The Best Kept Secrets of Professional Order Fulfilment

If you're looking at partnering with an order fulfilment service, you probably already know why you need one. You can hand off the time consuming logistics of the task and focus on marketing your product and growing the business, while at the same time maintaining the level of service your customers have grown to expect. However, there are a few things that might surprise you about how helpful it is to outsource your fulfilment.

What is Good Fulfilment?

First off, these things are only true when you are talking about professional and experienced providers of order fulfilment services. That means a company that has a high tech organization system and quality warehousing. They should also have a centralized location to cut down on shipping costs and partnerships with the major package carriers.

Good companies will also work with a range of businesses and ecommerce software. Versatility is the product of experience, and experience is one of the major reasons to outsource a task. Look for companies with partners of all sizes, and you're sure to fit in.

Less Labor, More Profit

Not only is looking for help from an order fulfilment service going to save you a ton of stress, you also could stand to pay quite a bit less than if you were integrating the same services. This comes down to efficiency. When you pay your partner a per order service fee, that money is going to work immediately, and it's all being applied directly to the task of shipping your merchandise out to the customer.

When you add it all up, those fees don't even come close to the constant trickle of cash you would pay for internal staff and warehousing. There are even some less obvious labor costs, like human resources hours associated with hiring and seasonal workers.

Bulk Benefits

Buying in bulk is another way order fulfilment services cut back on costs. For example, you're likely to have a lot less motivation to buy and stock huge amounts of packaging materials. It's a different story for a company that handles large amounts of shipping from various clients. Multiply your shipping needs by the total amount of clients your order fulfilment service has, and you have an idea of what kind of quantity discount is available on packaging.

You can also save money depending on your own shipping volume. If you are going to fill a lot of orders, that's valuable to a fulfilment company. An experienced company will recognize that value and let you negotiate for discounted order fees.

Expandability

If you were to encounter a sudden spike in orders, it would put intense strain on an internal order fulfilment system. That might leave you with a tough decision: throw more resources in and cut into profits, or face a dissatisfied customer base. With outsourcing, dealing with the problem can be as simple as getting suggestions on how to proceed from your order fulfilment service provider.

In conclusion, outsourcing fulfilment saves you money in a lot of unexpected ways. From bulk discounts on packaging to decreased human resources expense, there's more of an advantage to partnering with a good order fulfilment servicethan meets the eye.

Weston Barnes is a write and an avid reader. When he's not writing about business, marketing, health, pets, or relationships, he's immersed in his latest book.