It may only be early spring, but the main reason eCommerce retailers choose now to review their international carrier analytics is so they can plan for Christmas.

Retailers are increasingly engaging early in this activity, to plan for peak shopping periods, when historically, significant strain is placed on carrier and logistics networks.

Most consumers are laser-focused on service and reliability for their favourite brands at Christmas, so delivering a bad experience can affect ongoing loyalty and repeat shopping profiles.

Having a review allows a retailer to reflect on a carrier’s performance during the previous peak season, measured against consumer feedback and to assess a carrier’s ongoing capacity, reliability, and pricing, ensuring they can handle the increased volume of international shipments.

One factor that is gaining increasing focus during any carrier review is the ability to speak to the carrier’s representative and to have access to accurate and up-to-date information. Sometimes, a BOT just isn’t good enough when Christmas is concerned!

Spring is also a time when many carrier contracts, that are structured on an annual basis, come up for review, prompting retailers to evaluate their existing partnerships and explore alternative options.

Factors like performance metrics, pricing, engagement and service level agreements are thoroughly scrutinised during negotiations, setting out the expectations between the carrier, the retailer and sometimes their end customer, as the shopping public are the most important member of this online delivery partnership.

Despite what we may think, the savvy retailer also monitors other carriers’ performances throughout the year, benchmarking their own service against market intelligence, word of mouth feedback and recommendations by retail colleagues. Price is never the overall factor when deciding how a brand is represented with its deliveries; a complete solution is the normal measure, ensuring that any partner understands the complexities of customs and trade tariffs, and has solutions on standby to mitigate against any unforeseen circumstances such as a strike or over capacity of a competitor’s network.

In essence, UK retailers review their international carrier partners to ensure they have reliable and cost-effective logistics solutions in place, particularly as they prepare for periods of increased demand, with sensible mitigations agreed for the “What If” scenario, should it arise.

This year’s reviews will be ultra challenging as all retailers will have the volatility of American tariffs in mind when they look towards end-of-year sales and how changes to import rules, and duty and tax thresholds, may affect the competitiveness or appeal of UK-sold goods in all international markets.

Choosing a carrier who is not only market competitive, but has the experience, network and ability to switch solutions and provide a continuation of service will, this Christmas, be a guiding factor in chasing the festive consumer spend.

If you would like to find out more about our international shipping and delivery service, please get in touch.