“A good network and reliability” – How to choose the right delivery partner for your eCommerce business

Choosing the delivery partner that suits your eCommerce business

Whether your customers are in Melbourne, Moama or Montreal, they want one thing: their order. ASAP.

It’s important to choose a delivery provider with a large delivery network, who can get that job done reliably, provides a transparent pricing structure that includes GST and offers savings that grow as you send more.  

If you’re trying to decide who to use as your eCommerce delivery partner, let’s take a look at some steps to help you reach the decision that’s best for your business. 

3 steps to choosing the right delivery partner

Who can you work with to fulfil your customers’ one big wish? (Receiving their order. ASAP.) Let’s make that decision an easy one to tick off the list. 

To find out how eCommerce business owners choose their delivery providers, we chatted with Bookbinders Design, a boutique stationery retailer operating from a Melbourne store and online.

1. What are the priorities for your business?

Reliability, delivery speed, price, sustainability, the network reach to deliver to remote areas and internationally, options for customers to choose different delivery points and simple returns – there are a lot of things a delivery provider can offer to help your eCommerce business provide a great service.

Amar Meh, owner of Bookbinders Design, says he and his team identified four top priorities when they were choosing a delivery partner:

• Delivery anywhere in Australia. "The most important consideration for us was a good network, so we have peace of mind that our orders will get anywhere in Australia efficiently,” Amar says.
• Reliable delivery every time. Amar says, “Once we ship, we want to know the customer will receive their order quickly and we won’t have to deal with the admin of chasing up delayed or lost orders.”
• A price point to help the business grow into international markets. “We now send internationally and it is surprisingly cheap. Realising that shipping to New Zealand is roughly the same price as Western Australia was a lightbulb moment for us,” says Amar. “It has become a growth opportunity and a market we actively pursue.”

Tip: When looking at your priorities, don’t forget to factor in the time it takes to lodge your packages. Using multiple providers to cover the areas you’re delivering to can take up lots of time in drop-offs, pickups , chasing issues and processing multiple invoices. 

Having one delivery partner with the best network reach can save hours – and that’s more time you can spend on your business.

2. How can a delivery partner add to your unique selling points?

An innovative product, user-friendly online store, price point – your unique selling points could be anything at all. 

The way your products are delivered can also add to the points you promote to customers and potential customers.

When Bookbinders Design decided to work with Australia Post as their delivery partner, they added this to their list of unique selling points. Reliable delivery is something that matters to their customers, so being able to meet this expectation is vital for making their business stand out.

“We see our partnership with Australia Post as an opportunity to instil confidence with our customers,” says Amar. “We encourage them to download the app so they can track and manage their deliveries. The more visibility that a customer has of their delivery, the less enquiries we receive and this means less time spent on keeping customers informed about the status of their delivery.”

Tip: Remember to tell customers that you use Australia Post as your delivery partner.  Then they’ll know they can choose to have their packages delivered to the largest network of  collection points in the country, including post office boxes or parcel lockers throughout Australia.

3. Who can provide time-saving tools that meet the needs of your business?

“As a small business, our time is the most precious asset that we have,” Amar explains. That’s why it was crucial for Bookbinders Design to work with a delivery partner who can save the business time on their daily shipping.

Sending orders to customers is just one task in the team’s day, and they get it done faster with simple integrations that automate label creation.

“As we’ve grown, being able to integrate our online store with MyPost Business has been a crucial time saver,” says Amar. “Using an integration means we can print all of the labels at once, which saves us hours each day.”

Tip: When you’re looking at the prices of delivery providers, make sure they include GST, but no fuel surcharge – those are hidden costs with some providers.  

4. A bonus discovery: The right delivery partner is about more than just cost

While following the three steps above was a winning strategy for Bookbinders Design, they also stumbled across an extra surprise.

As it turned out, choosing the right delivery provider is a big picture strategy: a combination of cost, reliability and a large network.

Amar says, “I keep an eye on what else is out there – other delivery services certainly catch your eye with some of their low prices. But when you look into it, you realise you would only be saving in some instances like same city, but then remote areas would end up significantly higher. So, it evens out from a cost perspective.”

“And then reading some of the reviews and experiences from other businesses, you also quickly realise that the potentially lower price is just not worth the missed pickups, lost parcels and customer complaints.”

Australia Post is Australia’s most reliable delivery provider with the largest network. We can save your eCommerce business time and money – and most importantly, meet your customers’ one big wish. To have their order delivered, ASAP.