Which Is The Best Suited Shipping Carrier For The E-Commerce Stores?

The shipping process is the major part of your business, if you belong to the eCommerce or online selling platform. You need to choose between several existing shipping methods or carriers when you are settling your store online.

The four major shipping carriers which are being famous for online orders fulfillment are: DHL , FedEx , UPS and USPS .

Now, you have to decide whether you wish to include all the four shipping carriers into your shipping methods or include only one with the lowest rate and best service. The questions may seem very simple but the mind you the answers are not that easy.

All of them are different from each other in respect of the pricing, services, locations, destinations etc. So, to make the decision somewhat easy, we are giving you a fair comparison of all of the four shipping carriers.

I hope, at the end of this post, you will be able to decide the best suited carrier for your store and business.

Overview

DHL

‘DHL Express’ is the largest among Logistics Company when considering the air and sea mail services. It is part of the Deutsche Post DHL which is a Germany based logistic company.

This company ships domestically and also internationally. But, basically they were more into international and offshore shipping services. However, they expanded their services to worldwide few years later.

UPS

It is the most common and famous shipping carrier among the eCommerce web stores. The full form of this shipping carrier is ‘United Parcel Service’ but it is known with its abbreviation, UPS. It has the capacity of delivering large number of online shipments in a single day across the globe.

The company gives special discounts to their loyal customers. They also have their own airline and air cargo for the shipment services.

FedEx

The full form of FedEx is ‘Federal Express’ which is the air division of this company. The head-quarter of company is in Memphis, Tennessee. As per the reputation, FedEx is the best shipping carrier. The company has varying shipping services which includes the ground and air shipping.

They also provide temperature and humidity controlled shipment services along with extra security/packaging services.

USPS

The ‘United States Postal Service’ is the oldest carrier among all of the major shipping carriers. It was based in US and formed in 1775. In its early days, it used to deliver gifts and cards in Christmas. But the truth is that provides the services for all the products with less weights such as letters, cards, documents, and even other products which are lighter in weight.

In spite of this advantage, they were unable to impress their customers. This is because they don’t provide any estimated date for delivery and take up so much time in resolving any issue or compliant.

Advantages:

DHL	UPS	FedEx	USPS
International Presence:  They have their centers established in more than 220 countries.	Speed: The speed of the delivery of packages is quite fast as compared to others.	Environment Friendly: They use the environment friendly vehicles for the shipment of the parcels	Low cost: In the US, it is the least expensive shipping carrier.
Sea Delivery: Since their inception, they have been shipping worldwide via sea routes.	Work from home: To check and opt for their services, you can do that through their website from sitting at your home.	Timely shipment: They provide various shipping days’ options such as two day, overnight and other saver options.	Reliability: You can rely on them as they have existed in this field from more than 200 years, no matter they don’t provide an estimated delivery date and time.
Air Delivery: They also have various flights for the delivery of the shipment across the globe.	Pick up: They can arrange pick up of your parcel.		Service Variety: There are various services offered, such as, stamp, emails, tracking updates etc.

Disadvantages:

DHL	UPS	FedEx	USPS
Weak US presence: As compared to the other 3 major shipping carriers, it has less presence in US.	Expensive: Their express and overnight services can be expensive along with some packaging.	Less Services: They have less number of services as compared to UPS and USPS shipping carriers.	No estimated time for delivery: They do not provide any guaranteed or estimated date for delivery unlike other shipping carriers.
Extra charges: They charge some extra amount for pickup services and other surcharges which is not there with the other 3.		Smaller Fleets: They do not have much transportation vehicles.	Poor Tracking Information: The customers can only able to see the tracking information for the delivered parcels and not for those which are in transit.
			Costly Insurance: The insurance for the delivery is very costly and when one claims, it takes many to days to get that resolved.

Best Suited for :

DHL:
It is the best shipping carrier option for the eCommerce industries, large businesses involving the shipment of products worldwide.

UPS:
It is the best suited shipping carrier for the small sized businesses.

FedEx:
It is for those who want their items to be shipped and delivered fast.

USPS:
It can be best for the customers and eCommerce companies. And for the light weight products.

Conclusion

When you choose a shipping method for your business, it is best to define a shipping profile for your store and then choose a method. There are various factors which can affect your decision. These can be: Price margin, Destinations where you wish to ship the parcels, weight and dimension of the parcel, package type etc.

Understand the requirements for your business and then go for the shipping carriers. If you have any questions regarding the comparison of the major shipping carriers, just contact our Magento eCommerce consultants and they will suggest you best solution. we would be happy to help you!