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Choosing the right parcel carrier: the must-haves
Canadians love shopping online more than ever. And with the peak season coming up fast, many online retailers are looking for new ways to streamline their customer’s experiences.
It’s not hard to figure out why e-Commerce is popular. From the shopper’s perspective, it offers many benefits like:
- Easy cost and product comparison at the consumer’s fingertips
- Access to variety not seen in brick and mortar stores
- The ability to save time — online shopping takes a fraction of the time that it takes to go out and shop in-person, especially for those living outside of city centres
With 61% of Canadians highlighting the importance of fast and reliable delivery, it’s become more important than ever for online retailers to keep up with order volumes. If companies can’t keep up with customer demand and offer a quick, seamless delivery, then they risk customers turning their backs on them in favor of other retailers with a tighter process.
This dilemma makes one thing clear: it’s never been more important for online retailers, third-party logistics providers, and freight forwarders to choose the right parcel carrier.
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Why choosing the right parcel carrier is important
Until recently, parcel carrier options hadn’t really changed much since online shopping became a reality in Canada in the late 90s/early 2000s. With customer expectations growing, many customers in Canada have been hungry for a more modern package delivery system — something that raises the bar when compared with traditional carriers by offering quicker delivery time and a more intuitive tracking system.
Although online retailers use third-party companies to fulfill their orders, this disconnection is not always seen through the eyes of the customer. Because your customer will associate their package delivery experience with your brand, it's important to be careful with who you trust with your package delivery. It’s important that you see your parcel carrier company as part of your team.
What to look for in a parcel carrier
- Capacity: you’ll want to work with a parcel carrier with the capacity for mass deliveries. If you serve customers from coast to coast (and even coast), you won’t want to go with a carrier who only serves the Montreal or Toronto metropolitan areas.
- Volume: your parcel carrier has to be able to handle a high volume of packages, meaning they must have a sufficient number of employees. Otherwise, you can’t be so sure that your parcels won’t be the ones that don’t make the cut.
- Customer service: even with the best laid plans, things can go wrong. Make sure that there is a representative at your parcel carrier that you can reach out to for help should you need it.
- Technology: this isn’t the year 2000 anymore. Your parcel carrier should have the technology that reflects the modern times. In fact, they should go a step further and constantly be developing new technology to make their services progressively better.
- Reach: look for a parcel carrier with a certain number of stations and hubs across the country. Canada is a big place, so your parcel carrier has to have a country-wide reach in order to deliver packages efficiently.
- Schedule: today’s package volumes mean that we don’t have the luxury of a parcel carrier that only delivers 5 days per week. You should be looking for a parcel carrier with a 7-day delivery schedule.
Why Intelcom is the top choice parcel carrier
If there is one parcel delivery company that checks all of the above boxes, it’s Intelcom.
Intelcom is well-suited to handle high-volume clients thanks to our capacity (500,000 packages per day), technology (always improving and cutting-edge), reach (over 70 stations country-wide reaching over 90% of Canadian addresses), and Customer Experience Center (corporate clients get a dedicated account manager). We also offer a 7-day delivery schedule and a state-of-the-art Mississauga-based sorting hub that connects packages with customers across Canada. If you’re looking for ways to improve your e-Commerce experience, get in touch with Intelcom today. Whether you’re shipping from Canada, the US, or somewhere else entirely, Intelcom’s expertise is unmatched.
