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The advantages and incentives offered by logistics providers to their clients don’t just work for small and home-based businesses. In fact, fulfillment service companies can accommodate the needs of larger, more well-established enterprises as well and can improve the speed and efficiency of larger businesses.
Fulfillment service companies are able to handle all of the logistics fulfillment that a business needs regardless of size. The owners and managers of larger companies may find outsourcing ordering fulfillment to be a convenient solution to logistics management . Once a large company outsources order fulfillment to a fulfillment house that company is free to focus on other aspects of business growth including:
A New Product Line
Companies wishing to separate their mainstream inventory and product line from a new additional selection of products may choose to outsource the new product line’s warehousing, shipping and processing to an independent company. This allows the business to sequester the new product line from the other, keeping everything organized and relatively separated.
Such separation brings numerous advantages. Perhaps the business wants to expand its product line but lacks the resources to give such an expansion the resources it requires. Or perhaps they want to insure their new product line remains distinct from their traditional business. In either case, they can outsource some or all of their order fulfillment needs to a third party company.
An Entire New Company or Website
This approach works especially well for established ecommerce companies looking to expand their revenue base by introducing a second or additional website storefront. By outsourcing their fulfillment obligations associated with the new website, they keep both supply and delivery streams separate and distinct while reducing the operating costs of the new business – thereby improving its profit margin.
These satellite businesses can help improve a company’s stability, shoring up the profit base of its parent while remaining relatively autonomous and self-protected by its separation. By outsourcing its fulfillment needs, the satellite business’ operations costs are kept minimized, increasing its flexibility.
Making the Switch To Outsourced Fulfillment
Established companies wishing to form a partnership with a third party service provider should clearly delineate which aspects of their fulfillment they are willing to outsource. No matter, the amount, the fulfillment service company will be able to accommodate their needs, but open channels of communication should be kept at all times throughout the partnership. Finally, the client business should remember to set up the outsourcing well in advance of their fulfillment needs, so as to smooth out the transition time.
