To win the international online buyer, you should offer a good product price, but also great shipping rates. However, international shipping costs can be exorbitant so you may wonder:
- How can I do that without going bust?
- If I’m going to reduce shipping costs by 50%, how will I make profits?
One way of offering competitive shipping rates to your buyers AND paying low shipping rates yourself are parcel forwarding services.
Continue reading to find out how parcel forwarding works and what benefits it will bring to your online business.
Parcel forwarding: a great shipping solution for global online sellers
Parcel or package forwarding is an international shipping service offered to online buyers doing cross-border online shopping. It applies to online purchases and orders shipped in a package.
Package forwarding services are mostly motivated by:
- The desire of online shoppers to buy from foreign retailers.
- The need to overcome obstacles to cross-border online shopping, e.g. shipping and paying for orders, high international shipping rates and transit safety.
Parcel forwarding companies ship items abroad in large amounts. As a consequence, they can get much better rates and discounts, which makes it possible to pass on lower costs to the seller.
Parcel forwarding is simple and profitable for all parties involved: the service provider, the seller and the buyer.
Find out more about international shipping solutions tailored to your business needs!
The advantages of using parcel forwarding services
Small to medium-sized online sellers rarely have the resources to handle international shipping in the most efficient and cost-effective way. In contrast, due to the high volume of shipments, parcel forwarding companies can afford to negotiate great shipping rates. Additionally, their wealth of shipping experience gives them extensive knowledge of shipping-related matters, e.g. documentation or best couriers.
Using parcel forwarding services, you shift fairly complex shipping activities onto companies that know to handle them most efficiently, both financially and logistically. In other words…
A lot of hassle is taken off your shoulders.
Using parcel forwarding companies you will benefit from their:
- knowledge of the domestic & international shipping industry
- resources and the ability to leverage volume to reduce cost
- co-operation with global couriers
- parcel tracking services.
On top of that, package forwarding companies:
- deal with shipping and export documents
- consolidate packages: combine several small parcels from several customers into one shipment at a reduced cost.
- repack parcels that don’t meet international shipping packaging standards: sometimes the parcels arriving in the distribution hub may be too large, damaged or insecurely sealed. Such parcels will be repacked.
How does parcel forwarding work?
When the buyer places an order, parcel forwarding companies receive the product from the seller along with the buyer address. They take it from there and ship the item to the buyer directly.
To explain the process in more detail, we will show you how Glopal is involved in forwarding parcels for our sellers.
This is how Parcel Forwarding works:
- Glopal adds its delivery options to the check-out in addition to the seller’s existing ones.
- The buyer chooses one of Glopal’s delivery options and places the order as usual.
- Glopal receives the order and sends an email confirmation with the parcel tracking number to the buyer.
- Glopal sends the order details to the seller. The order shipping address will be the address of the nearest local parcel forwarding hub and will contain a tracking number.
- The seller picks and packs and sends the parcel to the given shipping address.
- Glopal receives the parcel at the local hub. The parcel is scanned and identified using the tracking number.
- A new parcel label is printed with the buyer’s address and the parcel is then shipped to its final destination.
- Glopal delivers the parcel to the buyer and handles any customer questions.
In short
The buyer places an order, selects one of Glopal’s delivery options and makes the payment. They receive an order confirmation email with the tracking number.
The seller receives the order and payment for the product. They dispatch the item to the Glopal local hub and can sit back and relax. Glopal takes care of the rest.
The package forwarding service makes international shopping convenient and easy, removing the problems related to shipping and payment.
Optimise your international delivery costs to grow your sales
Glopal’s parcel service has many benefits. Glopal will apply competitive delivery options in addition to yours: at no additional cost.
On top of competitive shipping rates, the buyer can enjoy a wider choice. Consider the variety of shipping benefits that come with Amazon Prime: one of them is the possibility of choosing from several shipping options. Buyers simply love it!
According to our tests,
Online sellers who offered multiple delivery options grew their active GMV by 14%.
Also, when using Parcel Forwarding with Glopal, rest assured that delivery times included in your product listings will be met. We know how disappointed buyers can get, waiting impatiently for their parcel to arrive. Hence, with world class providers, we make sure it gets there on time!
With Glopal shipping options, we will ensure delivery promises are kept and your online store’s reputation stays shipment-intact.
Forward your parcels hassle-free with Glopal
Our service provides added value to all international sellers who want to go the extra mile and maximise their conversions with minimum extra effort.
What’s in it for international online sellers?
- More delivery options for your buyers, more sales for you
- Cheaper delivery options than your existing ones
- Handle international orders as if they were domestic: just send your deliveries to our local shipping hub in the UK and Glopal will take it from there!
- Hassle-free logistics: leave it to us!
Sounds too good to be true? Remember: there’s no magic in our solution. We just use a smart way to lower shipping costs and grow the GMV of our customers. Parcel forwarding is cheaper in acquisition and demands less effort from our sellers.
We can offer competitive rates to our sellers thanks to bulk purchasing, on average 20% cheaper. Every day we help over 20,000 sellers grow their revenue on international markets. We regularly send multiple international packages. In other words, we have some international shipping business to do.
We are in a position to negotiate great shipping rates with forwarders. As a result, our sellers pay less for international deliveries and they sell more.
The complete OnlineStores service from Glopal
Selling internationally and interested in Parcel Forwarding with Glopal?
We’ve got some great news! With us, not only will you ship your items efficiently and hassle-free, but we can also provide you with the FREE translation and localisation of your online store.
Glopal offers a cross-border sales solution that localises online stores and upgrades the buying experience for international buyers.
How will you benefit from Glopal's Google Shopping solution? We offer you:
- Translated and localised product pages on your own domain name
- Cheap international shipping rates for your customers
- Size conversion in line with specific markets & categories
- Live currency conversion
- Support from experienced cross-border trade experts
- Search engine optimisation of your store so it’s easily found by foreign buyers
- Customisation of the localised store, including your logo, colours & images
- 24-hour preview mode before the localised stores go live.
It’s free and there’s no catch! Except for standard PayPal fees, we guarantee that our service is 100% free. Again, this happens thanks to our efficient shipping solution that offers great rates for buyers whilst also covering our costs. If our offer changes at any point in the future, we will give you at least 60 days’ notice. You can also cancel at any time or for any reason.
To conclude
Make the most of low international shipping rates and serve your international customers the fully localised buyer experience!
Thanks to parcel forwarding services, your orders can be shipped hassle-free anywhere around the globe at competitive rates. This is what we do at Glopal and we’re happy to be able to pass our own savings onto your company and your customers. We can also localise your online store on international markets free of charge.
