Individual carriers or carrier aggregators? What if we say, keep both!

Running an eCommerce is not easy and the major problem occurs when you receive orders from your online store but are not sure how to ship them among all the shipping options available.

“Want to switch your logistics provider from carrier partner to aggregator or vice-versa? Or simply keep both?”

Want a platform that provides an easy switch between these logistics providers and integration?

As a brand owner, logistics might give you a tuff time and start bothering you.

Don’t worry you are in the right place, this blog will give you a better understanding of the solution to your problems and help you choose the best shipping option for your business and their ease of integration.

Direct partnership with the individual carrier service provider(s).

As a new D2C or SMB eCommerce brand, when you partner with one or more individual carrier service providers, you don’t have any other option rather than using their separate (multiple) dashboards to manage your order shipping.

Being an eCommerce player, you must have contacted many courier companies for your logistic services and also noticed that every company has different rates and prices for the services they offer. So, you need to pick the right service partner for your eCommerce weighing all the pros and cons.

* Tip – Go for the premium courier partner that offers both domestic as well as international shipping services.

Pros of direct partnership with individual carriers –

Reliable and Convenient
Takes care of efficient shipping and related services
Create trust and loyalty among your customers
Customized Shipping Solutions
Included security advantages (transit, customs, etc.)

Cons of direct partnership with individual carriers –

High pricing
Lack of shipping options
Excessive manual handling via multiple dashboards
Limited resources and network supply chain

Direct partnership with carrier aggregator(s).

As mentioned above, every shipping company has different service rates and prices, some of them may be offering better and lower rates but their services might not be up to the mark. Another possibility is that they might not be delivering the parcels on time, taking it way too long from packaging to shipping.

Now, how would you know, when and in what condition the parcel is being delivered to your customers? As it directly impacts your brand image with distorted post-purchase service provided from your side.

So, if you are an enterprise eCommerce brand or SMB that’s expanding the business and wants to shift towards one that can provide more than average shipping services then you can choose shipping aggregators over individual carrier partners.

As shipping aggregators give variables in the delivery mechanism of the courier services by giving you multiple shipping options under one roof.

Checking the delivery mechanism process (shipping to different locations or pin codes) provided by the courier company decides the average delivery time, which is the primary aspect to consider. Because choosing a courier service for forward or reverse logistics that do not offer timely delivery or pick-up or does not cover the location/PIN where you intend to deliver, is of no use.

Partnering with a carrier aggregator enables you to assign parcel shipping among multiple carrier service providers under one single contract providing the best delivery experience to your customers.

Pros of direct partnership with carrier aggregator –

Option to ship with multiple carriers
Best pricing per order
Operate from a single dashboard
Track performance of individual carriers

Cons of direct partnership with carrier aggregator –

Lack of customer support
Mandatory package purchase to ship beyond certain orders
Lack of opportunity to integrate with another carrier aggregators

Want to keep both – individual carriers as well as carrier aggregators! But How?

Yes, you can definitely keep both as your logistic provider, but with a platform that can enable your shipping processes with them smoothly and effectively.

Here is when Shipway comes into the frame! Shipway, an e-commerce shipping automation solution provides you with the best shipping service processes to deliver an excellent post-purchase experience to your customers from your side.

If you are partnered directly with individual carriers,

Shipway enables you with a centralized dashboard where you can integrate APIs of all your carrier partners. With this seamless integration, you can manage all your online orders and auto-allocate them to different carrier partners for shipping.

With the Shipway platform, you can keep track of the carrier’s performance which assists you to automate the whole fulfillment process and make better decisions.

The platform enables you with flexible and fast switching between your required shipping options.

If you are partnered directly with carrier aggregators,

Shipway provides you with the simplest API integration of your carrier aggregator or multiple carrier aggregators on a unified dashboard. The Shipway platform enables you to track online orders and monitor your carrier performance as with individual carriers and allows you for a flexible switch if any carrier partner is not performing well.

On integrating with carrier aggregators, you will receive a uniform and streamlined platform to monitor your online orders and communicate with their integrated carrier partners.

If you want to move ahead with both individual carriers and carrier aggregators, it’s possible with Shipway.

Yes, it’s possible to keep both as your logistics service providers or even switch your logistics from carrier partner to carrier aggregator or vice-versa, it’s your wish.

This means, being a large D2C brand or an enterprise and if you wish to switch your logistics from one aggregator to another or integrate with multiple aggregators, Shipway provides seamless API integration with multiple carrier aggregators on its panel for your convenience to ship your online orders.

Points to consider before switching your logistics platform.

While finalizing your logistics drive, between the individual carrier and carrier aggregator, mark a few points that your integration partner must provide whether you wish to switch your shipping partner from individual carriers to carrier aggregators or vice-versa.

1. Flexibility with carriers

Flexibility to switch to another carrier partner in no time, as per your business requirements such as multiple PIN/ZIP serviceability, rate per order delivery, and time-consuming for order delivery.

2. Platform designed for both SMBs and Enterprises

When you’re a brand that receives a large order volume, be it an SMB or an enterprise, it becomes important to manage the order fulfillment and shipping processes in the right way, as it is going to directly impact your brand reputation.

So, if you have a large order volume then you must choose an integration partner that gives you the flexibility to not only allow you to integrate with carrier partners and aggregators separately but also allows you to switch between them whenever you require according to your business growth and need.

3. Smart allocation of orders for cost optimization

Smartly choose your carrier aggregator by comparing their costs of shipping for different areas or zones. For example, if Shiprocket offers a cheaper price for 1 Zone and Pickrr offers a cheaper price for another Zone, then allocate your orders accordingly, with the aggregator who offers the cheapest ecommerce shipping rates per order for a certain area.

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CHOICE IS YOURS! SHIPWAY IS OPEN FOR ALL – INDIVIDUAL CARRIER OR AGGREGATOR OR BOTH.

Why use multiple dashboards for managing multiple aggregators or carriers?

Shipway enables you with the flexibility to integrate either with carrier aggregators or individual carrier partners or both and also allows you to easily switch between these according to your business requirements.

As your business grows in the future, and you wish to switch to another courier partner or aggregator from the existing one, Shipway’s dashboard gives you complete flexibility for that too.

Our panel also enables you to switch between different carrier partners or aggregators for specific Zone shipping, as per their shipping costs for that Zone. First, you compare then we’ll fulfill your orders with the carrier partner of your wish.