Package forwarding companies usually encourage their customers to use the package consolidation service. As in many cases it comes with paid Premium Memberships, customers ask whether there are any benefits of package consolidation and whether they can save by consolidating parcels. Read below to learn whether you are missing out on some valuable savings.
When online retailers ship packages, they often use standard sized boxes designed to hold many products. If the purchased product is too small for the box, many online shops just add extra material to fill the empty space and protect the purchase. This extra material adds weight and takes up space, both of which can make international shipping much more expensive. International shipping is even more expensive if you have several packages that all contain extra and unwanted materials.
With some premium services, you may hold you packages at freight forwarder for 30 days and more for free(see the official terms for your package forwarder). So you may wait for more packages to arrive without paying any additional fees. Once all of your packages are in the warehouse of your package forwarder, you can select some of them or all of them for shipping in one consolidated package. Make sure that the resulting package can be shipped by the postal or courier service of your choice (see the weight and size limits).
When you submit your consolidation request, your package forwarder will take the requested packages and discard all of the extra boxes, packing material and advertisements (Freight forwarders like
Shipito allow you to choose whether you like to remove all packaging, or want to leave retail packaging or even want to leave both the retail packaging and the box you received. Moreover you may choose these options for every individual package). The package forwarding companie then will carefully place your purchases into a single box, add padding if necessary, and send the box containing your consolidated purchases via the postal or courier service of your choice (Freight forwarders like
Shipito offer many options from USPS, Fedex, DHL Express and UPS to TNT, Polonez and Shipito Airmail). Package forwarders try not to add unnecessary packing material. If the available boxes are too large, package forwarding companies try to condense the packaging to avoid unnecessary dimensional weight during international shipping.
The extra packing materials that typically come along with a single purchase can add considerable cost to your international shipping. By consolidating packages you eliminate this unnecessary material. So you can significantly reduce your total shipping costs. If you ship frequently or make a lot of purchases, consolidation can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
09-07-2012, 03:53 AM
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