Any business can streamline their back-end office and save money by using fulfillment services. A fulfillment center provides small businesses with all the support they need to keep the business running smoothly, without the expense of paying salaries and without the costs of hiring and training people.
Many small business owners don’t realize how much their businesses can benefit from signing up with an order fulfillment service. Take a look at just some of the ways that businesses can save money by using an order fulfillment company:
Shipping – Many shipping companies provide discounted rates for large companies that ship in bulk. Small businesses don’t qualify for those discounts so they end up paying more for shipping which means they need to charge more and run the risk of losing sales to companies that are larger and can charge less for shipping. Fulfillment warehouses do qualify for discounted shipping rates, so having your items shipped from a fulfillment center will mean that you can charge less for shipping and stay competitive with bigger retailers.
Extended customer service hours – Small companies often can only afford to hire part time customer service reps to answer calls and emails. Because gift fulfillment companies, for example, have a larger staff they can offer your customers extended customer service hours so that no matter where your customers are they can reach a customer service rep when it’s convenient for them. Many fulfillment services offer 24 hour customer service so your customers will always be able to reach someone who can help them. Small businesses can pay a fraction of what they would pay a customer service rep and get better customer service for their customers.
Information and Management Tools – Fulfillment services offer small business owners in house tools like inventory tracking and customer service data so that small business owners can keep track of the amount of available product they have and so that they can find out important information about their customers. Knowing what types of customers are likely to buy certain kinds of products can help a small business owner make a more informed marketing plan and target the right niche for that product. Since advertising is one of the largest expenses for small businesses, any information that will help a small business owner target the right market for a particular product will save that business a lot of money.