You’re right to have reservations. In fact, any substantive change in your day to day business operations merits serious consideration. But sometimes doing what’s best means taking a leap of faith, and acting quickly and decisively for the better. Someone once said that true leadership was the ability to make important decisions without hesitation; others say it’s the strength to make decisions and not look back. As an ecommerce or home-based business owner, you’ll make harder decisions than whether to shift your logistics management to a third party order fulfillment company. The advantages far outweigh the drawbacks, by a surprisingly comfortable margin.
Fulfillment Service Companies Are An Easy Decision
Fulfillment companies work almost as a separate organization within your business, but it’s an organization that lends you its specialization and expertise without remaining autonomous in the decisions directly regarding your business growth and development. Instead, fulfillment companies work at the day to day, “nitty gritty” details of order fulfillment, warehousing fulfillment, and mail order fulfillment on your behalf. These are the routine but no less demanding tasks that can sap your energy and resources if you attempt to manage them on your own. Faced with the promise of removing such details from your day to day business dealings, outsourcing your order fulfillment and logistics needs to such a company makes great sense in the “long view,” the perspective of what’s best for your business growth over weeks and months, and even years.
The True Cost of Fulfillment Outsourcing
You probably already know that fulfillment outsourcing providers deduct a percentage of every product processed and shipped on your behalf as their operating fee. If that price seems exorbitant, consider the following facts:
– The percentage deduction is in fact in all likelihood very small compared with the actual costs of self-storage, payroll, shipping supplies, and other costs that would incur if you attempted the logistics management yourself.
– The percentage is likely adjustable, meaning smaller businesses wll have the option to start their fulfillment outsourcing at a relatively smaller service fee, then let it increase as the ecommerce business grows. Many fulfillment service providers offer such plans as an incentive to recruit new client companies.
– With a fulfillment service company, you’ll be able to expand your product line without fear of incurring additional warehousing or logistics capabilities, as those will remain the fulfillment service company’s responsibility.