Shipping with GLS: a smart addition to your carrier mix

GLS is one of Europe's best-known carriers, thanks to fast transit times, a well-developed network, and plenty of digital tools. While every carrier moves parcels from A to B, they differ in their services, their prices, and the regions they cover. As we all learned during the pandemic, these supply chains are a critical piece of infrastructure for online retailers. In e-commerce, it often pays to work with more than one carrier. If you want to get up to speed on GLS, this article gives you an overview of all the key GLS basics, plus a few tips for smarter logistics with Sendcloud.

GLS shipping: what is it, and what are the benefits?

GLS is one of the best-known carriers, and it's aimed primarily at business customers. There is a consumer shipping option too, but we won't go into that here. Like other carriers, GLS offers both international and domestic shipping, with a strong focus on Europe. Within Germany, parcels can be delivered by express in under 24 hours; across Europe, within a few days. That makes GLS a good fit for European e-commerce and brings a number of advantages.

GLS offers rates that adapt to the needs of business customers with high shipping volumes. If you already have a contract with GLS, it's easy to integrate into Sendcloud, for example. A contract brings plenty of benefits — for one, it can help you save on GLS shipping costs. But more on that later. First, let's take a closer look at what GLS offers.

How do I ship a parcel with GLS?

Step 1: Enter address details

Add all the required recipient address details here. You can enter them via a database search, manually, or by recipient ID. You can also specify an alternative sender address.

Step 2: Product and services

Now you choose the product and any additional services. Certain services, such as DepositService, need extra information, like a drop-off location. You can add more parcels to a single shipment here.

Step 3: Print

The parcel label is either shown in your browser window, ready to print from there, or sent straight to your printer via direct print.

Heads up: depending on your shipment, GLS may charge based on so-called volumetric weight rather than the actual weight.

Shipping with Sendcloud, by comparison

Step 1: Import orders

The system captures all incoming orders automatically. You can preset the shipping method and carrier here, and add insurance without any hassle.

Step 2: Edit address details

Just like in GLS, you can easily edit address details, adjust the sender, and set the details you need.

Step 3: Print labels

The advantage of Sendcloud is that the software brings together all the labels from every carrier you've chosen in one place. You can print them in a batch, instead of laboriously creating them for each carrier in a separate environment.

Which shipping services and options does GLS offer?

GLS shipping offers plenty of options that allow for a flexible exchange between you and your customers, both nationally and internationally. We've listed the most common services below, followed by a closer look at each one. For GLS shipping rates, it's best to check directly with GLS.

The most important GLS shipping services and options:

• GLS BusinessParcel

• GLS ExpressParcel

• GLS EuroBusinessParcel

• GLS EuroExpressParcel

• GLS GlobalExpressParcel

• GLS bulky goods

• GLS FlexDeliveryService

• GLS ShopDeliveryService

• GLS Guaranteed24Service

GLS BusinessParcel

Delivery within 24 hours inside Germany on business days, and up to 40 kg — that's what the regular GLS parcel service includes.

GLS ExpressParcel

GLS express shipping comes with an added service: delivery can be scheduled by a specific time of day, or even on a Saturday.

GLS EuroBusinessParcel

Europe-wide shipping with special services, such as an exchange service or pharma handling for medicines.

GLS EuroExpressParcel

The right choice for urgent transit times and fast shipping: Europe-wide delivery guaranteed in just a few days, depending on the region.

GLS GlobalExpressParcel

Send parcels and documents to 160 countries in under 5 days.

GLS bulky goods

GLS parcel sizes are calculated from the sum of length x width x depth, giving a figure in centimeters. Parcels come in various sizes to suit every need.

On top of that, GLS offers further services that round out your shipping. Here's a small selection:

GLS FlexDeliveryService

Your customers get a notification of their parcel along with several delivery options — simple and flexible.

GLS ShopDeliveryService

Are your customers not at home right now? Then they can simply have their order delivered to one of the many GLS ParcelShops and pick it up themselves. A pickup option can be a big plus when it comes to choosing a carrier.

GLS Guaranteed24Service

Guaranteed delivery within 24 hours inside Germany (except Saturdays).

What can I send with GLS?

In principle, GLS shipping covers all the usual options and lets you send goods quickly and easily. At the same time, GLS also offers special services for particular goods and time-critical shipments, such as the safe transport of medicines.

What does an XL parcel cost with GLS?

GLS shipping is calculated from the dimensions of the parcel and the origin countries of the sender and recipient. The so-called girth is calculated as length plus width plus height of the parcel. These metrics are also the basis for the GLS shipping cost calculator. An XL parcel with GLS starts at around €18.90 for domestic shipping within Germany, with a girth of no more than 3 meters.

How long does it take for a GLS parcel to arrive?

GLS has made the European continent its focus and offers first-class transit times for your parcels here. Fast, reliable, and with good tracking options thanks to GLS shipment tracking, the carrier is a strong partner for shipping from Germany.

GLS shipping within the EU

Within the EU there are different transit times: depending on the distance from Germany, shipping then takes between two and more than four days. We've broken down the most important details on GLS standard international transit times below.

GLS shipping to the USA

GLS focuses heavily on the European market, but it's also an option for shipping to the USA. As an express service in particular, GLS can offer good transit times.

What does YourGLS offer for GLS shipping?

Many of the tasks you'd otherwise have to do by hand can also be handled through the YourGLS portal. YourGLS gives you a solid way to manage addresses, import customer data, and create parcel labels or returns — once you've had a little time to get used to the interface. The advantage of YourGLS is that, as the GLS service portal, it integrates seamlessly with all GLS services.

The most important YourGLS features in detail:

Address management

You can import and manage addresses so you can pull them up again whenever you need them.

Returns

You can trigger returns directly in the portal.

Shipment tracking

Tracking gives you the option to see the current status of your shipments.

Create reports

With a daily report you can wrap up the day and keep an overview.

Create GLS shipping labels

With YourGLS you can easily create and print shipping labels.

The comparison: GLS shipping via YourGLS vs. Sendcloud

Even though YourGLS offers various services that are useful for small online shops and for regular but still manageable shipping volumes, there are a few points that make focusing on a single carrier less attractive. Below, we compare Sendcloud with YourGLS and show you the advantages Sendcloud offers as shipping software, and whether GLS shipping software is right for you.

What can Sendcloud do?

Sendcloud can handle all of the functions described above that simplify your e-commerce logistics and relate to GLS shipping. Address databases, creating returns, and individually creating parcel labels are all part of our standard services. But Sendcloud can do even more!

The Sendcloud multi-carrier platform

If you sell on several platforms and marketplaces (like Amazon), ship in multiple markets, or simply want to offer several carriers out of attentive customer service, then Sendcloud is a particularly good fit for you. As a multi-carrier platform, Sendcloud lets you integrate different carriers. While YourGLS is only tailored to using GLS, Sendcloud lets you use a range of carriers and get the best out of your shop.

A tracking experience for a better customer experience

An appealing tracking experience is standard today — but unfortunately many of these pages are dull and generic. We want to change that, and we offer a tracking solution with a personalized tracking page and tracking emails, where you can place offers or feature your Instagram channel. That way you give your customers a special service, put your after-sales marketing to work, and don't lose them to a carrier's standard tracking page.

Automation through smart shipping rules

Shipping rules automate many of your processes and let the software adapt its behavior to what you need day to day. Do you prefer certain carriers for international shipping? That can be set with a simple rule. In the same way, you can automatically raise the insured value above a certain order value. That means you can use insured shipping with GLS too, for example. Smart rules help you store decisions that always have to be made the same way directly in the software, automatically. That frees up capacity for other, important tasks.

Printing the right shipping labels with a single click

Printing labels doesn't have to be a hassle. We keep it simple and give you the option to create the right labels with one click in the software. That saves you time and streamlines your workflow.

The intuitive returns portal

Returns are part of the business — there's no way around them, even if a low rate is of course desirable. So that returns don't cause headaches for you or your customers, we've developed a simple returns portal that makes returns easy for both you and your customers.

A smart analytics dashboard

Returns are avoidable, even if you can never push them down to 0%. But to find the right strategies for reducing returns, you need data on what happened to your parcels. What are the reasons for returns? What can be improved? Our analytics dashboard can help you dig deeper into your data and draw the right conclusions.

Integrating GLS shipping into Sendcloud

If you have an existing contract with GLS, you can integrate it into Sendcloud very easily.

You'll need this information to integrate your GLS contract into Sendcloud:

• Username

• Password

• Customer number

• Contact ID

• Access to the GLS API

With this information, you can easily integrate your GLS contract and use it in Sendcloud.

The choice is yours — you know your needs!

Do you need software like Sendcloud, or would you rather just use GLS shipping with YourGLS? That's a question you can hopefully answer better after reading this article. Ultimately, you know your shop's needs and what you require day to day so that your customers receive their goods quickly, happily, and safely.

If you'd like to use other carriers alongside GLS, Sendcloud gives you a flexible multi-carrier solution. Combine GLS's shipping services with those of the major carriers like DHL, FedEx, Deutsche Post, DPD, UPS, and more. Want to see what Sendcloud can do for yourself? Get in touch with us.