Courier charges or shipping cost is a substantial factor in calculating the profit margin of a business. It’s a predominant factor to define the scale of operations for an eCommerce company. Managing logistics operations efficiently and cost-effectively can get tricky for new businesses. Some businesses opt for single courier partners, whereas others choose logistics partners to fulfil their end-to-end shipping requirements.
While starting an eCommerce business in the UK, it’s essential to compare various courier charges offered by different courier companies with their serviceability. Leading names in the UK shipping industry such as DHL, FedEx, UPS, NimbusPost, etc., offer a courier rate calculator to let you estimate the shipping charges in advance.
Challenges
Comparing shipping rates offered by different courier partners for each shipment by visiting their website is a time-consuming and exhausting job. For e.g., if you ship 100 orders in a day, comparing the courier charges of all courier companies for 100 shipments that need to be delivered across different locations seems like a task that can only be accomplished by a full-fledged team. To avoid such tricky situations, hiring a third-party logistics partner always works best!
The Solution
Hiring a technologically empowered logistics partner is not just a cost-effective way to manage the shipping requirements but also allows businesses some time to focus on their core operations. An automated shipping platform can prove to be the best option for your shipping needs.
Advanced third-party logistics companies bring multiple courier partners on their platform to assist eCommerce sellers significantly. They offer you a single dashboard where you can see the shipping rates of all courier partners without visiting their official website for each shipment.
Different courier partners offer their services for different prices depending on the distance and other factors. While most of the leading courier partners charge around £2.40 per 500 gm, knowing the exact payable amount for a particular shipment is more satisfying. Tieing up with a reliable logistics partner helps in picking a courier partner that’s best suited for a seller in every manner.
Other than comparing parcel service charges, businesses must also compare average delivery TAT, shipment tracking facility, types of logistics services available, use of technology, etc. offered by a shipping partner. It’s important to pick a partner that offers excellent parcel delivery services along with low shipping rates and other benefits to improve your customer’s shopping experience. Comparing all the aforementioned factors is important to make the right decision.
Factors to Consider While Choosing A Courier Partner
Shipment rates
The lower the shipping rate you pay, the lower your overall logistics cost will be. As high shipping rates can restrict your profit margin, choose a courier partner that offers the lowest courier charges in the UK.
Order tracking facility
Today, order tracking is considered to be a must-have feature for a shipping partner. Offering the order tracking facility along with regular updates via SMS and email to your end customers is much more important, which is only possible if your logistics partner offers the facility.
Service options
Make sure your courier partner offers pick-up and drop-off options for handing over the packages in case of return orders.
Shipping insurance
While sending your goods anywhere which can be either confidential or fragile, there is always a chance of damage or your parcel getting lost under unusual circumstances. In that case, you can claim the financial loss caused by a lost shipment in transit, only if your shipping partner offers a well-curated shipping insurance policy.
Use of technology
Similar to other industries, technology has become an integral part of the logistics industry to ease the shipping burden of eCommerce businesses. Whether we talk about offering the quickest deliveries, less RTO, end-to-end tracking, automated cloud-calling, or something else, technology plays a vital role in meeting the desired logistics results.
Average delivery TAT
Sorting your shipping options after comparing average delivery TAT is a good idea. A customer always expects fast delivery when he/she purchases something from your website. Delayed deliveries can greatly affect their shopping experience and may also result in high RTO. Therefore, checking out the average delivery duration is important for online merchants.
Make an Informed Decision Always
Finding all the qualities in one logistics partner may not seem practically possible, but NimbusPost may be your best bet. You get over 15+ courier options that deliver across the UK mainland and offshore postcodes.
As a tech-enabled shipping partner, NimbusPost also eases your shipping experience by offering the industry’s smartest automation. Instead of importing all order details manually to NimbusPost’s seller panel, you can see all order details in a single place and ship directly from your online store. Plus, the fastest deliveries and the automated order confirmation feature help you bring down the number of return-to-origin orders.
In addition to this, the AI-based order allocation engine greatly aids in helping eCommerce sellers in conducting seamless trade. You can act on the non-delivery reports immediately to curb the RTO ratio. So, give the technologically advanced logistics platform a try by signing up for free without wasting one more minute!
