Deciding on which courier to use for shipping

[George_Victor]

Howdy y'all,

My name is George and I'm new to this forum. A friend and I have recently opened up a business together in which we sell items on our website (currently being built). My main focus right now is to find the best type of courier service for our shipping once the online store is set up. Whether that being based off of pricing, reliability and insurance policies on the item. I was wondering if any of you could provide some insight on the matter and point me in the right direction. Thanks, George.

[Harold Mansfield]

Assuming you aren't shipping cars or pianos, and not knowing what your insurance needs are...a lot of people sign up for all of them. USPS, UPS and Fed Ex, and let the shopper pick based on cost to their specific location.

Basically you're going to have to do the math of what is convenient for you..as in if you need package pickup or will be running them to the drop off.
Where you're shipping. Domestic or International and who has the best rates.
If you want to offer air or overnight, or just ground.

Depending on the size of what you're shipping you may also look into flat rate boxes from USPS.

No matter what you choose you won't have an accurate assessment of costs until you start getting orders and have something to look at to determine what your shipping costs are month to month. Obviously if you do volume you can negotiate a better deal from all of them.

[Davidl]

I wouldnt go with UPS, Fedex, DHL for shipping overseas. The brokerage fees for UPS is 30-50 percent at the door. Go with USPS for international.

[George_Victor]

Thank you everyone for your input. I have decided to sign up with both UPS and FedEx like Harold previously said, and let my customers pick the shipping that they feel is the best for them.

One of the biggest positives to me was knowing that both UPS and FedEx provide a money back guarantee for any deliveries that are late. The only thing I've found out when reading about others who use it, is that they require you to claim the refunds yourself. Making it difficult for me because my time is very thin, I've found out companies offer pretty much free services to audit and claim your refunds for you.

If any of you need advice on that, I signed up with this company called 71lbs (website is 71lbs . com ). They don't charge any monthly fees or anything and it's fair because for whatever deliveries they find that are late, they only charge me half of the amount they find. I feel that is more than reasonable considering I wouldn't have had the money they're finding anyway.

Thanks again everyone who replied.