The e-commerce industry is quickly growing. People are doing more and more of their shopping online every day. Starting your own online store can be quick and fun until order fulfillment gets in the way. Packing and shipping boxes costs you time and money and if it’s not done right it can cost you customers too!
Don’t worry though, there’s a solution!
Third-Party Logistics for E-commerce Order Fulfillment
Third-party logistics – more commonly known as a 3PL – is a type of company that handles fulfilment and other supply chain needs. Instead of receiving product and shipping out orders yourself you can partner with a 3PL to do all the work for you.
You might also know 3PLs as fulfillment companies or fulfillment centers. 3PLs can help you fulfill orders, store and manage inventory, kit products, etc. Basically anything that you need to get your product to your customer a 3PL can help you with.
Most entrepreneurs did not start their e-commerce business in order to specialize in operations. In fact keeping e-commerce order fulfillment in-house can really weigh you down and keep your company from growing. You don’t have to be a multimillion dollar company in order to outsource your fulfillment, there are many reasons that even a small e-commerce business should outsource their fulfillment.
Why You Need to Outsource Fulfillment
1. Lower Overhead & Fixed Costs
When you outsource your e-commerce order fulfillment don’t think of it as an extra cost think of it as bundled savings. Keeping fulfillment in-house can be expensive, more expensive than you might think.
Here are a few things that you’ll save money on when you outsource your fulfillment
- Warehouse
- Warehouse employees
- Equipment
- Software
- Shipping costs
- Boxes and packing materials
2. Enhance Customer Buying Experience
We’ve already discussed that customer experience is everything but just how important is it? Well according to Zendesk, 32% of customers will stop doing business with a company after just one bad customer experience, yikes!
For a small business every customer counts, so seeing customers walk away because of a bad experience is painful knowing that it could have been prevented. Fulfilling orders might not be your number one concern but it’s certainly important to your customer. Pass e-commerce order fulfillment on to another company who will make it their number one concern.
At Ship Central we ship orders within 24-hours to keep your customers happy and satisfied. You can stop worrying about backlogged orders and unhappy customers. Your customers will thank you too!
3. Faster Delivery Times
One of the biggest advantages of using an e-commerce order fulfillment company is that you can guarantee your customers fast delivery times. Many e-commerce entrepreneurs don’t realize just how much of an impact fast delivery times can have on customer satisfaction. In fact, according to Conveyco, “69% of consumers are less likely to shop with a retailer in the future if a purchase is not delivered within 2 days of the date promised.”
This means that getting orders out the door as soon as possible is crucial to keeping customers happy so that they’ll continue to buy from you! Dissatisfaction with the order fulfillment experience can lead to high churn rate if you’re not careful.
Keeping your fulfillment in house can lead to slower delivery times when you have a higher volume of orders due to:
- Holidays
- Successful marketing campaign
- Sales
With an order fulfillment company you don’t have to worry about your growth slowing down your delivery times!
4. You Can Focus On Your Business
Startups and small businesses can be extremely time consuming, but you already knew that. Your to-do list is never ending and there is always something pressing that needs your attention. With your attention being pulled in so many different directions packing and shipping order is the last thing you want to worry about.
While order fulfillment is a major part of the customer experience and customer experience is everything now, there are many more things that you could be working on to add long-term value for your company.
By outsourcing your fulfillment you can finally focus on the things that matter most. This can be beneficial for your company in the short- and long-term. Instead of worrying about shipping orders you could be thinking up your next social media campaign that will have you rolling in new customers.
5. Flexibility to Easily Scale & Expand
By keeping your fulfillment in house you’re really limiting how quickly your company can grow. Your fulfillment can act as a bottleneck for growth stopping your progress dead in its tracks if you can’t keep up with the orders coming in.
Growing and improving your system in order to meet demands take time and money and it can be very slow going. This can be especially risky if you have a boom in success that you just can’t keep up with. This can result in delayed shipments, unhappy customers and lost business.
By outsourcing fulfillment you’re relying on a company that already has everything in place. If you have a boom in business, a 3PL can easily handle it because they already have the tools and skills necessary to keep up with the demand. A massive jump in orders for you might only be a blip on their screen depending on how big the 3PL is.
The Takeaway
E-commerce can be an exciting and fast-paced industry especially when you have the right tools. There’s no need to let order fulfillment stunt your company’s growth or overwhelm you. By outsourcing your fulfillment you can:
- Focus on your business
- Give yourself room to grow
- Provide a better customer experience
- Save money
- Take advantage of the latest tech
At Ship Central Fulfillment we help companies of all sizes. We take care of fulfillment so that you don’t have to! Wed offer warehousing, kitting, fulfillment and more with the latest in order management and warehousing management software.