Pros and Cons of Working with Order Fulfilment Companies

Outsourcing order fulfilment allows your company to focus on innovation, growth, and other key areas while still providing excellent customer service.

Complete service third-party fulfilment companies store your inventory and fulfil orders on your behalf. When orders are placed, most 3PL providers offer order management software for small business to ensure effective picking, packing, and shipping of products.

How Does Outsourcing Shipping and Delivery to An Order Fulfillment Service Work?

Complete service Third-party fulfilment companies store your inventory and fulfil orders on your behalf. When orders are placed, most 3PL providers integrate with e-commerce stores and are triggered to pick, pack, and ship products. When initiating fulfilment processes, many 3PLs offer multi-node locations and consider the balance of inventory allocation and distance to recipient. The 3PL manages transportation coordination and scheduling, frequently leveraging favourable volume-based shipping rates that individual merchants may not have access to.

1. Reduced overall costs

Most 3PL providers support multiple customers and ship large volumes of orders, resulting in significantly reduced shipping rates. They can also optimise order routing and rating, surfacing the quickest and most cost-effective shipping options. Many 3PLs also provide integrated reverse logistics solutions, allowing returned items to be returned to inventory faster and at a lower cost.

Your operating and overhead costs can also be reduced by using a 3PL. Rather than charging you for an entire warehouse, they charge you for the space you use. They also give you access to experienced operations managers, account managers, and labour that can be scaled up or down as needed.

2. Quality customer service

Order fulfilment companies help ensure that ever-changing customer expectations are met, if not exceeded. Consumers have come to expect same-day shipping, rapid delivery and a variety of other services. Individual companies may find it difficult to perform and execute logistics to keep up with changing consumer demands, but 3PL providers are experts at managing the details.

3. Optimized Technology to Streamline Order Fulfillment Process 

3PL fulfilment providers frequently use the most recent innovations and technologies, and outsourcing fulfilment allows your company to benefit from the most recent tools, such as inventory management, item tracking, shipping and handling, carrier selection, security, payment processing, cost optimization, and robust data analytics. ERP systems or warehouse management systems are used by 3PLs to create streamlined processes and real-time results. Overall, the technology available through outsourcing fulfilment will improve supply chain efficiency and visibility, allow for integration of front and back office operations, and provide the foundation for scaling a business.

4. Effective scaling and expansion of your business 

There never seem to be enough hours in the day. Outsourcing order fulfilment gives brands and retailers more time to focus on their core competencies. As a company grows in size, its fulfilment and logistics requirements become increasingly complex. The heavy lifting can be delegated to a third-party logistics provider, freeing up time for innovation, marketing, sales, and growth.

Are There Any Cons of Working with Order Fulfillment Companies? 

The advantages of working with a 3PL provider greatly outweigh the cons of working with one. However, the fact is that there are ineffective 3PL service providers or order fulfillment companies out there whose inefficiency can make your brand look bad.

This is why it is extremely important to look for a good 3PL provider out there who can help you avoid the aforementioned issues. Shift Logistics is a renowned 3rd party logistics provider that has become the go-to choice for top businesses across India due to their smart shipping and order fulfilment capabilities. From same-day shipping to real-time tracking updates to a streamlined returns process, the benefits of working with a 3PL provider like Shift Logistics are manifold!