E-commerce is becoming more and more popular. It plays a vital role in our lives. It makes our household more convenient and simple. You do not need to waste your time and effort visiting one store after another in order to find the best products for you. Everything you need is a cozy sofa and Internet.
No wonder, more and more beginning businessmen start with e-commerce. Moreover, it requires minimum initial investments. Yet, it’s a big mistake to think that you are to face no difficulties. The right choice of logistics solutions is able to drive crazy even experienced entrepreneurs, not to mention newbies.
There are so many various ways to transport cargo from one place to another! What is the best solution? You may be surprised to get to know that there are no universal ways out. It’s necessary to consider the peculiarities of each business in order to pick up a really effective logistics solution.
Yet, if you deal with small and middle-sized freight, you definitely should know about less container load shipments. The following information will help you to figure out what it means and what the main pluses and minuses of this option are.
LCL describes a shipment that does not fill an entire container. Everyone who has ever dealt with freight forwarding knows for sure that only a few types of items can be transported without special containers. It’s true not only about sea transportation but also about the truckload carriers and other ways to transport goods.
Things should be placed into containers in order to minimize the possibility of damages or losses. It goes without saying that you have to pay more for renting or buying such containers. For e-commerce, it isn’t always profitable to rent the whole container because the volume of the cargo is significantly smaller. In such cases, the LCL option is an ideal solution.
There are crucial advantages of LCL shipments you have to consider. You are able to reduce shipping costs. You pay only for the space you use. Moreover, low-volume shipments are safer when transported with an LCL container.
You do not need to worry about extra volatile rates if you choose this option, too. LCL shipments seem to be an ideal option for e-commerce if you have just started your business or if you deal with small amounts of items.
At the same time, it’s important to underline that LCL shipment is not always the best option for expedite logistics. The thing is this type of logistics requires urgent deliveries with no delays.
Yet, if the container is loaded with products of different types and these items belong to different companies, it may take lots of time to deliver all the products to the final destination. It’s good if your business is the first in the route list of deliveries. But if not, you are supposed to wait for a while while you receive your cargo.
To sum it up, it should be highlighted that every business needs an individual approach when it comes to choosing freight forwarding models. The peculiarities of items which should be transported, as well as desirable deadlines, should be taken into account.