Fulfillment service happens to be a third-party warehouse that prepares and ships your orders to the customers. All of this is done from the fulfillment center. These are ideal for businesses that want to save their time, energy, and money from shipping and other aspects of providing delivery services to the customers. Although each of the fulfillment centers operates a bit differently, their goal is the same.
Fulfillment centers act as the command centers for all of your order preparations and shipping needs. These centers also serve the purpose of the warehouse to store the inventory. There are a few fulfillment service providers with multiple fulfillment centers. These centers allow them to provide their services to an extensive range of geographical locations faster.
As a result, an ecommerce business can get its products to a diverse audience fast. The key benefit you get out of outsourcing your delivery services is that you don’t have to do it yourself. Moreover, things are done a lot efficiently. Outsourcing your warehousing and fulfillment needs benefits your business growth.
Here are a few of them:
Logistic companies offer flexible pricing. They adapt to your needs and adjust with it if you hit a slow patch. You can avoid long-term leases.
Outsourcing your fulfillment services gets your warehouse space along with a dedicated workforce to manage the tasks. Automated fulfillment centers are growing as well where robots are taking over a lot of manual tasks.
Fulfillment teams have their logistic teams who provide you with all the help that you need. They take care of inventory management, receiving, order processing, and shipping. This gives you speed and efficiency in the operations.
Since you hand over the different aspects of fulfillment services via outsourcing, you will save a lot of time. You can use this time to both manage and optimize other operations of the business. When there is someone else to care for the logistics, you can focus on important and core areas of the business to serve your bottom line.
Doing all of these yourself is not going to cost you. But it can be expensive in the long run. The customers today want to get their orders as soon as possible. Also, doing it in-house could make it difficult for you to fulfill all the expectations of the customers. Getting fulfillment services saves you money and updates you and the customer with the status of the shipment.
The Right Time to Move to Fulfillment Services
Several companies take fulfilling tasks to themselves. As businesses grow, they hire a third-party solution. But, many businesses do not know when is the right time to get these services. Businesses, regardless of their size and greatly benefit from warehousing and fulfillment services. There are numerous companies you can select from as they specialize in smaller or larger-scale operations.
Listed below are a few clear signs that you need to outsource the fulfillment services:
Poor Infrastructure
If your business is growing geographically, you will be outgrowing your current infrastructure soon before you get a chance to adapt. When you have to ship orders all over the world, both shipping times, as well as the expenses, increase. This restricts your business’s growth in the long run.
Cyclic Sales
If the number of orders that you get keeps on fluctuating all year round, it would be unwise to get people for your warehouse. A logistics company could cater to your needs. On the other hand, unexpected spikes in the sale are good for your bottom line. However, it can also cause you trouble in terms of fulfilling the delivery needs. Logistic companies have experts that can give you consistent and efficient experience in case your daily order volume peaks.
You Have no Time Left
If you have got too much on your plate, and you are unable to focus on other areas of business due to your occupation with order fulfillment, you need to outsource. Sales and marketing are important areas of the business as well. They also need your time and focus. If you want to expand your business to other platforms, and want to launch new products and ideas, you would need to devote time.
To sum up, outsourcing your delivery and other functions to a reputable fulfillment center like IQ fulfillment allows you to serve a bigger customer base and spread your deliveries to multiple locations.