are not wasting labels. What if you only have 4 packets to send tomorrow. Yes you could print on normal paper, but do you really want to be trimming cutting and sellotaping and hoping your label doesn't fall off and your packet not be delivered to your customer?

Let's say the labels and ink only cost you '5 a month ( and thats being VERY conservative) well that's '60 per year MORE than you are paying now, and your costs probably already increased with the pricing by size changes.

But this doesn't matter because you don't pay the postage your buyers do! If Ebay traders are not careful the time will VERY QUICKLY arrive where the postage costs make buying a new item cheaper, or from an online store who offer free delivery. DON'T burst your own bubble people!

But At Least I Won't Have To Queue At The Post Office

Really? You have your bag of packages at home with your internet postage labels all attached at your expense. That doesn't alter the fact you STILL have to take them to the post office. The staff there are very nice people, however they WILL NOT be allowing anyone to just come in and dump a bag of mail in the corner. That is a health and safety hazard and post offices are public buildings that BY LAW have to follow health and safety practices. So you will STILL have to wait your turn in the queue to hand your bag of packages to the staff.

Sure you can try cramming them in a letter box if the items you sell are small enough, but you may find if just one other ebayer beats you to it, the box is full.

ANOTHER ISSUE

I have a friend who does a lot of selling on ebay. He purchased a set of 'Digital Ebay Scales' online, certified to be accurate for the bargain price of '29.99.

He went to the post office all prepared with his estimates written on his packages, nearly all of them were wrong because the scales weren't accurate. Don't kid yourselves to buy a set of scales sensitive enough to weigh letters ACCURATELY will cost you in excess of '300.

The BIG issue

Do you use a nice local post office''? Whether or not you are aware of it, most local post offices are actually sub post offices, they are private businesses they are NOT owned by the Post Office themselves they are agents or franchises.

Like any business they have overheads, staff to pay and profits to make to stay open. If you turn up with your bag of mail sure they HAVE to take it from you but they have made no money at all from your visit, how long do you think that will last'?

One thing I am almost sure you know is how many small post offices have closed down all over the country in recent years. Why did they close down? Because the post office lost out on many pensions that are now paid directly into the bank, that was a big chunk of their business. Then as you also know the government in its wisdom gave TV licensing to another company. More of the business gone. They are also trying to promote that people tax their cars online, more of the business gone. One of the few things that has helped your local post offices stay open is Ebay packets and post. Take that away and you WILL see even more offices close.

What happens when more small post offices close down because business is being taken away'? Where do you take your packages then'? To a main post office which now has even larger queues because the smaller local offices closed.

Where are most the main offices'? In town and city centres where you will be paying '3 plus parking every time you want to post your items''

If these offices go, what happens if the website is down or wont take your card'?

Still think this service is a good idea and will save you time'? Well it really is up to you, like every other thing in life it really is a case of use it or lose it. Please think carefully which is more inconvenient queuing for 10 minutes in your local post office when it is busy, or trecking all the way into a town or city centre, parking up and lugging your mail to a main office to send off .

We build websites for a living and are all for online shopping and transactions, however neither us or our clients want to see the distribution network that sends our goods get closed down.

In our humble opinion this new service looks like a time saver, but in the long run it will cost your business more money and time.

Please feel free to send a link to this page to any uk merchant you may know who sells online