What Is a Courier? How To Choose The Right Courier Service

Getting your delivery process right can make a significant difference in your ecommerce success. Shipping cost is only part of the equation—speed and reliability are just as critical. According to a 2024 McKinsey & Company survey, nearly 90% of online buyers will wait up to three days for a shipment, yet they’d rather accept a longer delivery time than receive a late package. Balancing these factors in a solid shipping strategy is essential for customer satisfaction and profitability.

That’s why many merchants mix delivery options. When delivery speed and reliability are particularly important, courier services are often a smart choice. This guide explains what couriers do, the types available, and how to choose the best fit for your business.

What is a courier?

A courier is a person or company paid to transport parcels, documents, or packages directly to the recipient—often faster and with more tracking detail than standard mail. Couriers collect items from homes, warehouses, or fulfillment centers and ship them via delivery vehicles, such as vans, bikes, trucks, planes, or ships. Merchants lean on courier services for valuable, confidential shipments, or time-sensitive packages.

Courier service vs. postal service: What’s the difference?

Ecommerce businesses often use both postal services (like the US Postal Service or Canada Post) and courier services (like UPS, FedEx, or DHL) to deliver products to customers, depending on the product type, destination, and customer requests. Understanding the trade-offs between the two services can help you select the right option for the situation.

Here are the key differences between a courier service and a postal service:

Speed

Courier services tend to offer faster delivery options than postal services. FedEx and UPS, for example, both offer courier options for next-day and two-day delivery (among other timeframes). For particularly time-sensitive shipments, there is even same-day delivery, usually at an additional charge. Businesses shipping medical devices or supplies that a patient urgently needs may want to choose a courier service, for example.

By contrast, the US Postal Service (USPS) operates through an extensive network and must make specific stops along its delivery routes, which slows deliveries. Although it also offers faster services, those are typically premium services. Ecommerce shops selling clothing, books, or other durable goods that don’t require immediate delivery may find postal service offerings a good fit.

Cost

While courier services offer fast delivery, they charge higher prices, often including fuel surcharges and other fees. For example, FedEx charges $21 for a medium box through its flat-rate program with two-day shipping. Regular mail services offer some of the lowest rates, especially for lighter-weight, non-urgent products. For example, USPS Ground Advantage is a cost-effective option for packages weighing less than 70 pounds (with rates starting as low as $6.80 for a delivery window of two to five days).

Security

While postal services like the USPS provide basic tracking, updates are typically limited to when packages arrive at destinations to be scanned (like when they arrive at warehouses, fulfillment centers, or final addresses). Courier services tend to offer more comprehensive real-time tracking features. For example, FedEx offers SenseAware, a tracking program that provides shippers with the exact location of a shipment along with other tracking information like temperature, humidity, light exposure, and even the amount of pressure placed on a package in transit. 

Types of courier service companies 

• Local courier services
• Express couriers
• Standard courier services
• Specialized courier companies
• International courier services

DHL, FedEx, UPS, and other well-known courier businesses offer multiple services within these main categories:

Local courier services

Local couriers focus on making deliveries in a specific area, such as a city, town, or county. For example, RDS Delivery is a courier service that primarily makes deliveries in New York City. Businesses that have local customers, or several locations in the same vicinity (like a separate office, warehouse, and retail storefront) may use local courier services to move and deliver goods.

Local couriers can save businesses time because packages go directly from sender to recipient without processing at a traditional shipping carrier’s distribution center.

Express couriers

Express couriers offer expedited shipping for time-sensitive deliveries in exchange for a higher shipping fee than standard delivery. Express couriers can offer same-day delivery services or next-day delivery (also known as overnight delivery). 

Standard courier services

Courier companies can offer standard delivery for shipping packages across regions, typically using ground transportation. Standard courier services offer lower shipping costs than express couriers, but delivery takes longer. Whereas express couriers can deliver items within one to two days, standard courier deliveries take between one to seven days or more, depending on the distance of a delivery and the size of a package.

Specialized courier companies

Couriers often offer specialized services, like secure delivery of important documents. For example, legal couriers specialize in the quick delivery of legal documents for law firms. Similarly, medical couriers transport medical supplies like catheters and pacemakers or even lab specimens like blood samples, operating under strict regulations set by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Another common type of specialized courier service is food delivery, which uses temperature-controlled vehicles to transport food safely.

International courier services

International courier companies handle shipping items across borders. Ecommerce companies using a service like Shopify Markets to sell internationally need to use reliable international shipping services to deliver their products to customers in different countries. International couriers can fill that need.

For example, a US-based business selling cosmetic products to markets like the UK or Italy could use an international courier service to guarantee a certain shipping time frame for customers in those markets.

International deliveries through a courier service can take anywhere from one day to two weeks, depending on the size of the delivery and its travel distance. Since international couriers use air and sea shipping methods, shipping costs for merchants are generally higher than with local or standard courier services.

How to choose a courier

• Evaluate your shipping needs
• Research potential courier services
• Compare services, pricing structures, and fees
• Use software tools to manage the shipping process

Follow these steps to find the best courier service for your small business. Keep in mind that most ecommerce merchants use multiple shipping providers to handle order fulfillment.

Evaluate your own shipping needs

Start by identifying your company’s specific shipping requirements. Consider these key factors:

• Budget. Can you afford a courier service? Is your priority saving money or saving time with deliveries?

• Delivery speed. What delivery speed do your customers expect? How long will customers wait for your products?

• Volume. Calculate the number of shipments you make, and what kind of shipping capacity you will require from a courier. High-volume shipping may qualify you for discounted rates.

• Tracking. How important is real-time tracking to your business? If you’re selling higher-ticket items, such as jewelry or paintings, you might prioritize finding a courier that offers real-time tracking services.

• Service area. Research couriers operating in your territory, region, country, or state. 

• Specializations. Do your products require any specialized shipping services like refrigeration?

• Insurance. How much insurance do you need based on the expense of your products?

Research potential courier services

Create a spreadsheet that lists all the relevant courier services that offer what your business needs. Include information about shipping costs, package size restrictions, and accessibility (noting how easy it is for you to either drop off a shipment or have the courier pick something up from your business). Research couriers’ reputations by reading reviews and customer testimonials. Visit official courier websites and call those businesses for more information if you still have questions.

Compare services, pricing structures, and fees

Once you’ve collected all the necessary information about couriers that could fit your requirements, evaluate differences in their offerings. What pricing structure are different couriers using? For example, one courier service might charge a flat rate up to a certain size, whereas a different service could charge based on physical weight or dimensional weight (based on the volume of the package).

Identify which courier services are open to negotiating rates, especially if you ship a lot of items (many couriers offer volume discounts). Evaluate and compare insurance prices. Does a potential courier automatically include a certain amount of insurance, or does it cost extra to add insurance? Based on your research, how do different courier services handle damaged or lost shipments?

Use software tools to manage the shipping process

Once you choose a reliable courier service, consider using shipping software to manage shipments with that courier. Since shipping can be a major pain point for merchants, using a simple software tool to manage the whole process can save you time.

For example, Shopify Shipping is a built-in feature on Shopify that lets merchants manage their order fulfillment process from one dashboard. You can set up automatic order fulfillment to send orders to couriers as soon as customers place them through your online store. Shopify Shipping also offers prenegotiated discounted rates with couriers like UPS and DHL.

Shopify Shipping carriers

Depending on where your business is based, you can choose one of these carriers to get your products safely into the hands of your customers. Note that with the European carriers (based in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain), Shopify Shipping only works for domestic deliveries.

• United States

• USPS

• UPS (drop-offs not available in Puerto Rico)

• DHL Express (dropoffs only in the continental US)

• FedEx

• Canada

• Canada Post 

• Purolator 

• UPS (domestic deliveries only)

• Australia

• Sendle

• United Kingdom

• Evri 

• DPD 

• Yodel

• France

• Colissimo

• Mondial Relay

• Chronopost

• Germany

• DHL Paket

• Italy

• BRT Bartolini

• Poste Italiane

• Spain

• Correos

• SEUR