How to optimize your shipping costs with La Poste and Colissimo?

If you regularly send letters or e-commerce goods by post and you want to optimise your postage costs, you’ve come to the right place!

In this article you will find out everything you need to know about reducing your postage costs by La Poste or Colissimo, without compromising on the quality of your deliveries and your customer experience.

What are the dimensions and weights allowed for shipments by La Poste and Colissimo?

Whether you send your products or documents by envelope or by post box, the important thing is to know the maximum dimensions and weights authorised by La Poste and Colissimo.

Here they are, to be taken into account when you choose your packaging:

What are the postage costs for La Poste and Colissimo?

For letters, there are several types of postage at La Poste:

• The Lettre Suivie, which allows you to send a letter and know when your recipient has received the mail
• Priority Letter, for urgent mail
• Green Letter, an environmentally friendly method of transporting mail
• The eco-fold, which is the cheapest postal rate of La Poste, to be reserved for non-urgent items

La Poste’s postage costs vary according to these different types of postage. Here are those for 2022 for the Lettre Suivie format:

Do not hesitate to consult the postage costs for other types of postage directly on the website of La Poste :

• Priority Letter rates
• Green Letter rates
• Eco-fold rates

What are the delivery times of La Poste?

The delivery times of La Poste depend on the type of postage you have chosen.

Count on..

• For a registered letter: 2 days for delivery in France, and about 3 days for the main European cities.
• For a Priority Letter: less than 24 hours for metropolitan France, between 2 and 3 days in the European Union, and several days to several weeks outside the EU.
• For a Green Letter: 2 working days in metropolitan France, and 4 to 7 days in the DOM and COM, depending on the destination.
• For an eco-fold: in about 4 days, but La Poste does not commit to any delivery time, as these items are not priority items at all.

How do you frank your parcel?

To frank a letter or a parcel, you have two options:

• Either go to a post office where you can frank your item, either at the traditional counter or at an automatic counter.
• Or you can print your stamps or dispatch notes at home, on the La Poste website. This option has the advantage, for a letter, of saving you 3 cents compared to a “classic” red stamp.

What packaging should you use to send your documents and goods by La Poste or Colissimo?

If you would like to send your documents and goods directly to your letterbox for home delivery by La Poste or Colissimo, here are the key packages you can use to do so.

5 tips to reduce your postage costs without compromising the quality of your deliveries

If you want to go further in optimising your postage costs by La Poste, then this is a good idea!

Here are a few tips for doing so:

• Choose the right cardboard flute, depending on your protection needs. Each type of flute is adapted to a maximum weight for your parcels and, by reducing the flute, you can save a few grams… and thus pay less. To find out more on this subject, go to our article “Single, double, or triple flute cardboard? What do you need?”
• Choose the right shipping priority. Ask yourself whether you really need an express delivery or a priority letter, or whether your parcel can wait a little longer. By doing so, you save on postal costs which, in the long run, can weigh heavily on your transport budget.
• Make sure youchoose your shipping method according to the value of your shipments. If you ship expensive products, you may need to take out additional insurance or even use specialised carriers. The idea is to ensure that you do not compromise on the quality of your deliveries, in order to provide the best customer experience.
• If you are a frequent shipper, you may want to tender fortransport services to find the best prices without compromising on delivery quality. To find out more, read ColisConsult’s 7 tips for successful transport tendering.
• For express and international deliveries, pay attention to the weight-volume of your shipments. Indeed, when you choose this type of shipment, Colissimo charges you by weight-volume, i.e. not only according to the weight, but also to the volume that your package takes up in the transport vehicles. Hence the interest in finding packaging that is as close as possible to your products, which will be just as protective and valuable.

Armed with these clever tips and good practices, you are ready to optimise your postage costs with La Poste and Colissimo!