Questions shops ask

We already offer free delivery. Does hop still work for us?

It is the hardest case and worth being straight about. If same-day falls inside your free delivery promise, the €9.95 is yours rather than the customer’s.

Three ways shops handle it. Put same-day outside the free threshold, so free stays for standard and same-day is a paid upgrade. Or set the threshold higher for same-day than for standard. Or absorb it deliberately on high-value orders, where a €9.95 cost against a €300 sale you would otherwise have lost is a straightforward trade.

Why is hop €9.95 when the checkout shows €14.99?

From €9.95 plus VAT for a bag, depending on how far it goes. The figure at your checkout is whatever you decide to charge, and €14.99 is only an example.

Pass our fee on and same-day costs you nothing. Charge above it and you earn on every delivery. Charge below it and you are buying uptake.

We suggest somewhere around €15. That is advice rather than a condition, and nothing stops you setting it wherever you like.

What does hop cost to set up?

Nothing. No joining fee, no monthly charge, no minimum volume, no contract. You pay from €9.95 plus VAT for each bag we actually deliver, and nothing in any month where you send nothing.

Does hop take a percentage of the order?

No. The same fee on a €30 candle as on a €600 coat. We are a courier, not a marketplace, so nothing we charge moves with the value of what you sold.

Do we have to stop using our current courier?

No, and we would rather you did not. Your existing arrangement handles everything going outside Dublin and everything that is not urgent. hop sits alongside it as one more option at your checkout, for the orders where today matters.

Nothing about your standard rates, your packaging or your account with anyone else changes.

How much work is a hop booking for our staff?

Three things typed: an Eircode, a name and a mobile number. The Eircode does the rest, including telling your staff whether we deliver to that address before they type anything else.

Then the reference goes on the bag and the bag goes in the collection spot. There is no manifest, no paperwork and no phone call.

What about orders taken over the phone, by email or at the counter?

An order like that does not exist in Shopify until somebody puts it there, so the question is really whether you want it recorded as a sale or you just want the parcel moved. Both are fine.

If the sale is going through your till anyway, book the delivery straight on the link we give you. Eircode, name, mobile, about thirty seconds. Nothing is duplicated and you carry on as you were.

If you would rather the sale sat in Shopify with everything else, raise it as a draft order. Orders, then Drafts, then Create order. Add the products, add the customer and their address, then click Add shipping or delivery and choose same-day. Take payment at the counter or email them a payment link.

Add the customer and the address before you look for the delivery options, because they will not appear until Shopify knows where it is going.

That way your stock adjusts, the customer gets your usual confirmation, and the sale shows up in your figures. It takes a few minutes rather than thirty seconds, which is the trade.

One thing worth knowing if you are on hop Connected: a booking made straight on the link does not reach us automatically, because Shopify never saw the order. It works exactly as it always did, we just hear about it from the link rather than from your store.

What if we are too busy to pack an order before the rider arrives?

Then it goes tomorrow, and nothing else happens. A rider calls at 2pm, takes whatever is packed and waiting, and does not wait for anything that is not.

Which is why the cut-off you advertise should be earlier than 2pm. Tell customers 1pm and you have an hour to pack. If you can turn an order round in ten minutes, tell them half one. It is your number.

Can we offer hop on some products and not others?

Yes. Plenty of shops start with a category they know they can always pick from stock and leave the rest on standard delivery. It is a setting on your side rather than a conversation with us.

Is hop available outside Dublin city centre?

All Dublin postcodes, plus Blackrock, Dún Laoghaire and Swords. That is the same list our own booking system checks against, and you can put any Eircode into the checker on our site to be sure.

If your shop is outside the centre we agree a collection time that suits your address and the route, rather than printing a time we would then break.

What happens if a hop delivery does not arrive?

We tell you, and you are not finding out from the customer. Every booking has a tracking number and a delivery status, so a failed drop is visible to us before anyone complains.

Where a failure is ours we sort it out, and we tell you what happened rather than leaving you to work it out from a customer’s email. Plenty of failed deliveries are nobody’s fault, and we would rather deal with those case by case than write a rule here that does not survive the first real one.

Do we get charged for a second delivery attempt?

Yes, where we did what the booking told us to do and still could not hand the parcel over. A second run is a second rider, a second hour and a second journey, so it carries the same fee as the first.

The commonest cause by a distance is an apartment block with no access code on the booking. Nobody answers the buzzer, the rider has no way in, and the parcel comes back. Putting the code in the notes at the time of booking prevents almost all of these.

Where the failure is ours we go again at our cost, and we tell you which it was rather than leaving you to guess.

Who is responsible if the customer is not home?

The customer gets a text with a delivery window and a tracking link before the rider reaches them, which removes most of the problem. If nobody answers, the parcel comes back and a second attempt is chargeable, so it is worth your staff putting an access code or a safe place in the notes at the time of booking.

If the customer has asked you to leave it somewhere, your staff tick that on the booking and say exactly where. Only tick it if the customer asked.

What if a customer chooses same-day and we cannot fulfil it?

The honest answer is that this is the one failure hop cannot fix for you, because it starts with your stock figures. Same-day is offered against items your website says you hold. If that number is wrong, the customer finds out.

It is also the reason we only take shops with stock physically in the building. A shop picking from a third-party warehouse cannot promise today, whatever the website says.

Who runs hop?

Cyclone Couriers. We have been delivering across Dublin since 1988 and hold ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification. hop is the name on the service that shops and shoppers see, and Cyclone is the company you contract with and invoice.

Does hop keep our customers’ details?

We hold a name, a mobile number and an address for as long as it takes to deliver the parcel and prove we delivered it. We do not market to your customers, we do not sell their details, and we will never contact them about anything except the delivery in front of us.

Your customer buys from you, on your website, at your price. Nothing about that relationship passes to us.

How many shops are on hop?

Enough to run a route and not enough to pretend otherwise. We are adding shops one at a time and deliberately, because the service only works if every shop on it can actually meet the promise.

If being early matters to you, being early is available. If you would rather wait until it is established, that is a fair position and we will still be here.

What if we try it and it does not work?

You stop. There is no contract, no notice period and nothing to unwind. Take the option off your checkout and that is the end of it.

A month is usually enough to know. If nobody chose same-day, you have lost the three minutes it took to set up.