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What do you consider the most important aspect of your business? Is it your infrastructure, including your relationship with suppliers and wholesalers? Is it your back end logistics management?
Is it your customer service abilities? The choice you make says a lot about your vision and direction as a business owner. There are no right or wrong answers. They’re all vital parts of any business, no matter how large or small.
One of the best ways to grow your business at a fast but sustainable rate involves the careful and judicious management of your logistics resources.
The warehousing, processing, and shipment preparation details of you business operation can mean the difference between realizing your business goals much sooner than you had anticipated and finding yourself struggling to maintain the pace of your competitors. Because make no mistake, order fulfillment is a crucial part of your business needs.
When you contract to work with a third-party independent fulfillment service provider you shift control and logistics management of all back end processes to their supervision. Third party fulfillment companies specialize in servicing several client businesses at the same time so they are constantly refining and streamlining their own logistics management systems and protocols. As a result, they’re able to offer you only the latest techniques and technologies. They can also offer you better pricing and great discounts due to the volume of orders that they ship out every day.
Third party service providers accept inventory directly from the manufacturer or wholesaler on your behalf, then store the product inventory in their own electronically secure, climate controlled warehouse facilities until each product is necessary towards order fulfillment. You can get as much storage space as you need to store items so you take advantage of bulk pricing discounts.
A well trained staff of fulfillment workers prepares the inventory sample for shipping, including efficient but dependable packaging and labeling that bears the client business’ address and corporate logo. Orders are checked and double checked for accuracy and safety before they are shipping. Then the package is shipped using the most cost-effective shipping provider or a shipping carrier that you choose to deal with exclusively. Every item receives a tracking number which the client business owner and their customer alike can use to track the order at any time.
