Retail is a cyclical industry, which means that sales activity typically spikes around major holiday events, such as Thanksgiving and New Year’s. However, changing market trends or a successful marketing campaign can also cause unexpected surges in demand for your products. This means that any potential partner should be able to manage a spike in orders without creating bottlenecks in order fulfillment or shipping.
In practice, a reliable 3PL provider should regularly review your sales and inventory data from previous sales cycles to meet customer demand accurately. Ask a prospective 3PL to create a surge fulfillment plan to see how they would scale up order processing for critical sales days, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Seamless e-commerce fulfillment: Powered by Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash
In 2022, a 3PL is no longer just a warehouse or logistics service that moves goods from A to B. Every e-commerce brand is a multilayered ecosystem of selling channels, e-commerce platforms, business intelligence systems, return portals, and more—and your provider needs to sit right at the center of this network to coordinate seamless order fulfillment.
A logistics partner bahamas mobile database offering a full suite of software integrations with common platforms such as Shopify (or, even better, facilitating building their own integrations in-house) is a precious asset in a marketplace where connectivity is the key to better customer experiences. Moreover, this means a much smoother onboarding process and less likelihood of technical problems kicking in when your operation goes live.
What strategies do you use to keep shipping costs down?
Shipping represents one of the most significant ongoing costs for e-commerce brands, especially as expectations for they can also be used free and rapid shipping continue to increase. So, as your business grows and customers become dispersed across the country or internationally, you want a 3PL partner that gives you the best possible cost savings in your shipping strategy.
For example, the more carrier partnerships a potential 3PL has, the more flexibility your business has to get the cheapest betting email list rate. It’s important to note that some fulfillment companies will only work with carriers that meet their required service levels or operate in certain regions. If you can’t shop around easily for competitive rates, this will result in higher shipping costs for your brand.
