Shipment basics
What are the different shipping options?
The more delivery options your customer will have at your checkout, the higher your conversion rate will be. The main delivery types you can offer to your customers are listed below:
B2C deliveries to individual customers. The main options are:
🚛 Standard deliveries are home-delivery solutions with a 1-3 day delivery time in France and 2-8 days internationally.
✈ Express delivery is more expensive but faster than home-delivery options (next-day in France, 24-48h internationally)
🏬 Pickup Point delivery consists of delivering parcels to a partner shop. They're cost-effective and environmental friendly but take longer than Standard methods (2-4 days in France)
💸 Economic delivery is a cost-effective home-delivery solution. The carrier does not commit to any lead time and does not accept any type of claim.
B2B shipping options are used for orders shipped to shops, corporations, or warehouses. These can be:
📦 Boxes delivery, if the order fits into up to 3 boxes.
🎨 Pallets delivery, for larger orders that need to be on pallets.
If you want to know more about all your shipping options you can find in the HelpCenter the list of carriers available from our French warehouse and their features.
How are the fulfillment prices defined?
Carrier offer type
Bigblue smart offers
Smart carrier offers combine the qualities of each carrier to offer better performance at a better price. They consists in an intelligent allocation of carriers according to key quality indicators (speed of delivery, quality rate and buyer satisfaction):
- Improved delivery quality
- More orders delivered on time
- Increased buyer satisfaction
- Fewer customer complaints
- A more competitive price
- A more complete Pick up offer thanks to the integration of 25,500 new collection points (including 500 automatic lockers accessible 24/7
Bigblue classic offers
Classic offers consists in individual transporters. They are less optimized than smart offers but you manage the exact transporter you are operating with.
Delivery destination 🏔🏝
Distance traveled
On a general matter, the further away, the more expensive a shipment will be. Shipping products from Australia to Germany will be more expensive than shipping them from France to Germany. Think wisely about the warehouse from which you will choose to ship for each destination: if you're American and target the European market, it will be more cost-efficient to ship from France than from the US. Of course, you'll need to factor in the inbound shipment costs to get your global profitability.
Remote areas
Delivering hard-to-reach areas can increase shipping prices: these are categorized as Remote Areas and subject to surcharges. Additionally:
- shipping to Remote Areas also implies a longer shipping time.
- some of these areas are also subject to the Customs Clearance process. For that part, Bigblue handles the whole documentation so you don't have to worry.
Remote areas consist of:
- Islands
- War countries, high criminal countries, countries with terrorism threats, countries with civil unrest
- Enclaves
- Mountainous areas
Parcels weight (volumetric vs. gross weight) 📦
Gross weight
As a general matter, the heavier your parcel, the higher your shipping costs will be.
Volumetric weight
Additionally, for Express delivery methods or any method that implies flying your order, the cost will be based on the parcel's volumetric weight. If you're shipping goods that are more voluminous than heavy, look it up as it can substantially increase the total shipping costs! It is calculated as follows:
The volumetric coefficient is a data provided by the carrier.
⚠️ Carriers apply the price corresponding to the volumetric weight if it is greater than the gross weight of the package.
| Conditions | Volumetric weight calculation | |
| Example 1 |
|
|
| Example 2 |
|
|
Parcel dimensions 📏
Carriers set requirements that help them standardize their processes and offer lower costs. Any parcel that does not meet those requirements will require special handling, which induces additional costs
Parcels must:
- Meet precise dimensions and weight requirements. Check out each tr
- The
Length (L)is the longest side of a parcel - Parcel girth is equal to
(Width + Height)x2
- The
- Have regular shapes: cylindrical or spherical packaging that can roll are excluded
- 💡 If you need to ship posters or other elements requiring cylindrical packaging, you need to use an over-packaging circling the cylindrical one.
- Be stable: the weight must be evenly distributed in the packaging, the packaging adapted to the product and the product properly wedged
- Do not have any items protruding from the packaging.
Additional and optional fees ⛽🛃
Insurance
- Your goods are automatically insured up to the minimum defined in the terms and conditions of our carriers: details available here.
- To help you ship safer, we're offering Ad Valorem insurance. With that, your order can be insured up to their invoice value, at very low costs! Find out more here.
- Wanna know more about Ad Valorem? Reach out to our Customer Care in the app!
Fuel surcharge
This fuel surcharge (FSC) is a charge imposed by carriers to take account of regional/seasonal variations in fuel costs.
- The fuel surcharge applied by carriers from December is included in the current fulfillment rates.
- We will only update this rate if there is a significant (>5%) increase in the price of fuel (see https://www.cnr.fr/).
- The monthly Bigblue FSC rate is displayed in the table below
- To calculate the impact of the Bigblue FSC, you need to multiple the fulfillment price in the grid by one plus the FSC rate in percentage.
Example: The fulfillment price is at 7€ and the FSC rate is at 2,3%.The final fulfillment price including the Bigblue FSC will be: 7€x 1,023= 7,161€
Returns
- There are two kinds of returns:
- Customer returns: your customers intentionally return their products (for instance because they do not fit)
- Carrier returns: they were not able to retrieve their parcel after several delivery attempts or after it stayed for too long in a pickup point
- Returns induce additional fees:
- if your customer is using the Bigblue return public page, it means you'll cover the return label fees
- return processing fees at the warehouse (quality control and putting products back to stock)
- some carriers charge return fees
Signature at delivery
- Delivery with signature allows you to have proof of delivery in case of issues.
- In France, Signature upon delivery is an option (in most other countries it is the standard way of delivering). To get this option you'll need to choose one of the following services:
- Colissimo Expert for Colissimo
- Colis Privé Tracked Signature for Colis Privé
Wanna know more about signature delivery pros and cons? Reach out to us!
Other additional fees
You can find the entire list of carriers' additional fees here.
How should I choose the right carrier?
Choosing the right carrier is never easy! Bigblue walks you through your choice in Shipping Conditions articles!