Brighton company slashes the cost of web shopping
A fledging Brighton firm is set to radically cut the cost of ordering online after landing a deal with one of Britain's biggest web companies.
Delivery Networks will today announce it is to team up with Dixons-owned Freeserve to provide half-price deliveries to internet shoppers.
Small businesses using the FSmarketplace e-commerce service will be the first to offer their customers the cut-price service.
Delivery Networks is talking to several large web firms about a deal which would allow consumers to get the same saving when they buy items from auction sites.
Sarah Hemstedt, company director, said: "We're offering e-tailers the kind of discounts normally reserved for the big boys.
"High delivery costs can be crippling for an e-commerce business.
"Thousands of online companies are trading at a loss because their profits are eaten up by delivery charges."
She has secured deals with major postage firms such as ParcelForce and AmTrak to provide the service.
Delivery Networks will offer advice on parcel carriers to web firms.
Sarah Carpenter, chief commercial officer of Freeserve, said of the partnership: "We're delighted to have Delivery Networks on board.
"The 3.4 million unique visitors to Freeserve has attracted a significant number of merchants to our business.
"Having Delivery Networks' services on FSmarketplace will help grow this further."
Freeserve was the first British internet service provider to not charge for access to the internet.
Ms Carpenter's business partner Nick Underhill got the idea for service while running World Wide Deli, a delicatessen site for Britons overseas.
He said: "It cost a tenner to send out a tin of Heinz baked beans.
"Delivery costs were prohibitive."
Ms Hemstedt started working on Delivery Networks with Mr Underhill just three months ago.
She was formerly a marketing manager at Victoria Real, the Brighton firm behind the Big Brother website.
Major players in the industry were keen to work with online deliveries but not sure how to get ahead, said Ms Hemstedt.
"They were desperate to get into internet deliveries but they were stuck in traditionalist models."
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