Wanting to own your own time is a common reason why people decide to launch their own businesses. They want to be the master of their own schedule. However, many business owners quickly realize that when you launch an eCommerce it can eventually begin to own you. Two of the largest and most critical elements of any eCommerce are shipping and fulfillment. Doing it yourself in-house can save you some money in the short term but it could hinder your growth in the long run. Let’s walk through a few ways your eCommerce can save money with a 3PL.
Warehousing
Whether you rent or own warehousing facilities, you will need to stage, store, and ship goods. If you own your warehouse, do you have space to expand when necessary or beneficial? If you rent warehouse space, do you have flexible options to meet fluctuating demands? The accuracy of your sales projections will determine if you’re in the sweet spot of warehousing, or whether you need to look for more financially-savvy options.
Alternatively, when you’re partnered with a 3PL, you have the flexibility and freedom to scale when you need to – and when you want to. Furthermore, a 3PL partner offers scalability options without the long-term commitments you would encounter otherwise. This cost savings and flexibility allow eCommerce to maximize sales and scale readily.
Staff
Depending on the size and quantity of your products, you will likely need a few extra hands to get them to your buyers. If you are managing in-house fulfillment, you are 100% responsible for hiring, quality control, management, and down-sizing when necessary. If you have an employee walkout mid-shift, guess who is still on the hook to get orders out the door? Yep, it’s you. With a 3PL partner, you are free to run as many product promotions, launches, and sales collaborations as you can, without the risks of personal staff or process delays. A 3PL manages all the personnel required to scale up or down as your eCommerce needs change.
Packaging
No matter what you are shipping, it must be packaged. As a solopreneur, you will likely run into MOQ (minimum order quantities) on packaging materials. This includes; boxes, filler, bags, and more. Depending on the upfront investment cost, it could limit the number of products you are able to deliver in one shipment. If you sell more than one type of product, it further complicates your packaging spend. With a 3PL partner, you are afforded much higher flexibility in packaging services due to the high volume of products purchased and strategic packaging vendor relationships leveraged by most 3PL’s. In addition, depending on the 3PL partner, they can offer personalized packaging which elevates your brand awareness and visibility.
Shipping
The least expensive way to ship most products is to do it yourself. You pick it, pack it, wrap it, drive it to the shipping location, and update the customer with the delivery details. Then you monitor tracking to ensure it makes it to the customer. Even though a 3PL partner will not necessarily lower your shipping costs, it will alleviate the cost of time. You no longer will be working IN the business but ON it. A quality 3PL will not only get your product shipped in a timely manner, they will also have an inventory management system that will inform you and the customer of the delivery status.
Returns
Every eCommerce will have to manage returns and the average percentage for eCommerce hovers between 20-30%. This isn’t a big deal if you are processing 5 orders or less per day. However, just beyond this threshold is a tsunami of returns that threatens to slow down the processing of future orders. Working with a 3PL gives you the peace of mind that returns will be received, reshelved, and reshipped when an exchange is desired. Furthermore, 3PL’s that have invested in high-tech IMS will be able to keep more accurate quantities so that you don’t miss out on sales of products that simply haven’t been added back as available inventory.
Partnering with a 3PL will save you money by giving your company the flexibility in warehousing, staffing, and packaging. It will save you time, hassle, and headaches by alleviating shipping burdens, inventory management, and dealing with returns. While the immediate costs may appear to be higher, a good 3PL partner will help lay the foundation for the next stage of your eCommerce growth and save you money in the long run.
If you want to own your time again, get in touch with one of our agents. See how Falcon Fulfillment can help you regain life’s most precious commodity.
