How to handle warehousing and fulfilment services for your eCommerce business?

You have a good product or item to sell, a business model that should stand on its own and be willing to work hard and make money. However, you are running an online business venture and still need to explore one aspect that may or may not break your ability to succeed: how to handle your eCommerce warehousing and fulfillment services. This can be a nice pain point for consumers and businesses, so fixing it completely should be the primary focus.

Ecommerce shipping is a process that involves many details and important decisions. Whether the process involves free shipping to customers, how to package products, warehouse ideas and more. Many eCommerce companies rely on third-party logistics (3PL) providers to handle order fulfillment, warehouse and shipping services.

Below, we outline the steps needed to set up and manage to ship for your eCommerce business.

Different types of eCommerce shipping, different types of eCommerce fulfillment services.

Before deciding what you can afford or what will work best for your eCommerce business model, you need to have the right opinion about shipping. The biggest difference between the following types is how many outsource directly or to another company. Everyone has their own positives and negatives, and you will be tasked with carefully weighing everyone to determine what will grow in your enterprise. Don't put undue pressure on yourself, but it's important that you find someone who will do the best for you as it can have a definite effect on your business, for better or for worse.

You do it yourself

There is definitely an option. It’s the same as what it looks like, but it also comes in a few different varieties. For example, if your sales are low enough, you can work outside of your home, garage, or perhaps a modest office fee/facility. Things can be less important and managed so that orders can be filled on their own or with a team of people. In this setup, it can be very easy to place orders as soon as you come across the internet.

It is better if you can do this without compromising your abilities in other areas. You have to reap every profit you roll, and it is a self-contained supply chain without intermediaries or any additional steps that can complicate the process.

However, the operation can be so small from your operation that it is more expensive to fill each order yourself because you do not have the benefit of low bulk shipping which is a big industry or even one - for example - which is connected to a third. -Party. A logistics company has access to low shipping costs due to connections. Also, packaging and shipping only a small amount of orders can be a time-consuming process that does not allow you to focus on the issues in your business that can really get attention.

Another possible drawback is that if you need to expand your functions. If you plan to do everything yourself, it means that you are on the hook to buy or lease advanced facilities to accommodate the increased workload and space required, as well as possibly your own additional workers involved.

Order fulfillment with 3rd party logistics 

Warehouse supply is currently at an all-time high, and there are no signs of a slowdown. So if you have an eCommerce business that you want to thrive in the current economic environment, warehouse fulfillment and sending orders can be a big advantage for your bottom line.

Outsourcing your order fulfillment to a third-party logistics (3PL) company is an option when you do not have the required setup to store the warehousing or ship to the required scale. But it can also be beneficial for any e-commerce business that will simply prioritize the fulfillment of their orders, including shipping made on their behalf.

There are many benefits to using 3PL for PL order fulfillment, and many people use it. The first is that you don’t need to find a place to set up your shipping or make a big investment. You can access 3PL's already established infrastructure for your growing business without investing large amounts of resources.

Instead, you pay for the required warehousing space and pay customers for completed orders / items on your behalf. Warehouse space is fairly inexpensive, and fulfillment costs can also surprise you as 3PLs make deals so large that they can reach discount prices on shipping and packaging materials that a small organization cannot.

Another advantage is to stay low on your plate. You may or may not want to give time or energy to monitor or fulfill each order carefully. So you can rely on any other company with the tools, experience and resources to make this task easier for you. You're more concerned with balancing books than buying big pictures or a minute-by-minute aspect of shipping your products.

Also Read: 4 Factors to Consider for Improving Supply Chain of your Warehouse

Order of fulfillment by demand storage

Warehousing on demand is directly linked to order fulfillment. Aside from this view, it is unnecessary to use 3PL in particular. The structure of how you pay for both ecommerce shipping for warehousing and actual order fulfillment may be slightly different. It all starts with you because the eCommerce business has found a company that has warehousing space for storing goods.

Specifically, the company will provide additional services that may include order fulfillment and shipping. It differs somewhat from the fulfillment of the 3PL order, it may not be the 3PL company attached to you, and you will be charged only for the space and services used. This can be a huge benefit to your business, especially if your performance is seasonally affected or you have any kind of variation in services that you really need day-to-day or month-to-month.

Instead of signing a contract for a certain amount of warehouse, fulfillment warehouse services or shipping every month or year, there will be a literal charge for what the company offers you. If you need to store 15 pallets and fill 1000 orders in one month, but next month, it is 10 pallets and 750 orders, then no problem. You will not be charged at the same rate, and this may save you money.

The only real aspect of this setup is that if you have a fixed amount of goods stored or shipped and a fixed amount of money to make a long-term commitment, the amount is much more fluid. Space, the company may be unable to accommodate you.

What is Order Fulfillment? What are the steps of order fulfillment?