Quick Onboarding of New Carriers Allows Retailers to Adapt

21st august 2020

The ability to ship parcels across borders is something that is becoming more important for e-commerce businesses.

However, the process of moving to cross-border e-commerce is not an easy one to navigate.

In this blog post, we look at the main challenges to cross border ecommerce expansion and how the quick on-boarding of new carriers can help businesses to overcome these issues.

The main challenges to cross-border e-commerce expansion

Here are some of the main concerns that come with cross-border e-commerce expansion:

• Shipping

A valid concern amongst retailers expanding across national borders is shipping. To cater to an audience spread across different geographical locations is not only difficult, but also confusing to manage, especially when booking shipments is done manually with multiple carriers involved.

• Credit card authorization

With an increase in money-related frauds, online retailers find it quite hard to authorize credit cards utilized by customers during their purchase.

In order to authorize such transactions, the retailer needs to make use of address verification systems, which are not applicable in many countries.

• Legal issues

A lot of countries around the world have tightened their consumer protection laws, which makes it more difficult for e-commerce retailers to reach their customers.

The most prominent barrier is the lack of time and resources available to adapt to these new changes.

• Carrier management

Without a strong carrier footprint in a country, it becomes harder for businesses to offer convenient delivery options to their customers and increases shipping costs.

How quick onboarding of new carriers helps businesses

To start with, the quick onboarding of new carriers cuts the time taken for businesses to get setup and launch into a new market as the time taken to plan and implement them is greatly reduced.

Also, when entering a new market, the aim of every business must be to offer more than what the local competitors can. By making multiple shipment options available to customers, you can give your business a competitive advantage, as your customers can choose a delivery method that’s most convenient for them.

Choosing the right carriers and partners right from the get-go also allows businesses to offer the best choice for every customer with regards to price, convenience, and delivery time. Figuring out this essential step before the expansion can help retailers easily adapt to changing markets across borders and gain a strong foothold early on.

Benefits of an MCPMS

You can gain access to multiple carriers by using a MCPMS (multi carrier parcel management software,) which can help businesses navigate common hurdles that come with cross-border expansion.

Besides reductions in costs and better service levels, here are some more reasons why you should choose an MCPMS:

• Better shipping choices

Customers today know what they want and how they would like it delivered. If your business is not offering flexible delivery options, customers could move onto your competitor just as easily.

An MCPMS with a vast carrier library allows you to provide a wide range of delivery options to your customers in the online checkout, ranging from next day delivery through to click and collect.

• Remove manual processes

Booking shipments manually is a time-consuming task. It becomes even more of a problem when shipping high volumes of parcels.

An MCPMS can make this process much easier, by selecting and transferring shipment data to the right carrier and printing the label automatically.

• Track all parcels in one place

Tracking parcels across multiple carriers becomes confusing when you have to login to each portal to find the information you need.

With an MCPMS, you can track all shipments in one cloud-based portal so you can view everything in one place.

• Make interlining easier

If you choose a singular carrier, they may or may not ship to the required global destination, and may require the help of another carrier for final delivery. This process is known as interlining.

An MCPMS makes this process easier, as you have more carriers to choose from based on the shipment destination.

Conclusion

While making your business available in other countries is definitely advantageous, there are several barriers that come with cross-border e-commerce expansion.

Fortunately, retailers can avoid the major concern of accessibility by using an MCPMS. This gives retailers multiple carrier options, which makes it easier and quicker to launch into new markets.

Download our free e-book to learn how successful brands overcome the 3 most common barriers to cross border e-commerce.