How I'd choose a courier for a small online shop

The first thing I'd read when choosing a courier for a small online shop is the claims page, well before the rate card. The rate tells me what a normal day costs, and any courier will tell me that. What a bad day costs is on a page they won't lead with, and a small shop has less room for bad days.

What comes back when a parcel doesn't

These limits depend on each courier's own terms, and they move, so read these as examples. One courier's claims page limits what it pays to the declared value or RM200 a parcel, whichever is lower.

A Bernama report from 2021 described a range for a missing domestic parcel. It gave RM100 for a light one and RM300 for a heavier one.²

I'm not saying any of these applies to whoever you're talking to. I'm saying a limit like this probably exists, and it's in the terms and not on the rate card.

Say you lose a RM350 order

So here's my first bit of homework: I'd count what share of my orders sit above the limit. If it's almost none, I'd accept the odd loss as a cost of doing business.

If it's most of them, I'd price the paid cover, which that same page offers, into my shipping before I compare anyone's rate.

The deadline is shorter than you'd think

The window to complain matters as much as the limit. That page gives 7 days from completed delivery, after which the shipper waives the claim.¹ Bernama's report said complaints are usually due within 48 hours of receiving damaged goods, depending on the company's terms.²

Proof is the other surprise. The page asks for a one-take, unedited unboxing video, and your customer is the one holding the box.¹ I'd tell customers that before anything goes wrong, on the packing slip, in one friendly line.

The lawyer in that report also suggests photographing the package before it leaves, which I'd make a habit, since it costs nothing.² And note who's entitled to claim: by default it's the sender, and a recipient needs written authorisation.²

What I'd ask before signing

I'd ask a courier five plain questions before signing, and I'd want the answers in writing, because rates are easy to compare and these aren't:

• What's your limit on a lost parcel, and what does extra cover cost?
• How many days do I have to claim, and counted from when?
• If I sell through a marketplace, do I claim from you or from them?
• When a delivery fails, how many more attempts do you make?
• If a parcel comes back to me, who pays for that trip?

That last one is where I'd expect the cheap rate to stop being cheap. The page I've been quoting says the shipper may or may not be charged for a return, depending on the circumstances, which is at least honest.¹ I'd want that answer before the first parcel comes home.

I'd also ask who picks up, how late, and what happens on the day they don't come. A missed pickup never shows up on an invoice, but your customer feels it.

What a fair rate looks like

I have one published marker. The regulator, MCMC, set a guideline of RM5 per parcel for 2kg and below. It took effect in December 2024.³

The chief executive of one courier group called it "merely a guidance", while the same report says a courier going below it has to justify that to MCMC.³ So a lower quote isn't automatically breaking anything, but it isn't nothing either.

I wouldn't read a price under that as a bargain or a warning on its own. I'd just ask what's been taken out to get there, because someone's doing the sums. I did that sum once, in what a RM5 parcel leaves the courier, and my guess came to well under a ringgit.

Does the cheapest one win?

The usual advice is to take the cheapest, since customers don't care which courier turns up. They're right about the second part: in one micro-business group's survey of 720 online shoppers, 82.9% had no preference for a brand, as long as delivery stayed affordable.

But that's a survey by people arguing against higher fees, so hold it loosely. And having no favourite isn't the same as not caring: my guess is they'll just blame you, not the courier.

The bill matters either way. One survey reported by Focus Malaysia had over half of sellers spending more than a tenth of their operating budget on shipping.

What I couldn't find

I couldn't find a first-attempt failure rate for Malaysian couriers, or a return rate, or a table of complaints by courier. So I can't tell you who's reliable, and I'd be suspicious of anyone who claims to from a comparison page.

That leaves doing it yourself, which isn't hard at small volumes.

How I'd run the choice

If a parcel does go missing and the courier's answer doesn't satisfy you, the report says you can take it to MCMC through its website.² I'd keep that for when it's needed, but I'd keep the paperwork from day one.

I'd walk away from any courier that can't show me its claim terms before I sign. I'd also walk away if pickups fail often in the trial, however good the rate, because a cheap parcel that nobody collected isn't cheap.