To choose the best courier for e-commerce, we must consider that every order has different characteristics and, as a result, the “best” courier changes based on actual SLAs, total delivery cost, ZIP coverage, historical performance, and the quality of e-commerce shipping tracking.
Key criteria: SLAs, real costs, ZIP coverage, and tracking quality
Choosing the best e-commerce courier starts from SLAs, lead time by area, first-attempt delivery rate, and reliability during peak weeks. Just as important is the total lifecycle cost of the parcel: not only the base rate, but also surcharges for storage, re-delivery, hard-to-serve ZIP codes, cash-on-delivery handling, and hidden costs tied to labeling errors or poor data quality.
Finally, we need to consider the quality of the tracking: rich, consistent, real-time tracking drastically reduces customer contacts. Tracking with Hubrise is designed to offer proactive monitoring and real-time updates, with the goal of cutting operational costs and post-purchase anxiety.
Multi-courier that chooses per order: the right approach
There are no single carriers that are always ideal; the correct approach is “multi-carrier per order”: for each order, intelligent rules are applied that combine proprietary rate cards, operational KPIs, destination, weight/volume, required service, and even customer history. SEND2U, Hubrise’s smart delivery system, automates exactly this: it ingests carrier contracts and performance, calculates the best match for each parcel, and generates labels, assignments, and notifications from a single control point. In real projects, the adoption of SEND2U has made it possible to reduce shipping costs by up to 17%, surpass 95% of orders delivered within target, and cut typical last-mile issues by 20%. It’s the difference between “pushing labels” and managing data-driven logistics that truly chooses the best courier for e-commerce case by case.
E-commerce, shipping & tracking: post-purchase experience
A substantial part of customer satisfaction is created after checkout. The e-commerce shipping software you use must turn delivery into a simple, transparent, and predictable experience. Two key elements come into play here: tracking and exception management. Hubrise Tracking centralizes events from all couriers in a single dashboard, offers proactive monitoring of delays, storage, and losses, and enables immediate intervention. As a result, there are fewer repetitive tickets, lower contact costs, and a customer service team that acts before frustration escalates. For e-commerce managers, this means improved customer-perceived SLAs, fewer support requests, and coherent, automated communication, both nationally and internationally.
Returns as a lever of cost and satisfaction
Returns can be a lever for loyalty and cost control. The returns solution from Hubrise standardizes return processes, quality inspection, and stock reintegration, offering end-to-end traceability and automatic updates to ERP/OMS and front office. When pickup is tracked with the same level of detail as delivery, contacts and disputes decrease, refund times improve, and blocked cash flow is released. Integrating Returns flows with Hubrise means governing the entire parcel lifecycle, eliminating friction and downtime.
How Hubrise can help you choose the best courier
With Hubrise, carrier selection becomes a continuous process, supported by data and automation. SEND2U connects to your e-commerce systems and your OMS/ERP, imports carrier contracts, applies customizable rules, and automatically assigns the most efficient and cost-effective carrier for each parcel.
Tracking with Hubrise completes the picture by offering a consolidated view of all shipments, customer notifications, and proactive monitoring. Managing the delivery experience consistently reduces “Where is my order?” tickets, frees up customer service time, and protects margins and reputation even during peaks.
On the reverse logistics side, Hubrise enables a structured reverse logistics process: bookings and pickups, return tracking, quality checks, reintegration, and updates to the management system. Integrating returns under the same control reduces time, errors, and misunderstandings, and allows you to truly measure the total cost of a category, including the return cycle.
If your project also requires scalable fulfillment capacity, the collaboration between Hubrise and Hermes Fulfilment offers advanced warehouses, industrialized processes, and a local presence that simplifies onboarding, SLAs, and communication with your customers. In practice, a European infrastructure with Italian management to grow in a controlled way across volumes and countries, while maintaining single governance over orders, e-commerce shipping Italy, and traceability.