Producing great products that your customers want to buy will fast-track your business to long-term success. As your online retail business grows, the indirect cost of delivering more products to more homes will ultimately have a greater impact to your service profile and bottom line.
When you begin your search for a courier company, you’ll soon notice that there are countless options and services available. Service providers have stepped up their proposition to cater for a diverse range of demanding online retailers. These options vary in so many ways. The key, is to find a solution that best suits your products – and your budget too.
Here are some key considerations that will impact your choice of courier:
Type of product
Fragile goods in particular, require special care. Not all carriers are equipped to handle the transportation of delicate items, such as wine or fine china. If your goods are of high value (such as IT equipment), you might need to look for a carrier with advanced security measures. By the same token, if your goods require refrigeration, a carrier with the right cooling technology should be your primary consideration.
Geographic reach
If your organisation requires regular delivery to regional areas, a key consideration for you will be how extensive the carrier’s regional network is. Weigh up the pros and cons of a carrier with a strong regional component, against the efficiency of a metro-focused one. Do you need two carriers to cater for these two very different markets or is there an organisation that can cover all of your needs?
Service speed
With the rise of high volume retailing and fast fashion, next day, same day (and even same hour) delivery has become the new expectation. If your business requires a fast turnaround, search for a courier who can offer this in the most cost-effective way. Whilst speed might be an important consideration, don’t overlook reliability. It might be a good idea to put in place an SLA and benchmark before you sign your contract than measure, measure, measure!
Buyer behaviour
Do your customers typically purchase standalone products or 2-3 products at a time? If it’s the latter, you might wish to look for a carrier with flexible pricing models based on the number of packages perconsignment. This very small measure could go a long way to reducing costs.
Tracking ability
While tracking is standard for carriers of high value goods, it can still cause issues for the delivery of items to remote and regional areas, a consequence of communications coverage and the use of local agents. If you’re delivering expensive equipment, ensure your carrier has got security measures in place – whatever the destination.
Reporting capabilities
What information do you need (and will use) to both monitor deliveries and respond to problems (let’s be clear, things will go wrong, often outside the carriers control). Our experience is that a large proportion of online retailers customer issues are around delivery issues.
Like most business decisions, you’ll need to take several of the above considerations into account. Don’t overlook the more subtle factors too – such as the carrier’s strategy for dealing with items that cannot be delivered first time round. Your items may be too valuable to leave, even in a secured building. The card approach may be the best solution but how things are handled from that point can vary. Often it’s up to the customer to collect, either from a predefined place (Post Office, Locker, and Newsagent etc). Some carriers take a more proactive approach, they will arrange a redelivery. Some even call the client to arrange rather than rely on the client to take the initiative!
It can be time consuming and challenging to research a cost-effective carrier that meets the requirements of your business – but the carrier reliability and potential cost savings are well worth the extra effort.
Robin Dunlop
Author Profile
Robin has a financial management background, having held CFO and other senior positions in Australia, New Zealand and the UK before entering the consulting field.
Over the past 30 years, previously in senior management roles, and more recently with Resources for Profit, he has helped numerous organisations save millions of dollars through a combination of process improvement and knowing where to source the best value to achieve ongoing sustainable savings.
When asked where his passion for maximising value came from, it’s often suggested it’s his Scottish background. He would however say its many years in line management, where improving process and keeping costs down to a minimum were an important part of his responsibilities.
As a founding director of Resources for Profit, an award winning consultancy who specialise in Indirect cost management, he is now able to offer over 35 years of experience to his clients.
