The Amware Fulfillment & Logistics Blog

Peak season is upon us, and eTailers and their customers are looking forward to the holiday shopping season. There’s another thing, however, that eTailers should have in their sights: the holiday shipping season, including the cut-off dates of the major parcel carriers. In this article, we’ll tell you what those dates are and why they matter to your business.

Capacity shortages among parcel carrier companies have escalated concerns among eCommerce and omnichannel retailers. These businesses rely heavily on FedEx, UPS, USPS, DHL, and various regional carriers to deliver goods. When freight capacity for parcels falls short, associated delays negatively impact the buying experience for online shoppers. That’s why a parcel shipping strategy that relies predominantly on one preferred

Though dimensional weight, or DIM weight, is hardly a new pricing model, it remains a hidden profit killer for pick and pack fulfillment operations that don’t properly manage it. Misunderstanding how parcel carriers determine shipping rates can inflate your shipping costs 5–15%, so it’s imperative to choose your most cost-effective packaging option. 

While all shipping costs are transportation costs, not all transportation costs are shipping costs.

Shipping costs are merely one category of transportation costs in logistics. Online sellers often equate shipping costs with the direct charges from parcel carriers. As a result, efforts to reduce transportation costs may fail to consider the many other areas that drive up the transportation cost bucket – and drive down profit.

All fulfillment operations use parcel carriers, making it hard to maintain strict control over shipping costs for eCommerce. When capacity is low and demand high, carriers raise prices per market trends.

Unfortunately, there’s very little shippers can do when parcel carriers decide to raise their rates, making it challenging to keep the shipping budget reasonable while still meeting consumer demands for fast and efficient

All e-retailers rely on the major parcel carriers to handle critical “last mile” delivery of packages to the customer’s doorstep. While most fulfillment operations use all the big parcel carriers to some degree, most favor one specific carrier that best suits the needs of their operation. If you’re wondering how to determine the best parcel carrier for your eCommerce shipping needs, read on.

If you’re running an online or omnichannel retail business, your customers expect free and fast shipping – and you probably want to give it to them so you can compete with other online sellers. But figuring out how to fulfill orders affordably can also get confusing, time-consuming, and expensive.

There’s a perception among eCommerce companies that today’s customers won’t settle for anything less than two-day delivery for online orders. But is that actually true?

Maybe not.

Looking for new ways to reduce parcel freight costs? If you’re not already using the following strategies, then you are missing out on the best ways to whittle down the 75% of overhead that your firm funnels into outbound parcel costs every year.  Check our our eBook on reducing shipping costs for eCommerce.  

2020 was a chaotic year for eCommerce shipping – for the parcel carriers delivering those orders, the at-home customers dependent on reliable fulfillment, and for you, the online seller trying to keep customers happy while absorbing some pretty stiff parcel shipping cost increases.

As the pandemic continues, together with increased online buying, it will continue to be a seller’s market for eCommerce shipping in 2021. There