What Is a Container?
A container is a storage unit that stores, manages, and ships multiple products by air, sea, or rail. It is a durable, reusable box that moves products from one country to another. Containers are often made up of fiberwood, metal, and wood.
Significance of a Container in an E-commerce Shipping and Delivery
The container is the holy grail of intermodal transport. Two of its most essential benefits in e-commerce shipping are listed below.
- Cost reduction: Containers can move products in bulk. Usually, products that share the same destination country or territory are grouped and shipped accordingly. It helps decrease the cost of intermodal transport by sending several products simultaneously.
- Versatility: A container can securely send products that weigh more than 1 ton. In other words, heavy appliances can be shipped by a container. Smaller shipments can also be stacked in a container, thus allowing sellers to ship products with varying weights.
Prerequisites of a Container and How It Works
The only requirement for a container is to ensure that the products collectively weigh over one ton. The following ways list how a container works.
- Weight and dimension calculation: A seller is required to calculate the dimension of the product along with its weight.
- Handover: The product is then handed over to the shipping company. Subsequently, the shipping company stacks different products inside the container as per the products they want to ship.
Use Cases of a Container
Primarily containers are used by shipping companies. Some use cases of a container are listed below.
- Stacking two heavy appliances that weigh 1500 pounds and 700 pounds in a container and shipping them together.
- Stacking 100 units of small packages that weigh 120 pounds each and share the same destination country.