Over the last few years, I’ve been running multiple ecommerce stores and if you’re selling physical products, then you have to ship it to get it to customers. When I was only selling a few products a month, I did my own order fulfillment. Piece of cake, heck, I enjoyed doing it.
Now, I’m selling thousands of products a month – yikes! I was left exhausted, there’s just no way you can keep up with that. After a few weeks of hell, I finally decided to make some changes.
Ecommerce Fulfillment For A Growing Business
There’s a lot of different options out there for order fulfillment, the “right” choice depends on your unique scenario. Due to our large product volume and growth, we ended up choosing to get our ecommerce fulfillment service through a fulfillment company. When we outsourced order fulfillment, the relief I felt was immediate, that’s when I knew I made the right move.
Why was this right choice for us?
Our biggest challenge was ecommerce fulfillment itself – we also wanted to get our orders to customers fast. We were shipping from the East Coast, so having our fulfillment center on the West Coast was ideal.
The other reason was our growth – within the last 6 months, we went from 150 units sold per month to 17,400 units sold per month. In January 2021, we just did 41,244 units sold. While our ecommerce fulfillment partner has definitely helped with fulfillment, what has helped me the most is my free time to focus my attention on the business. I was spending so much time working in my business, I didn’t have time to work on the business itself.
The Trends In Ecommerce Fulfillment
Thanks to companies like Amazon, customers want their orders fast. For better or worse, Amazon Prime has changed the game. Once upon a time, 5 days delivery was accepted. Today, customers want orders in a day or two.
If you choose to partner with a 3PL fulfillment company, you’ll want to choose one that has multiple warehouses across the country. This will ensure your customers get their products fast.
Another huge trend in ecommerce is reviews, everyone now has a platform and voice. If customers are not happy, the word can spread like a wildfire. On the other hand, if customers are becoming fans, it can give your business a huge boost.
The Moral Of The Story
There’s a few ways you can get your products to customers – do it yourself, hire employees to do it for you, or hire a company that’s been doing fulfillment for 50+ years. I decided to go with someone that does fulfillment for a living, that type of thinking has always favored me.
If you want something done, hire an expert that does that thing.
If you have a pipe leak, you call a plumber. If you need carpet put down, you hire a carpenter. If you need your orders fulfilled, hire a fulfillment company.
Obviously, there’s going to be scenarios where a fulfillment company may not be right. If you’re only selling a few units a month, your better off doing it yourself.
Still, if you’re doing mass volume, if your sales is growing, an ecommerce fulfillment company is a solid logical next step.
