Choosing an order fulfillment partner is a big deal. When you outsource a major component of your brand to another company you need to be able to trust that they’ll do the job as good as (or better) than you.
While outsourcing your order fulfillment can be difficult, waiting too long to find the help you need can put your brand in a very difficult position. Ship Central was able to help one such brand overcome these obstacles to find shipping Shangri-la!
Find out how we helped them and how we can help you too.
Looking for Order Fulfillment Help
A hair care brand came to us from the east coast. They were looking for an order fulfillment company that could help them get their shipping operations under control. They sell high-end products that help customers to fight hair loss. Their luxury branding made it important to find a partner that could help them maintain their high-end image.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Picture this: demand is exploding, orders are coming in from left and right; All of this sounds awesome until you realize you don’t have the capacity to fulfill these orders. As a result, your customers have to wait 5, 10, 20+ days for their orders to ship, let alone arrive. You’re literally drowning in orders. Your success is suffocating your business.
This is the stuff of e-commerce nightmares! These are the kinds of bad dreams that keep business owners up at night, drenched in a cold sweat as they imagine the bad customer reviews that are sure to roll in when shipping times stretch into weeks instead of days.
Unfortunately for our client, they were living this nightmare. Their demand was exploding, and their order ship out times were 14-21 days. The VP of the company was the face of their social media marketing, and shipped most of the orders herself often staying up until 2 am.
All hands were on deck and they still couldn’t keep up with demand.
Finding a Company You Trust
Even though they desperately needed help to keep up with demand and continue growing their business, their VP was hesitant to outsource shipping and fulfillment. Their shipments involved customized packing and the VP was reluctant to trust another company to get it right.
When your packing and presentation are such a big part of your brand it’s easy to understand why this was such a big step. At Ship Central though, we pride ourselves on treating every brand as if it were our own. With us you’re not just a number but a partner!
The VP and her team came out to our facility to train our staff on how to properly pack their orders. This even became a marketing opportunity for the brand as they were able to promise customers faster shipping times with the same great quality as before.
A Light at the End of the Tunnel
When your ship out times are 14-21 days it can feel like you’ll never be able to get ahead. When you’re so bogged down in order fulfillment that you’re staying up until 2 am, it’s hard to imagine a world where order fulfillment is the least of your worries. Well guess what? That world exists!
Our client is proof that there is a light at the end of the tunnel! We now ship each order same day, or next business day, talk about improvement. We effectively cut their time to ship by roughly 95 percent.
With our help they were able to stop working in their business and start working on their business.
As a result…
- The VP is strictly doing PR and marketing.
- They have created 2 new product lines.
- They brought on a marketing specialist who has launched a program projected to increase sales 4 or 5 times over current sales.
The Takeaway
Giving up control of your order fulfillment can be nerve wracking but it’s important to know when the time is right. Finding the right order fulfillment partner for you is key to scaling your business. It’s better for everyone when you can focus on doing your job instead of staying up until 2 am fulfilling orders. Great things will happen when you do!