Two sellers pay the same ₹90/kg rate and experience completely different businesses — because one tops up a ₹2,000 wallet twice a week and the other pays a consolidated invoice thirty days after shipping. The billing model quietly shapes your cash flow, your admin load and even your negotiating position. Worth choosing deliberately.
The three models
Prepaid wallet is the aggregator default: load money, each booking debits the balance, shipping stops when it hits zero. Simple, no credit checks, but every rupee of float is dead capital — ₹20,000 sitting in a wallet is ₹20,000 not in inventory. Postpaid invoicing is the carrier-direct model at volume: ship all month, pay the consolidated invoice on 15–30 day terms. The carrier extends credit and your working capital stays yours. Per-order payment — card on file, charged per booking — splits the difference: no float, no invoice reconciliation, but per-transaction friction and no consolidated view.
Choosing by stage
Early volume? The wallet is fine — float is small and the convenience is real. Growing? Watch the float: if you're parking more than a week of shipping spend, ask for postpaid terms or a partial-credit arrangement — the request costs nothing and lands more often than sellers expect. High volume? Postpaid is the baseline; now the negotiation is payment terms, early-pay discounts and the credit line itself.
The rate negotiation gets the attention. The billing terms are where the working capital lives.
The bottom line
Shipping billing is cash-flow policy in disguise. Wallets buy simplicity at the cost of float; postpaid buys float at the cost of credit-worthiness; per-order buys nothing but neutrality. Match the model to your volume — and revisit it as the volume grows, because the terms you started on are rarely the terms you qualify for.
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