Interesting Facts Every E- commerce Sellers to Know

Ecommerce Sellers

It’s imperative to consider these before choosing any eCommerce shipping companies.

• India Post ( Government department) has the largest reach covering almost every pin-code in India
• If you notice, India has around 25,000 listed pin codes. However, the largest private courier can maximum have a reach of 15,000 pincodes.



• To transport anything, the only few possible ways are Air, Road, and Rail. However, Waterways or Seaways are used for bulk international shipment and not generally for e-commerce shipments.

Important Factors to keep in mind before starting the discussion with Courier Companies

• Serviceability :Any courier company, for a given pin-code should be able to tell whether they will either service it for all types of payment modes (Cash on Delivery or Prepaid), or only Prepaid, or does not service that pin code at all.

• Shipping charges : Which is composed of multiple elements



1] Freight/ Courier rate – These charges are calculated based on actual Weight or Volumetric Weight. We will cover volumetric weight in more detail but the most common formula in India is Lcm x Bcm x Hcm/5000 or 6000 = volumetric weight in kg.

2] Fuel Surcharge – This will be anywhere between 20-60% of the freight rate. The % varies with varying global fuel prices.

3] Service Tax – as per Govt Rules.

4] Return Charges - Assuming if your Buyer refuses to accept the parcel, Courier companies will have to return the parcels to Sellers location and Charges are almost equivalent to Onward shipping charges.

5] Entry Tax/ Octroi / Tax Forms - certain States Commercial Tax Depart has started levying Entry Tax and also Demand State Tax forms, Its sellers responsibility to share these forms at the time of pickup. Few Courier Companies charge Extra Charges for Facilitating Tax Amounts.

6] COD (1-3% usually) & Min Fixed amount + Service Tax

• Always make sure if you are shipping some parcel which are large in size or heavy in weight, always choose Surface parcel instead of air mode. This would save on your shipping cost drastically.

• Few companies who offer ecommerce shipping solutions are  like Bluedart, Fedex, eCom express, Aramex, GatiKWE, DOTZOT, Xpress Bees, Wow Express and Delhivery and you need to research well before you ship any location.

• You may consider using portals like eCourierz.com & eShipz.com for accessing automated shipping solutions, as these portals integrate with almost all shipping partners who offer these solutions at my economical rates. They also offer COD,Tracking, Automation of shipping Label, Dashboard, API solutions, Plugin of Opencart, Woocommerce, Prestashop, amazon order upload, bulk upload features etc.

• Packing material plays a vital role, such as multiple layers of bubble wrap and 3-5 ply cartons is the best possible way to protect your products from damage from shipments

• Many couriers do not cover more than Rs. 1000 of loss due to damage or loss of shipment its really advised to take independent Insurance policy for all the products which are shipped.