If you are handing the shipping and fulfillment of your product(s), it may be time to examine that decision. One of the key parts of working with a 3rd party logistics provider is their ability to manage and maintain the shipping of your products. Fulfillment shipping can help put your focus back onto advancing the growth of your business by taking most of the work off your plate.
There are a lot of compelling reasons that you might consider making this change. If you’re regularly overwhelmed by the number of orders you need to fill, or you’re running out of storage space and your packaging supplies are getting close to the ceiling, working with a 3PL on a fulfillment strategy can help get your business and your to-do list back on track.
A Good Problem to Have?
Because you are so ensconced in the day to day operations of your business, it may just seem like increased orders means your company is getting more successful. Managing more orders can make it harder to keep up the level of service that you’ve maintained up to this point. With more work to do and more focus placed on administrative tasks, it’s easy for things to slip through the cracks. Here are three reasons to consider making the move to 3PL (Third party logistics).
3PLs get your orders ready to go
If you’re shipping your products to major retail stores, part of shipping is getting your products ready for shipping. Assembling displays takes up additional time and money from your business, but a 3PL can handle this work for you. 3PLs can get your products ready for shipping by assembling, kitting, packing, and sorting your orders so that they arrive at their destination already prepared for the sales floor. If you don’t have retail displays to manage, 3PLs can take care of managing your shipping supplies by keeping your packaging products in their warehouse. In either situation, your only responsibility is to get your products to the 3PL warehouse, and they’ll take care of the rest.
Fulfillment shipping can help you save money
Increased amounts of orders, especially large ones, mean that you’ll be looking at higher costs for shipping. By working with a 3PL, you’ll likely be able to cut costs on your shipping rates as well as your packaging supplies. One of the many reasons that businesses choose to work with a 3PL provider is that they’re tired of damaged orders being returned. Since 3PLs are experts in shipping, you’ll be able to trust that your orders are being delivered safely, and the decrease in the number of returned orders will help you save money in the long run as well.
A 3PL partnership can help your orders get to customers who are far away
As your business grows, you might also see orders coming in from new locations, and not all of them might be within your delivery area. If you have customers that are states away, or even on the other side of the country, working with a 3PL can ensure that these customers will still get their orders on time. For example, if you have several customers on the east coast, you can work with an east coast 3PL provider to ship out your orders to these customers, so you don’t have to worry about incurring extravagant shipping costs, or not getting orders out on time.
Change can be hard, and scary, and feel risky. But deciding to work with partners who specialize in their core competency can free you up to focus on yours. Consider letting a 3PL take over shipping, and consider relying on a company like Packaging Design to help with your corrugated packaging needs.
