This article is aimed at educating our French buyers how shipping works on Whatnot. We understand this can be complicated and users want clarity, so we wanted to provide some examples on how you will be charged for shipping on your orders.
Domestic shipping (French sellers - > French buyers)
Whatnot uses two carriers for shipments in France - Mondial Relay and La Poste.
For letters under 100 g we use La Poste Lettre Suivie. This is the most economical way to ship things such as TCG and sports cards. These packages will be sent directly to the buyer’s home address.
For parcels above 100g, Whatnot uses Mondial Relay. Parcels are delivered to pick up points and buyers need to go pick them up.
Please note that it is the buyer's responsibility to pick up their package within 8 days of delivery to pick up point. If buyers fail to pick up their packages they will be returned to the sender. No refunds will be offered in such instances.
Buyers can select a preferred pickup point for Mondial Relay packages by going to Profile Settings, Address, and tapping on the top right “+” to “Add a Mondial Relay pickup point”. See video below:
IMPORTANT NOTE: Selecting a preferred point does not guarantee that packages will be delivered there. If your preferred point is not available at the time you place an order, Mondial Relay will contact you directly via email to select a new delivery point near you.
If a buyer has not selected a preferred pickup point, parcels will be sent to a pickup point located near the buyer’s default address.
Shipping costs
Here's an illustrative example of how shipping costs are calculated in a livestream. Let’s assume the buyer is based in Marseille and just purchased a pack of sports cards from a seller in Nice.
- A pack of sports cards is not too heavy so let’s say with packaging this weighs 60 grams. This is under 100g and would fit in a letter. It would cost €3.17 to ship with Lettre Suivie
- Whatnot would charge the buyer €3.17 in shipping cost for this first order
- Imagine the buyer purchases another pack of cards for 60 grams, bringing their total bundled order to weigh 120 grams. This would be cheaper to send with Mondial Relay (€3.53) than with Lettre Suivie (€4.72)
- Whatnot would only charge the buyer an additional 36c as the buyer had already paid €3.17 in shipping cost
- If the buyer next purchased a slab weighing 100 gram the total bundled order would weigh 220 grams
- Whatnot would not charge any additional shipping costs because the package is under 500 grams. Mondial Relay costs €3.53 from 100g to 500g and the buyer has already paid €3.53
The above bundling logic also applies to marketplace purchases and orders will be bundled together to save you on shipping costs until the seller prints the shipping label for the shipment
After the livestream, the seller will ship a parcel through Mondial Relay. Buyers will receive an email with a PIN or QR code to pick up their package when it arrives at the selected Point Relais or locker. If a buyer purchases items with a combined weight under 100 grams, these will be delivered directly to their home with Lettre Suivie.
You can see a full list of shipping costs here. Total shipping prices will include the label costs you can find in the link and a small fee to help cover some of the operational expenses that result from building and maintaining features like Smart Bundling. Remember that thanks to Smart Bundling™ you only pay for the combined weight of all the items you buy in one livestream.
International shipping rates (French sellers -> International buyers)
Buyers in Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Spain, and Italy who orders from France will receive packages through Mondial Relay. These will need to be picked up at collection points. Colissimo International will be used for Rest of Europe and Rest of World. Pricing for all countries can be found here.
Additional charges
There are a few additional charges dependent on destination. Buyers in those locations will see the correct shipping cost when they are purchasing.
- For shipments originating in all countries and buyers in below locations:
- FR: Corsica Delivery: €3,00
- ES: Balearic Islands Delivery: €3.00