As spending trends evolve, many customers are doing more of their shopping online than in-store. In fact, by 2024, we can expect customers to make nearly one-third of all purchases online. The pandemic has only amplified this trend; while non-essential shops have closed for months, lots of shoppers have shifted further into the e-commerce mindset. And this trend is set to stay. It’s easy for customers to get all the bits and bobs they need in a few clicks. No spending on fuel to get to the shops. No lengthy queues. No heavy shopping bags to carry.
So, it’s no surprise many e-commerce businesses are thriving – and perhaps yours is one of them. But, while managers can control quality in most aspects of their e-commerce businesses, there is one area that often causes challenges: courier delivery services. Working with a delivery company that doesn’t efficiently track parcel whereabouts, fails to meet delivery timeframes, or even damages your products can put your e-commerce businesses in a nightmare situation.
Here, we’ll share our top three parcel consolidators for 2021 – carriers that will help you avoid these challenges. These are the businesses that offer innovative, transparent delivery systems at the best prices and will handle your products with the utmost care. If your customers have left negative reviews because they were unhappy with your delivery service, even when they loved your products, these carrier recommendations are for you.
- Parcelhub
Our first recommended multi-carrier management solution is Parcelhub. Every year, Parcelhub distributes over eight million parcels on behalf of hundreds of national and international retailers, brands, and wholesalers. Its multi-carrier shipping software allows these businesses to access pooled volume discounts from selected carrier partners. These partners include many of the biggest logistics names, including Hermes, UPS, DPD, DHL, DX, SkyNet, Interpost, CollectPlus, Parcelforce, ArrowXL, Panther Logistics, Palletforce, and Direct Link.
Parcelhub offers four primary services.
1)Â Multi-carrier management.-choose from a range of UK or international shipping options for parcels, packets, or bags. The most popular options are 48-hour and 3-day services. The more parcels you ship, the more you save.
2)Â Outsourced tracking support. You can also book UK-based, white-label e-commerce support.
3)Â Tailored fulfilment services.-Parcelhub tackles complicated fulfilment projects by offering solutions like e-commerce order fulfilment, print fulfilment, and picking and packing.
4)Â Software-only shipping- the Parcelhub API allows large brands to manage and track shipments within their own systems automatically.
Customers can also use Parcelhub’s delivery management software to print postage labels before shipping. This makes the process through the carrier partner network as seamless as possible. If customers need assistance with their shipping, Parcelhub’s e-commerce support team operates entirely from the UK and is only a call away.
- ParcelHero
Our second recommended consolidator is ParcelHero, which delivers to 220 countries, offers same-day collection and door-to-door delivery, and has been serving customers since 2003. The logistics company works with some of the world’s best-known couriers, including DHL, DPD, and UPS and has collected over 4,000 five-star Feefo reviews to date.
ParcelHero’s bulk-buying power enables the company to offer up to 60 percent off the shipping prices some of its competitors charge. Prices start at £2.94 for UK next-day delivery, £12.95 for global express delivery, and £27.97 for large parcel delivery. All three of our recommended parcel consolidators’ competitive prices will save you from paying over the odds when it comes to delivering your products.
ParcelHero also offers optional extras that you can add on to further protect your packages. For example, you may add enhanced cover on top of the free standard £50 cover – which all shipments include. You might also sign up for ParcelHero’s Money Back Guarantee, which entitles you to a shipping refund if your parcel doesn’t arrive at the recipient’s address within the timed delivery window.
- Â Caribou
Last, but not least, Caribou is one of the main up-and-coming players in the logistics market today. The fast-growing carrier has put every effort into meeting demand from companies that have seen huge growth throughout the pandemic. One of the main reasons so many businesses use Caribou is to make the most of its fully transparent approach to deliveries. E-commerce businesses rely on couriers to uphold their level of customer care to protect their reputations, and too many delivery services fail to meet these standards.
The packet and parcel consolidator solves this problem with its innovative carrier and marketplace management system, which tracks the complete delivery process – from collection to arrival at the recipient’s doorstep – in one, easy-to-use system. What’s more, Caribou constantly evaluates system data to identify how the company can improve financial, warehouse, and customer management; carrier costs; and revenue protection.
As a newfound logistics innovator, Caribou also uses this market-leading system to deliver throughout the country and beyond. While many carriers don’t have the capacity to cover 100 percent of the UK mainland, Caribou has completed several acquisitions to form an extensive delivery network and serve businesses in all corners of the UK.
- Recent expansions
As demand continues to grow for Caribou’s groundbreaking delivery services, the company has completed various expansions. Last year, the carrier acquired Lincolnshire County Couriers, a reputable carrier with multiple parcel delivery services under its belt. Caribou then confirmed plans to launch a delivery and logistics depot in Colchester, which will open new employment opportunities and extend Caribou’s delivery offerings.
This year, Caribou has already acquired three delivery companies from different corners of the country: C&D Transport (Sheffield), TM Couriers (Andover), and Six Ten Logistics (Swindon). While C&D Transport offers small and part-load deliveries, palletised distribution, indoor warehousing, and varied delivery timescales, TM Couriers offers domestic and international pallet deliveries as part of Fortec. Meanwhile, Six Ten Logistics brings its reputable white glove delivery service and onsite assembly capacity to Caribou, which will help the forward-thinking company break further into the retail logistics sector.
In short, Caribou has recruited a variety of the best delivery companies to meet the growing demand for affordable, transparent deliveries across the UK.
- Transparent delivery process
Caribou’s ultra-transparent business approach takes the hassle out of deliveries: both senders and recipients can track orders at each stage of the delivery process, and recipients can easily arrange to be in for their delivery.
The company’s business approach prioritises carefully handled, fully visible deliveries to protect goods and reach customers quickly. Therefore, businesses across the UK make the most of Caribou’s great-value freight forwarding, air freight, sea freight, and road freight services; domestic parcel and pallet networks; storage and warehousing; haulage; and same-day services.
Additionally, Caribou knows that businesses work with a huge variety of channels and marketplaces, which is why it integrates with as many as possible. If your business uses Amazon, Shopify, WooCommerce, eBay, Linnworks, OnBuy, Cloud Commerce Pro, MetaPack, CSVuploader, StoreFeeder, Mintsoft, or PrestaShop, Caribou could be a great fit for you.
The company’s motto, ‘We are Caribou’, reflects its approach and helps companies throughout the UK to offer competitive, efficient delivery services for their product suites. As one of the UK’s fastest-growing domestic and international consolidators, this tech-driven carrier is fast becoming a top-choice in multiple logistics sectors.
Learn more about Caribou.
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