Solved

International Shipping methods - Japan

usako9075
Excursionist
24 0 4

Hello everyone!

I am looking for recommendations to ship internationally, in specific from Japan, that is not Japan Post. Or if someone can give feedback on the use of FedEx or DHL as a company.

 

your comments are appreciated

Accepted Solution (1)
PluginHive
Shopify Partner
797 31 100

This is an accepted solution.

Hi,

With regards to shipping brokers, what is meant is the shipping apps that provide discounts for various carriers. This includes apps like Pirateship for USPS, Shipstation for top carriers in the US, Canada, UK and Australia. Unfortunately, I'm not sure which solution works for Japan.

However, negotiating lower shipping rates for carriers like FedEx, UPS or DHL can be done by establishing a relationship with the account manager and discussing a discounted shipping rate for your account. Neither FedEx nor UPS publishes the order volume to get discounted rates so, negotiations for discounted rates work on an individual basis. If you aren’t considered a company with high-shipping volumes but, you’re showing a significant increase in sales, UPS and FedEx may extend a three-month period which will allow you take advantage of lower negotiated prices. 

I have found one of the articles that explains how to get better discounts from top carriers. You can take a look here.

Customer Success @ PluginHive
Shipping Automation | FedEx shipping | Multi-carrier shipping | Shipment Tracking | Australia Post shipping

View solution in original post

Replies 7 (7)

PluginHive
Shopify Partner
797 31 100

Hi,

There are a lot of options to ship internationally from Japan including FedEx, DHL, UPS, etc. But yes, shipping international can be costly if not handled in the proper way. One of the main reason why the carriers charge higher is the package weight.  Please ensue you have configured the product weight correctly. Another reason might be the shipper address or recipient address are with in the serviceable area for the carrier, they charge huge surcharge for such addresses. Please verify the same. 

You can use the shipping cost calculators of these carriers to get an idea regarding the rates. For eg; you can check out the FedEx rates calculator to find the rates from FedEx. Also, if you have good number of orders, most of the carriers will provide good discounts. If your shipping volume is very low,  then you may need to find a shipping broker to get a cheaper rates. In this case, you may need to charge the customer Flat Rate or Free shipping, and manually fulfil the orders in Shopify. 

 

Customer Success @ PluginHive
Shipping Automation | FedEx shipping | Multi-carrier shipping | Shipment Tracking | Australia Post shipping
usako9075
Excursionist
24 0 4

Hello! first of all thank you for your time!!

It seems that you have a deep knowledge in this topic! and your reply was very useful

If may ), I would like to confirm one things and ask one more question, why did you mentioned that if I use a shipping broker I need to use flat rate? (my apologize I couldn't grasp the concept here)

 

And how do you look for a shipping broker? should I just look in the web, or are there specific website with a list of this kind of services.

Your insight is kindly appreciated.

PluginHive
Shopify Partner
797 31 100

This is an accepted solution.

Hi,

With regards to shipping brokers, what is meant is the shipping apps that provide discounts for various carriers. This includes apps like Pirateship for USPS, Shipstation for top carriers in the US, Canada, UK and Australia. Unfortunately, I'm not sure which solution works for Japan.

However, negotiating lower shipping rates for carriers like FedEx, UPS or DHL can be done by establishing a relationship with the account manager and discussing a discounted shipping rate for your account. Neither FedEx nor UPS publishes the order volume to get discounted rates so, negotiations for discounted rates work on an individual basis. If you aren’t considered a company with high-shipping volumes but, you’re showing a significant increase in sales, UPS and FedEx may extend a three-month period which will allow you take advantage of lower negotiated prices. 

I have found one of the articles that explains how to get better discounts from top carriers. You can take a look here.

Customer Success @ PluginHive
Shipping Automation | FedEx shipping | Multi-carrier shipping | Shipment Tracking | Australia Post shipping
usako9075
Excursionist
24 0 4

Amazing reply!, Thanks again for your time!

I will take a look at your suggetsions

Thank you!

BAToys
Excursionist
16 0 36

Fedex and DHL are not viable for small businesses.  The costs are prohibitive.  Use mail- and use Paypal.  Shopify payments will screw you on nearly every international sale.. Shop Pay frankly has no clue what they are doing and they pin everything on the retailers.  Paypal will at least back you up as long as you have a tracking number that confirms delivery and is marked eligible for seller protection.

usako9075
Excursionist
24 0 4

Hello thank you for your time replying to my question!

Yes I agree that FedEx is very expensive and DHL too, Japan Post has been difficult to work with, so I was looking for better options. maybe as someone said here I need to look for a shipping broker.

Fanfi
Shopify Partner
16 0 2

Hi @usako9075, I'm bringing this back to life since we are currently using Japan Post but are starting to explore alternatives.

Have you found any good ones? So far we have checked: Kuroneko Yamato, Sagawa and Fedex, but everything is always more expensive than Japan Post EMS, and in the case of FedEx it is very very more expensive... So it doesn't make sense at all to use any of that instead.

And this is compared to EMS which is already quite expensive, but we haven't found anything that compare to Japan Post Airmail, SAL, or Surface.