E-commerce order fulfillment is one of the most-effective means of scaling a business. Still, many owners aren’t sure what role, if any, e-commerce fulfillment services play in their business. It’s surprising that many e-commerce companies still think they need to provide the physical space for fulfillment and warehousing.
“What does a distribution company do?” Whatever you need it to.
Lower Shipping Costs, More Reinvestment
There aren’t two ways about it: E-commerce fulfillment services ship way more than you ever will, so they get dramatically reduced costs on shipping that they can pass along to you. All told, you will save 15 to 35 percent on shipping costs by using such a service. That includes global shipping. You can, in turn, undercut the competition while still increasing your margin. This increased margin can then be reinvested in your business to scale it up.
What’s more, third-party fulfillment can improve fulfillment efficiency by leaps and bounds. Your business is sales. Theirs is fulfillment. No matter how good you are at fulfillment, they can do it better. Thus, your turnaround time will shrink, allowing you to push more products in a shorter period of time.
H2: Better Customer Service, Improved Retention
Providing top-quality customer service is as vital as it is difficult. Fortunately, many third-party e-commerce order fulfillment solutions offer customer service as part of their packages. Among the options provided by e-commerce fulfillment services are same-day delivery (a prized option for nearly half of all consumers) and either guaranteed or estimated delivery dates (desired by almost two-thirds of consumers).
Third-party fulfillment providers also offer various options for customers who prefer to go out and get it themselves, rather than waiting around for the delivery man to show up. For you to offer these options would be logistically challenging and potentially expensive, but third-party fulfillment companies already offer them.
Outsourcing Headaches, Focusing on Sales
Perhaps the most important way that third-party e-commerce fulfillment solutions help you scale up is by taking fulfillment off your plate, allowing you to focus on sales. Indeed, it’s common for e-commerce businesses to do just fine with fulfillment when they first start but to have difficulty with fulfillment as they scale up. With third-party fulfillment solutions, you can take all your time on fulfillment and channel it back into selling your wares.
Website design. Marketing. Increasing your sales funnel. These are just a few of the things you can focus on when you’re no longer in charge of fulfillment.
Improved Technology, Greater Efficiency
Third-party e-commerce fulfillment solutions often have access to the latest and most remarkable technologies in fulfillment. These technologies are often too expensive for e-commerce sellers and, in any event. They’re also impractical for your scale, even though they can dramatically improve aspects of your e-commerce business, including item tracking, inventory management, payment processing, security, and — of course — shipping and receiving.
Even keeping track of technological developments in these areas can be challenging, and any time you spend doing that is time you could spend moving products.
If you’ve never considered a third-party fulfillment solution, you should. It can be the difference-maker when it comes to scaling your operation.
James Pell is a freelance writer specializing in logistics and e-commerce.
