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When Unexpected Growth Becomes a Nightmare

December 19th, 2019 by admin in Blog Comments Off on When Unexpected Growth Becomes a Nightmare

You set up your storefront, you have your product ready to go, you spend some money on advertising and then it happens.  You get overwhelmed by a rapid spike in sales and with your company’s growth on the line you miss deadlines for fulfillment and shipping of orders.

High-growth brands routinely run into these problems and it is why many choose to outsource to a third-party logistics (3PL) provider.

What is a 3PL?

You take the orders. Your 3PL stores your product, controls your inventory, picks them, packs them and ships them. It’s that simple and if it’s seamless, customers never think twice about the handoff between received orders and its fulfillment. A 3PL is a link in the supply chain brands use to outsource part or all of a business’ distribution and fulfillment services.

3PLs can receive new inventory from your manufacturers before shipping it to consumers, they have large, secure warehouses which can store your material. They can also handle retail distribution and returns.

When Should You Enlist a 3PL?

Don’t wait until you’re overwhelmed by order growth. Breaking the fulfillment promises you make to customers can damage your brand. It also can get you fined or banned from many shopping carts or marketplaces.

There are 3 main questions to help you determine if you need a 3PL:

Are you fulfilling more than 10-20 orders per day?
If so, calculate the costs of partnering with a 3PL to keep your profit margins strong.

Do you need storage?

3PL’s have large, clean and secure warehouses that can grow with your business. Most charge a flat “per pallet, per month” charge for storing your items on their premises.

Could you benefit from reduced shipping costs?

Third-party logistics providers use the buying power of all their customers to negotiate shipping rates with major carriers.  You get the benefit of reduced shipping rates based on an overall volume that you are unlikely to achieve on your own.

 

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