Organising shipping has always been difficult for me. Finding the balance between price, quality and reliability has seen me try various different couriers and postal services over the years.
Currently, I offer FedEx, DHL and DPD (for UK and EU).
- FedEx - Are very reliable and collect reliably. Prices are not too bad in general.
- DHL - Are the most reliable company in my experience and rarely have any issues.
- DPD - I love the fact that in the UK they give an hour delivery time, but they have failed to collect several times which means too often customers are not getting the next day delivery I promise.
The big question is do we really need choice or should I just standadise and use one courier? If I did my preferred choice would be DHL as they ship worldwide and are very reliable. I have always had great support from them. The boxes are bright yellow so hard to miss. The downside of DHL is that they are the most expensive in general.
But what do you, my customers, think?
Would you like to see just one company or have a choice in the checkout? Would you like to see a slow, less reliable but cheap shipping option?
Please post a comment and let me know your thoughts before I decide what to do.
1 comment
DPD failed to collect again today. So I have dropped them as a shipper. There is no point offering a next day service in the UK when they keep failing to collect.
So all UK shipments will now be via DHL Express, which is next working day.
For the EU I have also removed DPD and replaced them with a new service called “SRM Budget Shipping”. This is a reduced cost and I will decide who to ship the order with. It could be any courier or postal service with tracking. I will use the service that I choose based on current service and prices. This will be a slow service and may take 5 to 7 working days.
Simon