The sale can end before the delivery bill does
A flash sale can make your order count jump in an afternoon. If each sale leaves only a small amount to cover delivery support, packaging and other costs, a busy promotion can spend its budget faster than expected. Set a delivery cap before you post the offer, and decide what you will do when you reach it.
Start with the parcel and destination you expect for a real order.
Work out what each order can carry
First calculate the order’s contribution before overheads. That is the money left after the product cost and other order-specific costs you include. It is not net profit: rent, staff, marketing and other overheads may still need to come out of it.
For a simple illustration, suppose a product sells for KSh 1,000. Its purchase cost is KSh 700, and packaging costs KSh 50. The customer pays KSh 100 towards delivery, while the delivery charge for this example is KSh 200.
- Sale price: KSh 1,000
- Less product cost: KSh 700
- Less packaging: KSh 50
- Less delivery charge: KSh 200
- Add customer delivery charge collected: KSh 100
- Order contribution before overheads: KSh 150
These are illustrative figures, not Moveka tariffs. Count the delivery charge as a cost once and the amount collected from the customer as revenue once. If you waive the customer’s delivery charge, your business still needs to cover the delivery cost. A subsidy is part of the promotion budget, not a saving that disappears from the arithmetic.
Put a ceiling on the promotion
Choose a maximum amount you can afford to spend supporting delivery during the sale. Then divide that cap by the support per order.
In the illustration above, the delivery charge is KSh 200 and the customer contributes KSh 100. The seller supports KSh 100 per order. If the promotion cap is KSh 5,000, that covers at most 50 such orders: KSh 5,000 ÷ KSh 100. This is a cap on that subsidy, not a target for orders or a guarantee of profit.
Set a conservative order limit as well. If one post could bring more demand than your cap allows, say how many discounted orders are available, or set an end time that leaves room to review orders. Keep a simple running count: confirmed orders multiplied by your planned support per order. When it reaches the cap, stop offering the subsidised delivery and update the promotion clearly.
Check the offer before it goes live
Use this quick checklist:
- Estimate a typical parcel’s size and weight, then check the applicable options and prices for its actual destination.
- Calculate the support you will pay per order after any customer delivery charge.
- Multiply that amount by the maximum number of subsidised orders.
- Include packaging or a discount as separate promotion costs where applicable.
- Decide in advance what customers will see after the cap is reached.
For example, if your KSh 5,000 cap supports 50 orders at KSh 100 each, do not quietly extend the offer to order 51. Pause, revise the offer or have the customer pay the delivery charge shown for the order. Clear terms help customers decide, and a firm cap keeps a successful sale from turning into an unplanned expense.
Make Moveka the next practical check before you publish: enter the parcel and locations to see applicable delivery options and prices, then build the promotion around the quote that fits your order.
