5 Benefits of Outsource Order Fulfillment for Your Retail Business
The decision to outsource order fulfillment is one of the most beneficial and impactful decisions you can make as an eCommerce business owner. Find out what you can gain!
The dreaded order fulfillment fork in the road. You’ve worked hard to build your eCommerce business, and now you’re faced with yet another critical decision. So far, you’ve presumably focused on internal issues like product procurement, website development, and store promotion. Now is the moment to think beyond the box.
If you’ve seen this post, you’ve probably begun to wonder what your operations can handle in-house. Congratulations – you’re already dreaming big! But what are the tangible benefits of working with a 3PL? Continue reading to learn more!
Following top benefits of outsourcing fulfillment
1. More time for focused development
Let’s be honest… Who, aside from fulfillment centers, enjoys spending their days packing boxes? You may be an expert packer, but as a business owner, you likely have more pressing concerns than tape and cardboard. You have to do more than just pack boxes; you also have to take orders to the post office, acquire new supplies, and clean up daily. Hiring staff to assist you adds another set of duties to your hectic schedule.
You may say goodbye to those burdens by outsourcing your fulfillment! When business owners don’t have to worry about the nitty-gritty of logistics, they are constantly shocked at how much free time they have.
More time spent marketing, expanding, and beating is the time taken away from delivering your orders.
2. Huge Savings
The universe revolves around money. Perhaps it’s love. Whatever the case may be, capital is essential. It’s all about the business in eCommerce. So… wouldn’t you like more of it? That’s right: fulfilling orders in-house could save you a lot of money.
See, when you’re a tiny firm, you usually get small discounts – consider how buying in bulk is usually less expensive than buying products individually, and you’ll get the concept. Because fulfillment centers handle large orders, they can get great delivery prices from carriers. What’s the good news? These savings are passed along to you! Friendships in high places, to be sure.
3. Improvements in Technology
You may have kept track of your inventory manually at the beginning of your business, perhaps utilizing a spreadsheet and manually tallying sales. However, when your business grows, you’ll need to update your software (or lack thereof). Customer information, tracking numbers, and other details have grown too much for a pen-and-paper system to handle. Not to add, going the old school method raises the likelihood of human error. That’s not good!
When it comes to technology, a clever fulfillment center will be prepared. Inventory, order, and warehouse management should be combined to provide a streamlined, user-friendly experience. Technological advancement will make you wonder how you ever got by before!
4. Increased Flexibility and Limitless Possibilities
Experimentation and eCommerce go hand in hand. A fulfillment center worth its salt can ideally respond to whatever is thrown, whether adding new products or developing new bundles. You may feel confident that your 3PL will be there for you as your business evolves.
Furthermore, if you’ve ever considered opening a physical location, you know how complex shipping constraints may be. It’s no simple task to take on oneself, but fulfillment centers are well-versed in the subtleties of the retail industry.
The same can be said about international shipping, which furthers things by imposing a distinct set of rules, limits, and standards on 195 countries. That’s not even considering the money component – international taxes, for example, are notoriously tricky. Things are sometimes better to leave it to the professionals.
5. Satisfied customers
Customers can be kept happy in various ways, including by delivering their products accurately and on schedule. Because of the sheer personnel of a fulfillment center, this is more likely to occur, which means you’re already halfway there in terms of customer happiness!
Things happen, of course. Delays, returns, and cancellations can all be a pain. Still, the silver lining is that these difficulties provide you with an opportunity to leave a lasting, favorable impression on your clients. 3PLs can help by putting a lot of data at your fingertips, which you can then pass on to your customers. You may also quickly make order revisions and handle returns thanks to the technology we explained previously – with no hassle!
That’s all there is to it, guys! We hope we were able to answer your questions and dispel your fears if you felt outsourcing was the way forward for your company but weren’t sure what the full benefits were. With that, we send you on your way to the next stage of your eCommerce adventure.
Conclusion
Outsourcing order fulfillment for your retail business can be an incredibly beneficial move for your business. Not only does it help to streamline operations and keep costs down, but it can also help with scalability, accuracy, and speed. Additionally, you can free up staff from mundane tasks and allow them to focus on other critical areas of your business. With the many advantages of outsourcing order fulfillment, it is definitely something for retail businesses to consider.