E-commerce shipping: Accessing ‘pooled volume discounts’
At 15.8%, the UK’s e-commerce sector is growing at an impressive rate, with the majority of this growth resulting from more firms introducing an international shipping option to their online stores. Additionally, this growth is due to increased investment in mobile friendly ecommerce websites.
To capitalise on this growth, firms are seeking increasingly competitive rates on their parcel delivery. Providing class-leading levels of service are paramount to success in this sector, and without a high quality shipping service, your company will struggle to prosper.
To meet the market demands, an increasing number of bulk shipping networks have come into fruition. Carrier management services give businesses the opportunity to access rates normally associated with only the largest online retailers.
How does this integrate with my Volo account?
Carrier management software (such as Parcelhub) can be installed on your PC, server or accessed via the internet. So, how does it work? Volo feeds your order data into the software whereupon you can either automatically create a label, or retrieve address details prior to creating your shipment. The moment you print your label, the shipping software returns tracking details to Volo, and hence to all of your channels.
After adding the printed labels to your parcels, the carrier management firm usually collects your daily parcel traffic from your business premises.
How much can my business save?
Expect a discount of 20% and more, however bear in mind that this is dependent on how much of your traffic is being sent internationally, dimensions, weight, desired delivery time and insurance agreements. Services available in the UK include next day, 48 hour, economy delivery and many more, all of which can be accessed through popular carrier management providers. Due to the economies of scale on offer, this business model is very popular with large online retailers sending in excess of 1000 parcels per day.
