There’s a lot of talk in ecommerce circles about what small business and ecommerce business owners should do to make their order fulfillment more profitable and cost effective. Order fulfillment is a giant part of any ecommerce business, especially those businesses specializing in mail order fulfillment. The means of logistics management that ecommerce businesses use to reach their customers are one of the most important areas of concentration for business owners no matter the size of their business.
What Customers Expect
Nevertheless, regardless of the size of your ecommerce or home-based business, your customers expect a certain level of convenience and reliability when they place their order. From the time that customer put a product into their online shopping cart until the time it shows up at their door customers expect reliability, quick service, and consistency. Many online shoppers have definite expectations when it comes to how how long their items should take to arrive. Customers may not understand the complexities of shipping large items or delicate items, and may expect their items to be delivered in a time frame that businesses can struggle to meet. Using third party order fulfillment is a great way to streamline the ordering process and ship items in time to meet or even exceed the customer’s expectations.
Customers and Order Fulfillment
In addition to wanting items to be delivered quickly customers want their items to arrive appropriately packed, not broken or damaged. While the ecommerce business can’t assume responsibility for the delivery service conduction of the package from the fulfillment center to the customer’s delivery address business owners can feel confident that a fulfillment service has packed the items to protect them during shipping. Fulfillment centers, unlike many private businesses, have a staff of well trained packers on staff who know exactly what type of packing materials to use, and how much packing material is needed to protect the items that you need to send out without wasting any.
Fulfillment Service Companies Offer A Change
Many independent, outsourcing fulfillment service companies use only the best packaging materials and ship clients products under the supervision of trained and experienced logistics managers, making sure every product gets the preparation and care it deserves. These order fulfillment companies basically assume all “back end” aspects of their client businesses’ operations, including warehousing, processing and shipping, and order tracking. Typically, they perform these services in exchange for a percentage of each product shipped on their client ecommerce business’ behalf. So for business owners that means being able to deliver packages fast, in great shape, while only paying a small percentage of their total sale instead of having to hire, train, and retain an entire staff of shipping and packing experts. It’s a win for customers, a win for the business owner, and a win for the logistics company.