When you're in the business of shipping packages, satisfactory delivery to your customers is crucial. Customers have high expectations for the quality of shipping and turnaround for their orders to arrive at their doorstep. Developing a shipping strategy that satisfies your customer's needs and aligns with your business needs are very important to the success of your ecommerce business. Before shipping packages, you want to choose the right delivery service - considering specific factors, like the speed of delivery and shipping restrictions. When it comes to shipping with DHL, we will break down the details of different service offerings so you can see if these services align with your logistical needs.
Shop4Mailers is here to offer our expertise on all things shipping. Once you've narrowed down which service will suit your delivery needs, we can help you choose the best poly mailers, shipping labels, and other shipping supplies. With our shipping hacks, you can set up the most optimized processes for shipping packages.
The Ecommerce Boom
The growth of ecommerce seemingly happened almost overnight, with small boutiques and large corporations turning to the internet as a new way to sell products and engage customers. The shipping experience is a significant way to improve your online company's presence to your customers. Now more than ever, there is an emphasis and unspoken requirement for an online shopping option, which is why it’s so vital to have a reliable delivery service provider to take on the responsibility of shipping packages on behalf of your business. The excellent news for businesses and customers is that delivery services are competing for the speediest delivery services. There are plenty of economical and reliable delivery services at your fingertips, but which one will best suit your business? Let's find out if DHL’s shipping service will fit the bill for your ecommerce business needs.
Shipping with DHL
When it comes to shipping packages on behalf of your business, you want to rely on a well-known, trusted delivery service. DHL is one of the leading logistics companies, servicing over 220 countries and territories. DHL provides domestic and international delivery services and works to support the growing ecommerce sector. From the first engagement to placing an order, every customer touchpoint is important, especially when it comes to the final delivery, which is why DHL aims to find the most economical ways to help you with shipping packages. DHL offers a variety of logistical solutions for small, medium, and even large enterprises:
- Warehouse and fulfillment
- Transportation and distribution
- Integrated logistics
- Customs, security, and insurance
- Visibility and risk management
- Consulting and management services
- Green logistics
DHL emphasizes a strong commitment to reaching new markets and helping you grow your business. With reliable delivery and accurate estimations, DHL is an excellent provider to consider for your ecommerce logistics needs. You can compare these service offerings to other delivery service providers to see how the competition stacks up. To make sure you choose the right delivery service for your business needs, you will need to conduct due-diligence for these shipping considerations.
Shipping Considerations with DHL
No matter which carrier you are exploring for your shipping services, specific shipping considerations should be taken into account. It's important to note that your carrier should supply the service offerings that align with your business that ensure a smooth shipping process. A delivery service shouldn't add to your logistics stress but make things more comfortable and more efficient. When it comes to shipping with DHL, we will break down these shipping considerations:
- Service offerings
- Speed of delivery
- Destination of delivery
- Size and weight restrictions
Closely weigh these shipping considerations when it comes to DHL and even other delivery service providers. If you're unsure where to get started, it's best first to do a deep dive into what will make shipping packages easier and have a chart or document to reference when conducting research. You can use this reference to see how each carrier stacks up against each other. You can also rate which factors are most important to you to help narrow down the decision. For businesses big or small, each business will have individual needs and should have the right service provider to cater to each of those requirements. Let's start our deep dive into DHL with a comprehensive list of their shipping services.
Shipping Services
When it comes to shipping packages, DHL offers a variety of shipping services: document and parcel shipping, express delivery, international services, and cargo and freight services. For ecommerce businesses, we will focus on the services offered domestically for smaller parcels, and we will take a deep dive into international shipping services later on. Suppose your business sends many orders within the U.S. In that case, DHL's domestic product offerings seek to reduce postage costs without sacrificing the quality of delivery service and even include return services. Here are three domestic shipping services offered by DHL that are tailored to the needs of ecommerce businesses:
- DHL SmartMail Parcel
- DHL SmartMail Parcel Plus
- DHL SmartMail Flats
These services are ideal for businesses shipping small and lightweight packages. The SmartMail services tailor to businesses that ship smaller products, ranging from under one pound to 15 lbs. These expedited shipping processes are successful due to DHL’s partnership with USPS, allowing greater reach across the United States, including rural areas and military addresses. With this partnership, DHL engages the local partnerships at USPS and can reach over 154 million addresses.
Speed of Delivery
When it comes to online orders, the speed of delivery is essential to customer satisfaction. DHL provides express services that offer either same-day or time-definite deliveries for quick turnarounds and any urgent needs. With DHL Sameday Sprintline service, an emergency dedicated vehicle is on call for delivery within the shortest possible time for same-day delivery. This same service is also available when shipping packages require flight transportation. DHL Express Import services offer delivery on the next possible day with specific time-definite options: 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m., and by noon. The express delivery is also available for urgent deliveries worldwide by the end of the next possible day. With these time-sensitive delivery options, DHL has logistics to support same-day and next-day emergency delivery services. To learn more about DHL's urgent delivery options, check out their express import services here.
Size and Weight Requirements
No matter which carrier you use for shipping packages, postage prices are dictated by size and weight. For specific service offerings, shipping companies have certain restrictions on weight, length, and girth of packages to maintain cost-effective shipping for that service segment; the same is true for DHL. DHL's SmartMail Parcel and Flats services allow small shipments for up to one pound to maintain cost-effective prices, while the Parcel Plus offer allows shipments up to 25 lbs. DHL's SmartMail Flat service offers an advantage in that there is a flat shipping rate for their boxes, tailored for smaller packages. When not using flat rate shipping boxes or envelopes, there are still plenty of options, like our poly mailer bags, which we will detail later. Depending on which service you proceed with, you will have limitations on your package's size and weight, which is why it's essential to explore the different delivery options you have. Before shipping packages, you can always use a cost estimator or speak to a company representative for more information on finding the most economical service for your size package.
Delivery Destination
DHL's international shipping services can support your ecommerce needs when it comes to crossing borders. With an international network covering more than 220 countries and territories worldwide, DHL's services can assist you when working on shipping packages overseas. With turnaround times varying from four to 14 days, these international shipping services make cross-border shipments easier:
- DHL Packet International
- DHL Parcel International Standard
- DHL Parcel International Direct
Not only will DHL help provide international shipping solutions, but they also offer services to help with the additional effort that comes with shipping packages across the border, such as calculating duty and tax. This international shipping service guide will help give you a snapshot of size and weight restrictions, which party the duty and taxes are paid by (shipper or receiver), and more. Before your ecommerce business starts shipping packages to different countries, check to see which service is the most cost-effective for international shipping services.
DHL Shipping Restrictions
When it comes to shipping packages domestically and internationally, there are certain shipping restrictions. There is a laundry list of items that DHL is unable to ship within the U.S. due to specific guidelines and restrictions. Before you start packaging, double-check that you are within guidelines. None of your packages may contain restricted items such as alcoholic beverages, jewelry valued over $100, tobacco products, and precious metals and stones. DHL also restricts the shipment of dangerous goods, which include anything hazardous or combustible. Want to learn more about DHL’s shipping restrictions? Check out the full list of DHL restricted items for shipping in the U.S.
Poly Mailers
When it comes to ecommerce, half of the battle is picking a delivery service aligned with your business needs, but picking the right poly mailer and shipping supplies is also crucial in ecommerce business-decision making. We will give you a comprehensive guide to all things poly mailer so you will have the best, high-quality shipping supplies when it’s time to start shipping packages. Our poly mailers are fit for various sized products and come in varying thickness, so you can have a built-in extra cushion if needed. With poly mailer sizes ranging from 6” x 9” to 19” x 24”, you can fit various items like small jewelry or bulky sweatshirts. Our poly mailer helps to reduce costs when it comes to shipping because they are so lightweight. These poly mailers are constructed from a thick, plastic material that remains flexible and light. This material is resistant to tears, rips, punctures, and keeps out dirt, dust, debris, and moisture. No matter what your style is, we have so many poly mailer options to choose from:
If you’re looking to save money with shipping, take advantage of the durability and protection that white poly mailers offer. Our white poly mailer envelopes are available in various sizes and thicknesses and are perfect for mailing clothes, stuffed animals, or other soft items. If your business tends to ship mainly small products, we have five reasons why you would benefit from using poly mailer packaging. These mailer bags are crafted from a sturdy yet lightweight plastic resistant to tears, rips, punctures, and dust, dirt, moisture, and debris. Making shipping packages hassle-free with our self-sealing technology that comes built into our poly mailer. At Shop4Mailers, we want to help make things easier for all of your shipping needs. To browse our poly mailer and other shipping supplies, check out our collection of wholesale items.
Wholesale Shipping Supplies
When it comes to choosing a delivery service, we know businesses of any size must make economic business decisions, that's why we offer our high-quality shipping supplies at wholesale. You can cut out the middleman's cost and shop directly from the wholesale providers at Shop4Mailers, where you can find all of your shipping essentials. Here are some of the wholesale product offerings that we consider must-haves for any business to have in stock before shipping packages:
- Clear poly bags
- Shipping labels
- Suffocation warning labels
For an assortment of wholesale products and shipping expertise, rely on us to help guide you. Whether you need assistance picking a delivery service or finding the best fitting poly mailer, we want to help simplify all parts of the shipping process for your ecommerce business.
Shipping Made Easy
With this shipping guide and our shipping supply tips, we want you to be on your way to smooth sailing for all things logistics. To help make shipping for your business more accessible, we offer up our favorite shipping advice: creating a shipping station. This hack involves setting up a dedicated space for packaging and shipping. Clear of clutter, this space should have all of your must-haves at an arm's length distance. We recommend a storage system that allows for clear views and putting that old label maker to use to stay organized.
Are you ready to start shipping packages? Explore our poly mailer and other wholesale supplies available at Shop4Mailers.com.
