Using Asendia for cross-border deliveries and returns
Kelli Trapnell
·May 4, 2023
Asendia is a partnership between La Poste and Swiss Post that facilitates a smooth cross-border delivery solution for ecommerce companies. The company has branches across four countries, and delivers parcels worldwide.
Learn more about how reverse logistics impact your brand in the Future of Reverse Logistics
While ecommerce merchants have a range of carriers to choose from when considering international shipping, Asendia offers a number of key features that set it apart from its competitors.
Let’s explore Asendia’s benefits to ecommerce retailers in more detail. In this blog, we’ll explore:
- What is the e-PAQ delivery solution?
- Ascendia’s global mail solutions
- Ascendia’s sustainability commitment
- Ascendia’s returns solutions
- The benefits of automating returns
What is the e-PAQ delivery solution?
Asendia offers a custom delivery service specifically for ecommerce merchants, called e-PAQ. Asendia provides four pricing levels for e-PAQ services, but all e-PAQ courier services are automatically carbon-neutral and include customs clearance.
e-PAQ Standard
e-PAQ Standard is the most budget-friendly option, and is available on parcels weighing up to 2 kilograms. It offers delivery service by the local postal operator, which is highly affordable, but offers slower delivery time and reduced tracking options compared to other options.
e-PAQ Plus
e-PAQ Plus offers similar service to Standard for packages up to 2 kilograms, but includes an additional fee for premium export, import, and delivery tracking services, helping to assure peace of mind for higher value packages.
e-PAQ Select
This service level is available for packages weighing up to 30KG in most destinations, with fully tracked service and the option to require a signature on delivery. This option also has faster delivery times than the Standard or Plus options, with 2-5 days regional delivery or 4-9 intercontinental.
e-PAQ Elite
e-PAQ Elite offers the most comprehensive delivery service options for packages up to 30KG, with 2-3 day regional delivery and 3-5 days intercontinental, and optimized tracking performance.
Global mail solutions
In addition to international parcel services, Asendia also provides a variety of mail solutions for both business and marketing mail.
The company can support marketing mail initiatives with concept and planning, production, distribution, and response management. Asendia also supports options including catalogs, brochures, promotional letters, and other options.
Asendia also supports mail solutions for business correspondence to ensure timely delivery and tracking, for letters, invoices, statements, reports, and other formats for delivery through the United Kingdom and internationally.
Asendia’s sustainability commitment
Asendia’s delivery service is founded on the principle of sustainability, with a commitment to offset all of the emissions created from international mail and parcel delivery worldwide. In 2022, Asendia became 100% carbon-neutral by not only offsetting its own emissions, but offsetting emissions from partners as well as parcel returns, its buildings, machinery, and employee business travel.
The company carefully tracks all emissions produced from its delivery service, and makes an equivalent investment in projects that promote renewable energy to offset its carbon usage.
Currently, Asendia is focusing its carbon-neutral investment around the Gaolin wind power project in China, which is focused on constructing 88 wind turbines with a 1500kW capacity each, helping to reduce the use of coal energy and pollution in China.
Asendia’s returns solutions
When shipping ecommerce products, any merchant knows that a certain percentage of those products are likely to be returned—anywhere up to 30 to 40% in some industries.
Fortunately, Asendia makes it easy to facilitate fast and easy returns on ecommerce products, with both domestic and international returns solutions. With either option, you can choose to either use a prepaid option to facilitate free customer returns, or a partially-paid option that provides customers with access to cheaper postage rates when they need to make a return.
Both solutions enable merchants to follow the reverse logistics process, using the Asendia Shipping and Asendia Tracking tools.
Benefits of automating your returns
While Asendia and other courier services offer world-class international shipping and returns solutions, it can be helpful to supplement their offerings by automating your returns with the support of a returns management solution like Loop.
Loop can integrate with courier partners to deliver a streamlined customer experience that makes it easy for customers to select products to exchange for their original item — ensuring that your brand will be able to retain revenue and preserve a customer relationship that might have otherwise ended at the point of return.
Returns management automation can offer:
- A better customer experience
Rather than waiting for support, customers can self-service their ecommerce returns through an online portal, expediting the process and providing them with options for how to return the product most efficiently. - Reduced customer support labor costs
Ecommerce merchants can scale up their customer support without scaling their team by using the returns management solution to handle most common tasks associated with authorizing returns and checking their status, freeing up your CS team to focus on more complex customer concerns. - Higher profits and customer retention
When a customer doesn’t like an item they received, the easiest thing to do is return it — but with Loop, it’s just as simple to process an exchange for any other item in your store. Customers who are requesting a return will receive custom recommendations for other items they may like instead, encouraging them to choose another item without the need to complete another ecommerce transaction. That helps you retain more revenue from the initial sale, and encourages higher customer retention. - Improved retailer insights
With automated surveys, retailers will be able to analyze data to understand which items are being returned most frequently, and why — enabling you to optimize your inventory and product descriptions to minimize future returns. - Seamless integration with your other tools
Loop is expanding its partner network in the United Kingdom, and can make it easy for you to integrate returns with Shopify UK and carrier solutions like Asendia, as well as your 3PL and other solutions providers.
Get in touch for a demo to see how Loop can help you optimize your international returns process.
In this article
Stay in the loop
Subscribe for product updates and Loop's biweekly newsletter.
Retain more revenue with Loop today
With Loop, your brand can offer everything from refunds to direct exchanges to shopper incentives and more. Even better? These exchanges build your business.