When you are working in the retail industry, maintaining the right order fulfillment operations can seem almost impossible. There is a ton of chaos that is going on and you want to make sure that you are handling your business the right way and eliminating the mistakes. Since you can’t handle everything on your own, it may be a good idea to consider a fulfillment company.
Order fulfillment can take a lot of stuff off your plate and allows you to focus on other components of your business. Using a custom order fulfillment company will help with receiving orders, processing those orders, and getting the product out to the customer. There are a lot of benefits that come with using these companies including:
Lower Operating Costs
One of the biggest benefits to choosing a custom order fulfillment company is the lower operating costs. These companies are going to help lower some of the infrastructural and logistical expenses that you are taking on. And if you need to maintain a warehouse for the products and hire employees to manage the warehouse, the costs can go up.
With an order fulfillment service, you can cut through all of these and pay just for what you need. Most of the services will charge a flat fee for storing the products that you would need in the warehouse. You will then only be charged when an order is picked, packed, and shipped, rather than having all of those ongoing costs.
You will also find that these services can help you avoid the stress of seasonal fluctuations. You will not have to worry about extra employees during the peak season, higher rents and even the fees for storage that can happen to keep up with demand during those times. As you scale, this can be the smartest decision for you.
Reduce the Shipping Costs
Order fulfillment companies have a lot of great contracts with different shipping companies all around the world so that they can provide some of the best shipping costs. They can also offer some good deals when it comes to the bulk delivery that you need. You could end up saving between 15 to 25% on your shipping rates, which can lead to thousands off.
These order fulfillment services often have branches around the country, which can help to reduce the costs. Make sure to shop around to find a service that is going to help you and will ensure that you will reach your target market.
Customer Support
Your customers need some of the best support possible if they are going to continue to choose you over some of the competition. A robust customer service support is going to provide your customers with the best shopping experience around. It can enhance the growth of your company and even give it a boost in sales.
While you could have your own customer service in place, you will find that these fulfillment companies will take care of it for you, taking away some of the stress as well. The customer support could handle some of the simple tasks that occur when working with customers like handling returns, exchanges, refunds, and more.
Most of these are going to provide 24/7 support so your customers are never on their own. This can enhance the experience of the customer when they are shopping and will ensure that they will come back again.
Business Expansion
Using one of these services is going to help you to expand out your ecommerce business to newer markets without making the costs higher for more infrastructure and more employees. Retail companies that are just getting started will often be small with limited resources, which can make it hard for them to expand in their own country and abroad.
When you are looking to expand and really make your business do well, then you will find that a fulfillment center can help you get this done. They will be able to take control of some of the bigger issues of expansion, such as trade tariffs and global taxation, because they have a large distribution network and they already ship globally.
The right fulfillment company will allow you to have the resources that you need to tap into markets that were inaccessible to you due to your resources and size. This can help you scale your business quickly and reach customers in many parts of the world.
Gives You Time to Focus on What is Important
If you spend all of your business resources and money on order fulfillment, then it is hard to handle some of the other tasks that need to be done to keep the business growing. You need to take care of your employees, work on marketing, handle the accounting, and even make new products to put on the market. By using tools such as inventory management KPIs, you’re able to have your stock monitored and have decisions made for you. Not only this, but you’re able to see insights into a variety of important information such as turnover, sales, demand, and much more which is vital that you as a business owner are aware of.
With the help of an order fulfillment company, you will be able to focus on the parts of the business that are the most essential to you and that you actually enjoy managing. As you notice the business scaling up, order fulfillment starts to take up more and more of your time and focus, slowing down your growth and your efficiency.
But when you give some of this to an order fulfillment company, they can manage all the logistics and all that work. This frees you and your employees up to handle other aspects of the business and will make it easier to expand into new areas and handle everything else. You just need to make sure you find the right company who can handle all the work for you.
Choosing the Right Custom Order Fulfillment Company
As a company, you want to make sure that you are able to get the right product to the right customer on time. As your business grows, hiring a good custom order fulfillment company can make all the difference and will ensure that you will be able to have happy customers the whole time.