Should I use a shipping aggregator like Shiprocket, or go direct with a courier?
Start with an aggregator, Shiprocket, Shipmozo, or similar, because it gives you 15-25+ courier partners (Delhivery, Ekart, Blue Dart, Xpressbees, DTDC) under one dashboard with no minimum-order commitment, which is exactly what you need while you're still figuring out which courier performs best on your actual pincode mix. Go direct with a single courier only once you have enough monthly volume (roughly 500+ orders) to negotiate meaningfully better rates than the aggregator's card, and even then most scaling brands keep the aggregator as a backup rather than dropping it entirely. The real skill isn't picking one courier, it's routing each order to whichever courier performs best for that specific pincode and weight band.
Go deeper
4 resources, 4 India-specific, 4 link-checked.
📄 Article
✓ Link checkedIndiaFreeBeginner
A current, India-specific comparison of the main aggregator options a new D2C brand is actually choosing between, rather than a generic global shipping-software roundup.
A wide-lens overview of India's courier landscape from the aggregator most brands start with, a good baseline reference even if you eventually shop for alternatives.
Specifically framed around the Shopify-India decision most founders are actually making, with a volume-stage lens (0-500 orders vs 500-5,000/month) that most comparisons skip.
Directly answers the 'I've outgrown my current aggregator' question with a current alternatives list, which is more useful at that stage than another 'how to choose a courier' beginner guide.
