I recently met up with a large D2C brand that is shipping over a million parcels a year and was pretty shocked to hear that they currently use just one carrier for everything. When I queried this, their response was that they believed that this was the only way to get a good rate.
When I probed further and asked if they honestly thought that one carrier is the best option for all million shipments both for cost and service – they paused and then admitted that it probably wasn’t!
The reality is, one carrier might be great for small, low-value items going to residential addresses, but that same carrier might struggle with tracked B2B shipments, heavier goods, or international parcels. And if that carrier runs into a strike or network issue, you’ve got a big problem.
This is the basis of our business at ITD Global where we build multi-carrier solutions for clients that ensure each parcel is being sent by the most suitable carrier and because of the volumes we handle, we can offer competitive rates across multiple carriers, not just one. If things change either for our clients or with the carrier, and let’s face it the market is quite lively at the moment, then we can quickly change to a different service and there are no penalties.We have strong and unique partnerships with over 30 carriers but it’s not about using multiple carriers for the sake of it but about using our expertise to put the right parcel on the right service. Most retailers do not have the time or knowledge to do this and putting all your parcels in once place can seem like the easy option.
Choosing the right parcel carrier depends on several key factors, including your specific shipping needs, budget, speed requirements, and customer expectations. There are a number of things to consider and decisions about what are the key priorities. For example, are your deliveries time sensitive? Are you selling a premium brand that needs a delivery service to reflect that? If so, we work with carriers offering same-day or next-day services. But these come at a greater cost – so do you have the profit margins to support this? And how are these costs affected by the different weights and sizes you want to ship?
When I worked through these aspects with this prospect, we worked out that around 600,000 of their parcels probably should stay with their current carrier but the other 400,000 would be better split between two other carriers based on weight, value, and service level. The idea that they could split this volume without losing pricing power was completely new to them.
As consumers become more demanding in their delivery requirements and cost, speed and convenience increasingly important, it is vital that retailers choose the right carrier for each and every parcel.