Shipping Partners: Your Secret Weapon or Potential Pitfall?
Shipping Partners: Secret Weapon or Potential Pitfall?
Welcome back to our blog! Why not have a straight comparison on if you should be handling all of your shipping directly or if you should be using a Shipping Partner's platform and resources! In this deep dive, we will be identifying the pros and cons of building your own shipping department versus using a Shipping Platform such as iShip.io.
Can you save with a Shipping Partner?
First and foremost, let's talk about the allure of savings. Partnering with a shipping expert opens the door to incredible cost reductions. They have the industry clout to negotiate unbeatable discounts with carriers, ensuring that you don't pay a penny more than necessary. It's akin to having access to insider deals, leaving your budget in a healthier state.
What about administration:
Now, let's shift our focus to the realm of administration. A shipping partner brings more than just cost savings to the table; they're the seasoned navigators of the shipping maze. With their deep industry knowledge, they can effortlessly handle intricate admin tasks that often plague businesses. Whether it's addressing corrections, handling missed deliveries, resolving delays, or dealing with damaged shipments, they're your go-to problem solvers. It's like having a highly efficient administrative team at your service, ensuring that your shipping hiccups are smoothed out.
Control?
But what about control? When you partner with a shipping expert, you're entrusting a portion of your shipping operations to them. It's a trade-off. While they bring expertise, the potential downside is a loss of control. If your partner happens to be disorganized or less responsive, it can impact your customer experience. It's like sharing the wheel on a road trip; it can be smooth sailing when you're on the same page, but communication is key to avoid a bumpy ride.
Worried about being dependant?
Let's also consider the dependency factor. Relying heavily on a shipping partner means your business becomes intertwined with their performance. If they stumble, so do you. It's like taking a seat on a rollercoaster; thrilling when all goes well, but stomach-churning when things veer off course. It's essential to carefully assess the reliability and track record of your potential partner to mitigate this risk.
Cost of the partnership
Lastly, let's talk about the financial aspect. While some shipping partners charge fees and commissions, here at iShip.io, we believe in transparency. We don't saddle you with hidden costs. However, it's vital to note that not all partners share this approach. It's wise to scrutinize the terms of any potential partnership carefully to ensure that the savings you gain outweigh the costs.
Conclusion:
Through our decades of experience, we've come to the conclusion that Shipping Partners are a net benefit to any organization. As long as the shipping partner you're using is:
-Knowledgeable
-Organized
-Customer oriented
AND
You trust them with the administrational tasks. Ensuring they handle all the speed bumps better than you or your employees would. So, are Shipping Partners: Secret Weapon or Potential Pitfall?
FUN FACT
On paper, it's usually a net benefit to any organization to use a credible Shipping Partner up to around the point where the organization has a total shipping expense of around $7m to $10m per year. At that expense bracket, you could start seeing net benefits to having your own shipping department handling the carrier accounts directly, handling all the administrational tasks and carrying the labour costs of doing so. 😄
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