The Ultimate Guide To Manufacturing Fulfillment and Logistics Services
Table of Contents
- What is Fulfillment Services?
- Benefits of Using Third-Party Logistics Services
- How Does Third-Party Logistics Services Work?
- What are the services offered by a Third-Party Logistics Provider?
- How to Manage Third-Party Logistics Services Providers?
- Conclusion
When you start an ecommerce business and sell products for a while, you probably think about shipping, warehousing and fulfillment. Predictable and accurate fulfillment equals happy customers and positive reviews.
The fulfillment cannot be something that makes you excited about your online business. However, this is the key to your success in online retail.
What is Fulfillment Services?
A fulfilment service is a third-party warehouse that sends and receives your orders for you. Ecommerce fulfillment services are an ideal part for businesses that do not want to deal with shipping or have exceeded the existing warehouse capabilities where they are unable to ship orders themselves.
Key Statistics of Fulfillment Services
- 94% of consumers blame retailers for poor delivery.
- 38% of online shoppers abandon an order because a package may take longer than a week.
- 73.6% of shoppers say that delivery is the most important to the overall shopping experience.
- Customers look up their order tracking page an average of 3.5 times per order.
Benefits of Using Third-Party Logistics Services
Using a third-party logistics (3PL) company to outsource fulfillment prevents you from working on your own. Outsourcing warehousing and fulfillment can have a significant impact on the growth of your business.
- Avoid long-term leases
- Save time and money
- Get more active
- Bring in the experts.
How Does Third-Party Logistics Services Work?
If you are new to outsourcing and managing 3PL, this may seem like an expensive process, but it doesn’t have to be. Working with 3PL, you can leave all operational details to them, freeing you to focus more on other aspects of your supply chain and your core business goal.
Here are the services that handle 3PL for the seller from a completion point of view.
Receiving
The first step of 3PL can fulfill the order and shipping.
A 3PL warehouse will receive your company’s inventory and then store your product before going to the customer. They will coordinate inbound shipments with the company that assists and manages bulk shipments from manufacturer to distributor. A good 3PL should have warehouse management software to make the process easier.
Picking
The next step is picking. This is where the fulfillment process begins. Once the order is collected, it is shipped to warehouses or fulfillment centres where the seller’s inventory is stored, the location of the items in the order is identified, and then the items are taken out of storage.
Packing
Once an order is “picked up”, the products in the order are sorted for packaging. A 3PL will work with the seller during the initial setup process to identify the best way to pack. 3PL should have a technology system and operational process to ensure that orders are accurate and can be shipped in bulk, especially during peak season or order times.
Shipping
Shipping is the most complex and expensive aspect of the fulfillment process. When a large number of shipping options per carrying, and shipping location. An experienced 3PL can formulate a clear shipping strategy and provide a better experience to the customer receiving shipping costs, faster delivery speeds, and packages.
Returns
Whether the item was ordered by mistake or damaged during the shipping process, or for other reasons, returns are part of the purchase process and an important part of the customer experience. An experienced 3PL has a systematic process of receiving products, documenting receipts for those products and establishing business rules with the seller to determine what to do with returned orders.
How to Manage Third-Party Logistics Services Providers?
Managing the performance of a third-party logistics provider is not a difficult task. You can hire a professional for this. However, if you are working with many third-party logistics companies, you can rely on the 3PL aggregator platform for this task.
A creative 3PL career management platform can help you:
- Manage and monitor the performance of your third party logistics partners on a single dashboard.
- Check the status of all your orders in real-time
- Keep a tab on failed and successful shipments
- Automate AWB generation and label printing
- Get delivery feedback from end customers
- Automate the order distribution process
Conclusion
However, in the era of Covid-19, micro-fulfillment has changed from a creative solution to a valuable asset as businesses struggle to take their services online.
Partnering with 3PL that offer micro-fulfillment services and helps local businesses make a smooth transition into ecommerce.
The biggest benefits of working with third-party logistics are:
- Delegate
- Cost-saving
- Technology
- Operational Expertise
Deepak Wadhwani has over 20 years experience in software/wireless technologies. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies including Intuit, ESRI, Qualcomm, Sprint, Verizon, Vodafone, Nortel, Microsoft and Oracle in over 60 countries. Deepak has worked on Internet marketing projects in San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange Country, Denver, Nashville, Kansas City, New York, San Francisco and Huntsville. Deepak has been a founder of technology Startups for one of the first Cityguides, yellow pages online and web based enterprise solutions. He is an internet marketing and technology expert & co-founder for a San Diego Internet marketing company.
