Charging for office furniture delivery and installation online
Two-person delivery, room of choice, installation and taking old furniture away: how to price each on a website, where postcode zones bite, and when to ask for a call instead.
Parcel shops have it easy. A candle goes in a small box, and its postage is one line on a carrier's rate card. An office furniture order can be one boxed chair, or twelve desks and two storage walls going to the third floor of a building with no lift. One flat delivery rate cannot price both, and dealer websites that try either lose money on the big orders or scare off the small ones.
This guide covers how to charge for delivery, installation and removal of old furniture online, with a worked example and the UK rules on how you word it. Disclosure: we build Orbit Commerce, a UK ecommerce platform, so we have a stake in this. Orbit comes up in one section near the end; the rest works on any platform.
What are you actually charging for when you deliver office furniture?
Name the services before you price them. Most dealers end up with some version of this list:
- Parcel delivery. Accessories, monitor arms, boxed chairs: anything a courier will take. Our guide to Royal Mail or a courier covers this end.
- Kerbside or ground floor. A van and usually one driver; the goods are left boxed at the door or in reception.
- Two-person, room of choice. Carried to a named room or floor. The usual service for desks, pedestals and storage.
- Delivered and assembled. Built where it will stand, with the packaging taken away.
- Installation. Bench systems, desking with cable management, screens, anything bolted together or levelled across a floor, often by your own fitters or a specialist installer.
- Removal of old furniture. Taking away what the new furniture replaces, which has legal strings attached (see below).
If you sell supplier-direct, mirror what your suppliers actually offer, with your prices on top; how that model works is in our guide to office furniture dropshipping in the UK.
Should delivery be priced by weight, by volume or by shipping class?
Weight bands work for parcels and fail for furniture. A tall cupboard costs more to move than its weight suggests because it needs two people and a van, and volume, though closer to the truth, is rarely held reliably in product data. What usually works is a shipping class for each type of item, priced the way your suppliers and installers charge you:
- A charge per drop, then per item. One charge for the van and crew reaching the address, and a smaller charge for each item on the same drop, because the drive is the same for one desk or six.
- The highest class wins. If a basket mixes a parcel item with a two-person item, charge the two-person rate and let the small item ride along.
- A cap. Set a ceiling so a 20-chair order doesn't price itself out. Past a size you choose, quote instead.
Check one detail with every supplier: whether its delivery charge is per order, per consignment or per item, and whether it is ex VAT.
How do you price the Highlands, islands, Northern Ireland and central London?
Remote areas cost more to serve, and the gap grows with size. The Scottish Government's analysis of parcel pricing found surcharges "particularly common" in the Paisley (PA), Inverness (IV) and Kirkwall (KW) postcode areas, and reported surcharges from 13% higher for smaller parcels to 300% higher for parcels above 30kg (gov.scot, published 9 August 2020, checked 29 October 2026). The same report blames part of the problem on postcode software that reads only the first two characters and so treats urban addresses as rural. Build your zones from postcode districts, not just the two-letter area.
- Copy your supplier's list. Use the exact postcode districts your supplier or installer surcharges, so your price matches your cost.
- Charge the real difference. The Statement of Principles for parcel deliveries, adopted across the UK by July 2014, says geographic surcharges should "reflect the true additional cost of delivery" (same gov.scot report).
- Give Northern Ireland its own zone. Ask each supplier whether it delivers there, at what price and on what lead time, before you take the order.
Central London is about access more than distance. Driving in the Congestion Charge zone costs £18 a day between 7:00 and 18:00 on weekdays and 12:00 to 18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays, and a van up to 3.5 tonnes that doesn't meet ULEZ standards pays £12.50 a day across all London boroughs (Congestion Charge and ULEZ on tfl.gov.uk, both checked 29 October 2026). The bigger costs are usually practical: booking a loading bay or a goods lift, delivery windows set by the building, and nowhere to park. If your installer charges extra for central London, pass it on for the postcodes it names, and ask about access at checkout so the crew isn't turned away at reception.
Should you offer free delivery on office furniture?
On parcels, often yes. On two-person and installed delivery, think hard first: a threshold set with chairs in mind will hand a crew and a van to a desk order that barely clears it. Patterns that hold up:
- Free parcel delivery over a basket value, with two-person delivery and installation charged separately.
- Free two-person delivery over a higher threshold, to the zones you name, with remote postcodes still charged.
- Delivery built into the product price on heavy items, so there is no separate line to argue about.
Two sets of rules shape the wording. The Advertising Standards Authority's advice is that an absolute "free delivery" claim with exclusions added afterwards is likely to mislead; that ads should not say "UK Mainland Delivery" if it excludes the Highlands, which are part of the UK mainland; and that "Mainland GB" is a better claim to use if Northern Ireland is excluded (asa.org.uk, checked 29 October 2026). For consumer sales, the Competition and Markets Authority's price transparency guidance says mandatory delivery charges must be included in the invitation to purchase, and in the total price where you can reasonably calculate them (gov.uk, updated 7 January 2026, checked 29 October 2026). In practice: show the delivery charge, or how it is worked out, on the product page, not for the first time at checkout.
On VAT, HMRC says that where the contract includes delivery, "an additional charge for delivery will follow the liability of the goods", and that delivery sold as an optional extra is always standard-rated (VAT Notice 700/24, checked 29 October 2026). For standard-rated furniture that means 20% on delivery either way, so show it ex VAT to trade buyers and inc VAT to consumers, as you do the products.
How do you charge for installation on an office furniture website?
Installation has its own cost drivers: crew time per item, travel and the site. Three ways to sell it, all of which work on any platform:
- As its own product. "Desk installation, per desk" at a fixed price, added alongside the desks. It shows as its own line on the invoice, and a separate "installation visit" product covers the trip on very small jobs.
- As a delivery option. A method called "Delivery and installation", priced by class and postcode and chosen at checkout. Clean for small orders where installation means building in place.
- As a quote. For anything that needs a site survey.
Whichever you choose, say exactly what installation includes (unpacking, assembly, positioning, levelling, taking the packaging away) and what it doesn't (electrical or data work, fixing to walls, moving existing furniture).
Do you need to register to take away old office furniture?
Customers replacing furniture usually want the old pieces gone on the same visit, and a per-item removal charge covers it. But carrying away furniture a customer is throwing out is likely to count as carrying waste. In England, a business that transports waste must register as a waste carrier: registration "is usually free if you only transport waste you produce yourself", otherwise it costs £191.02, and "you can get an unlimited fine if you do not register" (gov.uk, checked 29 October 2026). Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland register through SEPA, Natural Resources Wales and DAERA. If your installer does the removals, ask for its registration number before the service goes on your site, and say on the page what happens to the old furniture.
When should an office furniture website ask for a quote instead?
Switch to a quote when the job stops being predictable:
- The order needs a site survey: a fit-out, a floor of bench desking, partitions or screens fixed to the building.
- The order is past the size you're willing to price blind, set as a number of items or a basket value.
- The work is out of hours, phased over several days, or involves clearing a whole floor.
- Access is unknown: no lift above the ground floor, a listed building, a site with its own booking system.
Keep prices on the chairs, desks and storage that make up most small orders, and give fit-outs a clear "talk to us" route with a form that asks a surveyor's questions.
A worked example: one price card, three orders
Here is a delivery price card for an imaginary dealer, then what three orders would pay. Every number is an assumption for illustration; swap in your suppliers' and installers' real charges before you use the structure.
| Service (assumed figures, ex VAT) | You charge | It costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Parcel (accessories, boxed chairs) | £9.95 per order, free over £150 | £7 per box |
| Two-person, room of choice | £59 first item, £12 each extra, capped at £180 | £45 first item, £10 each extra |
| Remote postcode districts (supplier's list) | £60 per order on top | £50 per order |
| Desk installation, sold as a product | £35 per desk | £30 per desk |
| Removal of old furniture, sold as a product | £20 per item | £15 per item |
| Order (assumed) | Customer pays | It costs you | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. 2 boxed chairs to Leeds, basket £318 | £0 (free over £150) | £14 | -£14 |
| B. 4 desks and 4 pedestals to Bristol, two-person | £143 (£59 + 7 x £12) | £115 (£45 + 7 x £10) | £28 |
| C. Order B to an IV postcode on the supplier's list, 4 desks installed, 4 old desks removed | £423 (£143 + £60 + £140 + £80) | £345 (£115 + £50 + £120 + £60) | £78 |
Order A loses £14 on delivery, which the chairs' margin should cover. A flat £49 delivery charge instead would have overcharged order A's customer and left you £296 short on order C.
How do you set this up on Orbit?
On Orbit, the delivery side is included on every plan. Shipping classes give each type of item its own cost on a delivery method: a base charge plus a charge per item or by weight, with a minimum and a maximum if you want them, so the two-person row of the price card above is a setting rather than a workaround. Conditional rates add rules that test the basket and the address, such as weight, basket value, item count or postcode, and free-over thresholds sit on the same method. Each shipping zone can include or exclude postcodes by area (BT), district (KA27) or range (PA20-PA49), which is how a remote-districts zone gets its own rates. The detail is on fulfilment.
If your supplier is connected on Orbit and publishes its delivery rules, you can import them into your own shipping zones, converting for VAT, adjusting the charge and setting a free-over per service; applying them automatically is off unless you switch it on. When the order is paid, the delivery method the customer chose is named on the supplier's purchase order, so a "Two-person, room of choice" order reaches the supplier as exactly that.
Installation can be its own product priced per desk, a delivery method named "Delivery and installation", or a service customers book a date for with bookings. How it all fits a furniture dealership is on Orbit for office furniture dealers.
Questions people ask about office furniture delivery charges
How much should an office furniture dealer charge for delivery?
Price each shipping class to cover what it costs you: a charge per drop, a smaller charge per extra item and a cap, with remote postcode districts at their real extra cost. Quote anything past the size you're willing to price blind.
How do you charge for installation on an office furniture website?
Sell it as its own product priced per item, as a delivery method called "Delivery and installation", or as a quote for anything that needs a survey. Whichever you choose, list what installation includes and what it doesn't.
Can you offer free delivery but exclude the Highlands and Northern Ireland?
Yes, if the limits are clear up front rather than added in small print. ASA advice says exclusions added after an absolute "free delivery" claim are likely to mislead, and "Mainland GB" is a better claim if Northern Ireland is excluded.
Do you need to register to take away old office furniture?
Very likely. In England a business that transports waste must register as a waste carrier, so if an installer does your removals, ask for its registration number.
When should an office furniture website ask for a quote instead?
When the job needs a site survey, is past the size you're willing to price blind, is out of hours or phased, or has unknown access. Keep online prices for the chairs, desks and storage that make up most small orders.