Tracked courier services for ecommerce orders

For all online sellers lost parcels and late deliveries are a major problem; they can cost you money, damage your business's reputation, and if you sell on eBay or Amazon, you run the risk of having your shop suspended. One of the most effective ways of ensuring that your parcel arrives on time and you have the information to counter any claims, is to use a tracked courier service for your ecommerce orders.

What’s the difference between tracked services and signed for/proof of delivery?

If you sell high value items, then sending your items with tracking and proof of delivery is essential to ensuring that your parcels reach their destination safely.

A tracked courier service generally means that you (and your customers) are able to follow a parcel as it’s delivered; you can see when it’s reached the courier’s warehouse, when it’s out for delivery and when it’s been delivered.

A signed for courier service offers you proof of delivery, but until it’s reached its destination you won’t be able to see where the parcel is - this can be useful to prove when and where a parcel has been delivered but may not offer enough information for more valuable products.

Tracked ecommerce courier services

There’s a wide range of tracked and/or signed for courier services available to dispatch your courier services. Here’s a selection of the ecommerce courier options available to you through Zenstores:

Royal Mail: Royal Mail offers tracked, signed for and Special Delivery Guaranteed services, as well as delivery confirmation with their 2D barcode labels.

MyHermes: MyHermes aims to deliver parcels within three working days. Standard parcels are not signed for, but you can add a signature requirement for 80p per parcel.

Yodel: Yodel offers next day or two-day deliveries and all of their services are fully tracked. They will attempt to deliver a parcel three times before returning it to the local Yodel service centre.

APC: APC specialise in delivering fragile, secure, liquid and time-sensitive deliveries - they offer timed and trackable next day deliveries.

Parcelforce: Parcelforce handles larger parcels and offers next day and two-day services with the UK as well as international deliveries, all of which are fully tracked.

DPD: All of DPD’s next day and two-day delivery options are fully tracked and offer delivery time slots and options to re-arrange delivery for the recipient.

You can also use tracked and/or signed for services through Zenstores’ Parcel2Go integration with these couriers: MyHermes ParcelShop, MyHermes, InPost, Collect+, UPS, DPD, Nightline Delivers, Yodel, DX, UK Mail, Parcelforce, Streetwise Couriers, Menzies Parcels, CitySprint, Fastway couriers, Pallet Force.

Using tracked courier services for eBay and Amazon orders

eBay and Amazon both monitor seller’s dispatch times, and offer a money back guarantee if an item doesn’t arrive or arrives damaged. If you continually fail to meet eBay and Amazon’s delivery metrics then your seller account will be at risk of being temporarily or permanently suspended.

While for some low-value items, packing extra to send your parcels tracked may not be possible - a signed for service can offer you proof that the item was delivered on time.

Zenstores can help with your ecommerce order fulfilment by allowing you to dispatch orders from eBay, Amazon and other sales channels in bulk - and automatically marking orders as dispatched, updating each platform with the tracking details.