Not every shipment needs a full container. FCL (Full Container Load) means your cargo has an entire container to itself — you pay for the container's capacity whether you use all of it or not. LCL (Less-than-Container Load) means your cargo shares a container with other shippers' goods, and you pay only for the space your cargo actually occupies.
The breakeven point is mostly a question of volume. As a rough guide, once a shipment approaches somewhere around 12 to 15 cubic meters — roughly half of a standard 20ft container — FCL often starts to work out cheaper per unit than LCL, even though you are technically paying for unused space.
LCL introduces one additional consideration: consolidation and deconsolidation at both ends adds a small amount of handling time compared to FCL, since your cargo has to be grouped with other shipments before departure and separated again on arrival. For time-sensitive smaller shipments, that handling step is worth factoring into your planning.
A simple way to estimate which option fits: calculate your cargo's total cubic volume (length × width × height for each unit, summed), compare that to container capacity, and work out the cost per cubic meter both ways. We do this calculation routinely and can usually tell you which option makes sense within the first conversation about your shipment.