2020 was a year of exponential growth for e-commerce. U.S. e-commerce sales increased by more than 30% from the previous year, as the pandemic caused consumers to change their shopping habits overnight. This shift from in-store to online shopping resulted in 10 years of e-commerce growth in just 90 days.
Even after the pandemic, many of these shopping habits will stick for consumers who now value choice and convenience. Competition will also increase as more new and legacy companies focus their efforts on e-commerce.
To differentiate your company from competitors, you must deliver a seamless customer experience from start to finish. Fulfillment is a key piece of this puzzle — one that is often a challenge for companies juggling many priorities with limited staff and resources.
Outsourcing order fulfillment can help your business reduce operating and shipping costs, increase sales, and manage fluctuations in demand. By partnering with fulfillment providers to handle warehousing, inventory management, and staffing to process, pack, and ship orders and returns, you are better equipped to focus on your core business goals and ultimately deliver a better customer experience.
Reduce Operating and Shipping Costs
The right fulfillment provider can help you decrease both your operational expenses and shipping rates. Instead of renting space to house inventory, buying packing supplies, and hiring people to manage packing and shipping, you can take advantage of economies of scale and pay a flat fee for the services you need from specialized fulfillment centers. And because many fulfillment centers operate within a network of facilities across the country, you may have access to reduced shipping costs that you can pass along to your customers.
Increase Sales
Outsourcing fulfillment allows you to scale your business more quickly. If you want to invest in marketing to boost sales, you don’t have to worry about increasing in-house warehousing space or staffing to handle more orders. You can simply augment the space and services provided by your fulfillment partner, then focus on the sales and business strategies where your expertise is most valuable.
Manage Fluctuations
If your company’s sales vary throughout the year, you can save money by outsourcing your fulfillment to a third-party company. When demand is high — for example, during the holidays or back-to-school shopping season — you can warehouse more products in fulfillment centers without taking on additional overhead expenses. And when sales slow, you can cut back on warehousing and staffing expenses without putting your future plans at risk.
Contact Exegistics to see how we can design a custom warehousing, fulfillment, and distribution solution for your company.
