Six Pointers to Choose Your 3PL Fulfillment Partner
Effective order fulfillment is key to the success of any eCommerce business! With more eCommerce businesses focusing on core business areas like marketing and sales, they tend to outsource their order fulfillment to third-party eCommerce fulfillment services. It is indeed a smart move and offers several benefits to eCommerce companies. Having said that, the selection of eCommerce fulfillment services isn't as easy as it may look. Many third-party eCommerce fulfillment services assure better competitive price advantages, customer satisfaction, and so on. However, they are not created equally. This is where you need to act smartly. This post guides you through tips to help you choose the right 3PL eCommerce fulfillment company.
Are you looking for a trusted 3PL fulfillment partner to meet the demands of your expanding eCommerce business? Get in touch with the experts at 3PL Business. We can effortlessly meet your eCommerce shipping and fulfillment needs.
Six Tips to Choose the Right eCommerce Fulfillment Partner
When selecting a trustworthy eCommerce fulfillment partner, there are many things to watch for. The following are six prominent ones among them.
Match Your Needs and Their Services: This is an important aspect, which is often overlooked. Many eCommerce businesses do not find success even after partnering with an experienced 3PL business. There can be many reasons, but the mismatch between the business expectations of a client and services offered by the 3PL company can be annoying. To avoid this, you need to first analyze the current challenges faced by your business, who your customers are, where they are located, how often they order, and so on. Then try to match these answers with the vendor services. Always be clear about your needs, and the 3PL partner must be able to fulfill them.
Location of Fulfillment Centers: This consideration would again depend on the above factor. For instance, let’s consider you get most orders from customers in the Northeastern US say, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and so on. In this case, you must partner with a third-party eCommerce fulfillment company that is strategically located in in that area. This decision will help you save on shipping costs, accelerate shipping times, and ensure high customer satisfaction.
Transparency: There are many businesses specializing in the same type of products. It would be a little overwhelming task for customers to find a trustworthy eCommerce partner that they can buy from now and always. Transparency is the only key to build this trust. Many customers have openly agreed they would like to partner with eCommerce companies that assures transparency through all stages of order from ordering to shipping and delivery. So, check with the fulfillment company if they can meet these demands for transparency. For instance, you may be dealing with some seasonal product, which requires quick deliveries to meet the customer demands. Sometimes, such products may require same-day shipping or two-day shipping. If the customer fails to receive the product in a stipulated time frame, it is unlikely that they will buy from you again during the season or in the next season. So, when partnering with 3PL services, check on the level of transparency and visibility the company offers.
Integrated Order Fulfillment: This is a broad term addressing the technology investments that help your clients build transparency with their customers and scale their businesses the way they want. Different eCommerce fulfillment services use different order fulfillment software, which may differ in features and capabilities. Thus, you must choose the one that uses software that aligns with your business goals and allow you to track inventory, shipping, packaging, and different stages of order management.
Branding and Packaging: An attractive packaging and branding can make your brand stand out in the crowd. So, you need to check if the chosen eCommerce fulfillment services can meet customization and packaging requirements of your business.
Returns Management: You may not want to partner with an eCommerce fulfillment company that doesn’t support you after shipping the product. Isn’t it? In many cases, customers tend to return the product for reasons varying from dissatisfaction over the quality to better price advantage offered by the competitor to manufacturing defects. So, you must work with an eCommerce fulfillment company that assures better returns management solutions.
Finding a new and reliable 3PL Fulfillment Company is quite challenging. However, you can easily overcome them by following the above pointers. If you have already worked with a 3PL eCommerce fulfillment company before, perhaps, you would know what to look for. You can compare the fulfillment services offered by both vendors against prices, shipping activities, and above all - customer satisfaction. Before finalizing the vendor, you can spend some time understanding their expertise, experience, and technology investments.
3PL Business is a popular third-party eCommerce fulfillment services company, which has been serving small to mid-sized eCommerce companies to improve the value of their services for several years now. Our industry experience, combined with an in-depth understanding of best practices of shipping, exports, and returns, technology investments, and partnerships with logistics companies across the country has helped several clients to expand their business beyond borders. Our team of experts has been helping clients to achieve 100% customer satisfaction through our refined third-party eCommerce fulfillment services. We always take time to analyze our services and better them to meet the changing customer demands and address evolving industry trends. Feel free to call us at (732) 983-4801 or write to us at sales@3plbusiness.com to know more about our 3PL ecommerce fulfillment solutions.