Ecommerce business, also known as electronic trade or web business alludes to the selling of products, purchasing, and administrations utilizing the internet along with the exchange of cash and information to execute these business procedures. However, it also portrays any sort of business exchange that is made or encouraged through the web. While e-business refers to all parts of working, an internet business or online business refers to the exchange of enterprises and merchandise. The mobile e-commerce business is a quickly developing new road of e-commerce that is for the most part determined by the growing business sector and impact of cell phones and recent smart devices associated with shopping on the web. Ecommerce business has developed to make items simpler to find and buy through online retailers and commercial centers. Autonomous specialists, private ventures, and enormous partnerships have all profited by e-commerce business, which empowers them to sell their products and enterprises at a scale that was unrealistic with conventional disconnected retail.
To date, eCommerce has been entitled to great success by outsourcing fulfillment. If you are good at outsourcing fulfillment, then you can help your business grow at a faster pace. However, there is a silver lining in discussing and choosing a fulfillment company. Not every fulfillment company is made similarly. Every fulfillment providers offer different services on the fulfillment of orders. There are many factors that you need to consider before getting on with the process that is the monthly volumes of the order, the locations of your targeted customers, and last the category of product that you sell.
What do you mean by an eCommerce fulfillment provider?
The entire process of eCommerce fulfillment includes the operations conducted for delivering an item. This process consists of activities like processing orders, receiving inventory, packaging, storing inventory, and shipping. The eCommerce fulfillment provider is expertise in these activities and services.
Benefits of 3PL eCommerce fulfillment services
Third-party logistics eCommerce fulfillment plays a vital role in supply-chain management. The council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) said that third-party logistics provides various services for customers which increases the overall profit margins of the organizations. These services are merged by the provider for better usability. The third-party logistics companies provide the following services: transportation, cross-docking, warehousing, packaging, inventory management, freight forwarding. The overall growth and development of the expansionary policies and the complete growth in the e-commerce market were undertaken by the big FMCG organizations. This has enabled the start-ups of the logistics aggregators in the country to overcome the leaps and bounds. All thanks go to the immense demand rates for the e-commerce courier facilities. However, for continuous growth, the logistics firm should overcome the strict demands of stringent service agreements along with efficient deliveries at the same time.
The current economy we hold, 3PL companies seem to be doing quite well. The managing consultant of New York James Morton allegedly says that 3PL Company has raised its margins since 2009 and the revenue numbers suggest the same. He also says that there seems to be a rebound in the economy and that rebound seems to be the third-party logistics industry. There are several reasons for choosing a third-party logistics company. It has been seen that as companies tend to grow and develop more, the need for the warehouse spacing increases beyond the company’s holding capacity. In that case, a third-party logistics provider can be a great help in such spacing issues. However, other companies can face issues like increased transportation costs and higher capital requirements for vehicles and equipment. Third-party Logistics Company often provides you with a large fleet of equipment and vehicles at a much cost-effective rate. Then comes the large U.S based business looking a way out for expanding their business into the Canadian market. A 3PL provider can be the ultimate solution for all such scenarios.
Other reasons for choosing a 3PL company include issues with order fulfillment, problems related to customer services, returns, issues with order tracking, inventory management, technical services, and many more. The more such problems surfaces in the business, the more a company needs a 3PL provider.
Promotes to cost savings
A 3PL provider specializes in logistics. Thus, automatically they will have many more networks than your firm’s supply chain. As they specialize in logistics, they will have extensive contacts and networks, better influence at the time of negotiations, and can serve better to your customers. All these can reduce the overall overhead costs.
You can focus on the main competencies
Outsourcing logistics will help your company to focus on the primary competencies instead of the non-core areas. This will allow your company to have a complete taste of the logistical benefits without wasting the internal resources.
Gain scalability and flexibility
One of the major benefits of having a 3PL provider is that it provides your company with a base of scalability and flexibility. This allows you to utilize the distribution and supply resources regarding the current market situations. Therefore, when your company will face a sudden down sale, then there will no extra investments or unutilized resources. Moreover, when there will be a surge in demands, your company can easily upscale.
Enables market expansion and business growth
The primary function of the 3PL firm is to help companies to expand their growth by providing them with access to a market where their presence is not that establishes or strong. If you can manage inventory in a new market without any extra expense, then it can save a lot of money for your firm.
Better customer satisfaction
All the above benefits will promote to one thing that is better customer satisfaction. A 3PL provider helps you in providing better services, timely deliveries, and overall greater brand reliability. This tends to satisfy customers, which happens to be the primary objective of every business.
Get expertise from professional supply-chain officials
In today’s era, a global market is a busy place and you can hardly surface any expertise for your internal requirements. However, a third-party logistics provider can provide you with the same and even better. A 3PL has the experience and knowledge in all the major aspects including transport documentation, international compliance, import/exports, economic regulations, and many more. The businesses that are planning on expanding their reach to the international markets can benefit a lot from the 3PL service providers. They will help you to identify and rectify the costly delays, cycle time issues, and the whereabouts of the new region.
Fulfillment solutions for your eCommerce business
When you are considering a third-party logistics for sourcing, the services required are beyond the general pick, pack, and shipping. Let us discuss some of the solutions:
Easy integration
The integration process must be very smooth and easily accessible. This is mainly important to manage your online store. A proper third party logistic partner will help you manage your online purchases. You can easily integrate with the websites and marketplace with the help of the APIs. The APIs help in fetching data from your website to save the orders in to make the shipping possible and accessible from the respective platforms. This helps in keeping your orders intact and prevents any loss from happening. Many third-party logistics streamline integration of online stores. If the integration process runs smoothly, the entire setup can be done at a faster pace without even involving a developer.
2-day shipping
The best and most efficient way of competing in a competitive market is by providing your customers with 2-day shipping options. Customers nowadays are very attracted to the faster shipping process. Many third-party logistics provide a 2-day ground shipping for a particular order that is being shipped near the inventory place. With this great solution, vendors can add a 2-day shipping option to products that are being placed in the store shopping cart. If this option is displayed only when the customer enters the zip code, then only it can be made dynamic.
Multiple warehouses
Location plays a pivotal role when it comes to delivering the products at a faster pace. If you choose a third-party logistics that have multiple fulfillment centers, then your shipping can be done efficiently. You can avoid shipping to the expensive shipping zones by reducing the traveling distance of a package. This can also effectively reduce shipping costs and transit times. Logistic operators provide you with a unified platform that enables you to process return orders from one specific location. Many logistics aggregators have at least ten more operators at their back. Several platforms are providing many different logistics aggregators. You can choose the most suitable aggregator for your business. You can choose the best provider for your pick-ups and deliveries and you can opt for the most cost-effective option. This makes your job quite easy and you can get access to all your orders and returns in a single platform. It is better to choose a third-party logistics that have fulfillment centers at major cities and hubs. If you have access to prime locations, vendors can target more and more customer engagement.
Technology
Third party logistics that is enabled with the technology combines the eCommerce fulfillment service along with the order and inventory management technology. This automates the entire fulfillment process and provides complete visibility of the whole process. It is easier to connect the online store with the system if the third party logistics is efficiently embedded to technology. This publishes a two-way information flow. If you do this, you can check on the inventory levels in real-time. You will also get access to transparent, accurate, and reliable data.
Shipping discounts
Fulfillment providers often partner with important shipping carriers for negotiating bulk discounts. This helps the vendors to cut down shipping costs at a considerable rate. It advisable that you do your complete research before you try to understand the total fulfillment costs. The total fulfillment cost includes warehousing, receiving inventory, packing, shipping, packing, and other extra services.
Partner network
There are many pointers that you need to understand for running a successful business in the eCommerce industry. You must choose an appropriate third party logistics that can pair up with a popular eCommerce solution company. A third party logistics which well-connected can provide with much more business opportunities that go beyond the fulfillment support.
Returns managements
A 3PL operator can make the return processes easier. Logistic operators have multiple service partners which make it easy for them to access and manage all the orders accordingly. The first thing you need to do is to choose a suitable partner for the business operation to be done. Then in the next step, you can directly place the return orders, as the platform is fully unified. You should never restrict return orders, as the accessibility to pin codes can be very difficult for a single carrier. Logistic operators have multiple service partners which make it easy for them to access and manage all the orders accordingly. The first thing you need to do is to choose a suitable partner for the business operation to be done. Then in the next step, you can directly place the return orders, as the platform is fully unified. You should never restrict return orders, as the accessibility to pin codes can be very difficult for a single carrier.
Conclusion
If you own an e-commerce based company, then you should opt for logistics service providers or 3PL firms. They will not only help your organization for providing timely deliveries but will also help in gaining customer loyalty. In this era where technological advancement is reaching heights, your company will need that boost which will enable you to complete more and more timely and efficient deliveries. This will help your business to grow and develop. Ultimately, the most important thing is to choose the most suitable fulfillment center for your company. You will need a provider that can accompany your business with proper integration and technology. You can partner with many leading fulfillment companies. Some of the leading companies that can provide you with proper requirements are ShipBob, Red stag fulfillment, Rakuten super logistics, Fulfilment by Amazon, FedEx fulfillment. However, considering the recent data, ShipBob is one of the leading fulfillment centers among all the mentioned above.
