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No matter what the economy is doing the gift market is in always an alluring avenue of focus for the aspiring small businessman. Gifts are needed year round, especially during the bustling holiday months in the late fall and winter. Most gifts are also easy to order and easy to store, even for small businesses, until the business reaches its fulfillment tipping point.
Self-managed gift fulfillment works fine for any small business until it grows past the point it can successfully self-manage its order demands. For home based businesses this point can often occur during the holidays when the company is the least prepared to deal with rapid growth. Planning ahead to outsource your fulfillment needs will make it easier to ride the growth wave that most businesses experience during the winter holidays.
Companies that start small sometimes don’t realize how fast their logistics management needs will grow until they find themselves deluged by orders. As the demand for products overwhelms their ability to successfully process and ship orders, they can experience serious setbacks and delays in their day to day customer service efficiency.
This “tipping point” works as a signal flare that more aggressive, expert order fulfillment management and supervision is needed as soon as possible. One of the best remedies for this situation involves outsourcing the company’s complete back end workings to a third-party, independent logistics management provider.
Third party service providers assume control of their client business’ warehousing, shipment processing, and shipment packing and preparation duties, working in exchange for a percentage of the profits from every product handled on the client’s behalf. These companies are typically run by experienced logistics experts who have spent years designing and implementing the most advance order and gift fulfillment strategies and techniques.
Fulfillment companies can accept deliveries of product and gift inventory directly from your supplier, eliminating the need for you to store products on your own. Instead, the service provider stores the inventory in their climate controlled warehousing and processing space until each unit is needed for customer order fulfillment.
There are many fulfillment service providers available throughout the United States and Canada. Potential client business, especially those in the gift industry, are encouraged to shop around find the best logistics management or independent fulfillment house for their particular needs, so that they’ll be best equipped to deal with their future business growth.
