Ah, such exciting topics for a blog post!
Those of you who reside in the EU will be happy to hear that MCM is now registered to collect your VAT through the IOSS scheme. Registering a (very) small business is comparatively costly, and requires a monthly fee, but I’m hoping it will prove worthwhile so that those customers don’t get stung at customs. You will know at checkout exactly how much you will end up paying.
No doubt you know your local rates, but for clarity they can be found here.
If you are in the EU MCM will collect VAT on behalf of your country at point of sale for all sales up to £135, including shipping. Orders of greater value than £135 will not have VAT collected until the parcel enters your country, and you may find it is subject to additional duty & processing charges at that point. Worth bearing that in mind when considering a large order! If you do find you order exceeding that value, please contact me as I may be able to offer a discount in addition to the automatic free standard shipping.
Shipping
As for shipping costs, these have been re-evaluated for all shipping zones based on the price changes which have been in place with my provider for around two months now.
GB & European customers will note many price increases . This is due to MCM needing to charge VAT on shipping costs. I’ve not been doing this for several years and have been absorbing those costs myself. I’m sorry that I have to pass these costs on now, but I have kept these increases to a minimum.
Royal Mail have now divided Europe into 3 zones. For the most part costs are very similar between each zone, and I did consider keeping them as a single zone – but I want to be ready to react to any future changes they make.
EU customers please note that, due to the way product prices are entered into the store and VAT is calculated, what you actually pay for shipping may vary slightly from what is listed on the shipping information page. Don’t worry though, you’ll be given the accurate amount at checkout.
So, many prices have gone up due to VAT being added, but I have been able to bring some down and minimise others.
I am working on updating the shipping system to take weight into consideration because customs forms already require me to have a weight value for every item in the store. I am slowly working through adding those weights to every product – a time-consuming task! Once that is done, I should be able to work on the shipping calculations. All of this is to say that the new MCM shipping prices are temporary. I don’t know when I’ll be done – lots of day job work to do right now – so don’t wait on ordering hoping they’ll come down. I can’t guarantee they will come down on average anyway, but they should more accurately reflect every customer’s order.
I promise my next post will be about more exciting things!
Ben.
