GTL respond to Royal Mail’s Price Hike; Privatisation and the Big Society

Amongst a sea of April Fool’s worthy reports this year, you’d be forgiven for thinking Royal Mail’s plans to increase upon their already substantial postal fees as another empty account.

From April 1 2014, a second-class small parcel has increased by almost 8% and a first-class small parcel by almost 7%.

We estimate 70%+ of our orders fall into the small parcel bracket, and would hazard a guess of this being uniform across our fellow boutique-ers.

Based on our regular top 5 sales status, amongst 725 registered boutiques, we shudder at how much extra revenue this will bring in dividends for the shareholders at Royal Mail.

That’s just our ASOS Marketplace community – minute in comparison to the rest of Royal Mail’s clientele.

As part of Cameron’s “Big Society” the Government sold its control of the Royal Mail to private individuals in October 2013.

The new bright-eyed and bushy-tailed shareholders are well within their constitutional and legal right to be profit-driven. Who could blame them wanting to see a return on their investment?

So was the Coalition’s move to sell Royal Mail (at what some, including Lord Sugar, would say a “underinflated price”) from public control to private hedge-fund investment to blame?

Will Royal Mail now flourish as the shackles of State social equity are relinquished to capitalist goals?

Ed Milliband said the Conservative’s ‘Big Society’ was “cynically attempting to dignify its cuts agenda, by dressing up the withdrawal of support with the language of reinvigorating civic society”.

We’re with you Ed, us Marketplace boutiques suffer from the coalition’s desperate attempt to raise cash through the sale of the Royal Mail and we bet a lot of small businesses will.

The price hikes were inevitable Dave, and with ecommerce growing year on year we struggle to see the logic.

What’s next, the NHS?

Or are we £10 too late?