Jul 31, 2014

Do you know someone who has a garage or storage room full of product from a home business they started? There is nothing wrong with this. Many great businesses started as a great idea in a garage, but the question is what do you do after you grow out of the garage or your office building or the small warehouse space you have? Do you build a new building? Do you lease a bigger space? Do you hire more people? Do you buy equipment and inventory management systems? The answer is, No! You can get all of these things by outsourcing to a partner that already has all of these things, plus one more important attribute. Expertise.

Additional benefits for your business include:

1) Grow your business faster: Spend your time growing your business and your brand. Focus on what you do best and partner with the right company that can take care of your needs from fulfillment perspective. Remember time equals money, so the less time you spend on the fulfillment piece the more money you are saving.

2) Avoid additional overhead: It is expensive to run a business that requires fulfillment services. By outsourcing you do not have to hire additional people, lease space, buy systems, or purchase equipment. The partner that you select already has these and knows how to use them. You are not incurring these costs as upfront expenditures, you are paying for them in the services and typically less than if you fulfilled yourself. See this partner as an extension of your business and work collectively and strategically with them to build the scope of work and expectations so all are met.

3) Scalability / Flexibility: Partners that provide fulfillment services to you can meet the needs you may have when you have an influx in activity or a special project. You will not have to hire more people to “throw at it” to get it accomplished. Your partner is used to this and can provide the proper number of resources to get this completed in the timeline needed. Many times your costs will not increase if enough time is allotted to complete the work. Plus the more volume you have, the better leverage you have to improve you pricing with your partner.

4) Speed to market: Due to the fact that your partner does this every day, they know what you need to start fulfilling orders from E-Commerce, orders files or manual emails. The systems are already set up and the process is created. You do not have to waste precious time or lose revenue while creating new processes and navigating new systems before you can get product to market. Realize profit faster by outsourcing.

5) Continued improvement: A good fulfillment partner will constantly be looking for ways to make your program better or communicate suggestions to avoid issues in your program. This could include improvement to receiving, packaging, reporting, changes in the market, retail compliance and avoiding charge backs. Your partner assumes some of this risk of these programs and it is in their best interest to ensure you are educated and follow process and procedure to eliminate this risk.

6) Visibility: Many businesses may be concerned about a “loss of control” or “visibility” if they outsource. Quite the opposite is true. Your partner will have the Inventory Management Systems (IMS) that will allow you to see your inventory, outbound orders with tracking numbers, returned orders, usage reports and even have the capability to help notify you when you need to cut a new purchase order to a vendor. The right partner can create customizable reports that fit your needs.

7) End to end supply chain partner: This is a bonus if you can find it. Some partners will only provide a piece of the supply chain such as fulfillment, but others can manage the whole process. In a perfect world you can find a partner that can give you end to end visibility. They can manage the inbound transportation piece, warehousing, fulfillment and outbound distribution. This can be a very impactful find and allows you to bundle services for better pricing

Many businesses are looking for the right partner to grow with or if they should outsource. The benefits above are just a few reasons to consider outsourcing fulfillment services, albeit they are very important reasons. Creating strategic partnerships can be one of the most important steps for unleashing fast success in your business. Let the experts do what they do best while you work hard to grow your brand. Leverage the facilities, people, tools and systems your partner already has in place for a quicker burst into the marketplace to realize revenue faster.

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