Customers have gained significant technical advantages when making online purchases thanks to technological advancements. Buying goods is as easy as typing, clicking, and swiping. The success of your e-commerce business is determined by the quality of your products and your e-commerce order fulfilment service.
Despite the advantages of packing and shipping orders on your own, such as personalisation, economy, and flexibility, it can become more and more difficult to keep track of all your orders and inventory as your e-commerce business grows and gains momentum.
The movement of products from your online store to customers is essential to your business when shipping is compromised. Due to delivery delays and inventory shortages, many companies lose customers because they don’t focus on something other than e-commerce fulfilment.
Choosing a reliable order fulfilment company is essential to staying competitive and providing a positive customer experience. Rather than making your e-commerce store a headache, you want one that generates passive income.
You can expect some great benefits with the right 3PL eCommerce fulfilment UK.
What are Order Fulfilment Services?
An eCommerce fulfilment provider allows companies to outsource the fulfilment of their ordering processes. A typical client is a retailer that sells online, an e-commerce business, or a brick-and-mortar store without a distribution centre or warehouse. Your inventory is stored, and these services ship out orders.
A fulfilment centre provides users with the following services.
- Inventory management: A fulfilment service manages inventory using specialised software, keeping track of inventory, noting excess stock and reordering inventory as needed.
- Order Management: Management of orders, order processing, delivery, and product returns are included in order management services.
- Product listings: Business websites can be updated with SEO-friendly product listings from order fulfilment companies.
- Advanced reporting: Customers can receive detailed reports on how their order fulfilment services handle logistics.
How Does the Order Fulfilment Process Work
Receiving
Does your 3PL need your inventory to fulfil orders? Fulfilment centres receive and store incoming inventory.
The 3PL companies UK receive and store inventory according to their processes, often requiring documentation from the merchant. 3PLs store your inventory on shelves, bins, or pallets in warehousing storage facilities after receiving it. In this way, your orders can be shipped more quickly and organised.
Picking
Picking orders begin the fulfilment process.
Orders are assigned to the picking team when sent to your 3PL’s order fulfilment system. Upon receiving a packing slip, a picker collects the ordered products from their storage locations at the facility according to the items, quantities, and storage locations.
Packing
Packing the orders securely is the final step after all items have been picked.
The cost of packing materials may be charged by some 3PLs, while others may include them as part of their fulfilment services. Packing materials chosen by your 3PL will provide your products with the best protection while adding the lowest weight to the package.
In addition to boxes, bubble mailers, poly bags, packing tape, bubble wrap, and air fill, other dunnage materials can also be used. If you’d prefer to keep your brand front and centre, some 3PL manchester allows you to stock custom boxes or plain brown ones.
Shipping
It’s time to ship the order after it’s packed. A 3PL usually purchases shipping labels on behalf of a merchant from the shipping carrier(s).
In some cases, fulfilment providers have preferred carriers with whom they partner, while shipping costs are compared from different carriers in others. Doing so can ensure that your shipping option is as affordable as possible.
Fulfilment outsourcing has the benefit that major carriers pick up orders directly from the fulfilment centre of the 3PL.
9 Benefits of Using Order Fulfilment Services.
Reduce Operating Costs
The cost of infrastructure and logistics can be reduced when you work with an order fulfilment service provider. Order fulfilment is especially affected by seasonal fluctuations. The cost of rent and storage tends to increase during peak seasons because more workers are needed. Order fulfilment operations require temporary workers or the purchase of new warehouses, which are only affordable for some businesses. Best eCommerce fulfilment services reduce operating costs because you don’t need to build new infrastructure.
Lower Shipping Costs
Most order fulfilment companies have contracts with local, national, and international shipping companies, enabling them to offer lower shipping costs. Taking advantage of the discounts offered by order fulfilment services is beneficial. Due to the location and delivery times of many order fulfilment services, they can offer cheaper shipping. Pick fulfilment services that are compatible with your target markets.
Reliable Customer Service
The efficiency of a business can be greatly improved by improving customer service. Having an order fulfilment service that maintains customer interaction is a huge advantage. An accessible customer support department that deals with returns and refunds can save you time and hassle. Knowing that your customers are being looked after promptly by order fulfilment companies is reassuring.
Expand Your Market
Expanding a small or new retailer’s business nationally or internationally is often difficult. Compliance issues and tariffs related to global trade can be complex and daunting. You can grow your business by using the platform of the best 3pl for e-commerce partners and expand into new markets and locations, including Amazon. Because of its global expertise and distribution network, an order fulfilment service should be able to ship worldwide.
Utilise Technology
Technology integration with a sales system will drive growth if it can be processed, managed, handled, and integrated. Inventory tracking is one of the most valuable tools for order fulfilment, which can be achieved with a warehouse management system (WMS). The cost of implementing this type of technology makes it an attractive feature of order fulfilment services.
Fewer employees
Fulfilment services companies only need to receive your products in the quantities needed to fulfil orders. Workers’ hiring, training, and management are eliminated when you use fulfilment services. Employees are not let go if sales decline.
Scalability
Fulfilment companies are popular because they offer flexibility. It allows you to decide where inventory should be stored while only charging you for the space you use. You will be able to grow the business without having to hire more employees if the business picks up. You can run your business more efficiently with 3pl logistics companies in the UK.
Time
By partnering with a fulfilment service provider, businesses can focus on growing. Marketing, sales, and promotions, among others, will be able to focus on specific goals rather than being bogged down by fulfilling orders.
Focus on core competencies
eCommerce order fulfilment can be a complicated process. Employees and management at an order fulfilment company understand the fulfilment process inside and out. Instead of hiring and training new employees in order fulfilment, you can focus on improving your product by contracting their services.
Final Thoughts
The eCommerce market is increasingly competitive and ever-evolving, so order fulfilment needs to keep up. With our cutting-edge order fulfilment software, you get complete transparency into the fulfilment process and the ten benefits listed above. Fulfilment is changing with eCommerce fulfilment services! Get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can enhance the customer experience and boost efficiency within your eCommerce business.
