As an online
business expands, so will its requirement of increasing manpower,
technology, inventory space, and order fulfillment. Most start-ups,
after a few days of being in the air of business, tie up with their
logistics partners to manage their order fulfillment. Letting the
logistics partner take over your order fulfillment is a good move.
Logistics companies are known for their meticulous management of
inventory, packaging and shipping.
Some of the factors
a business must consider before signing up a logistics partner for
order fulfillment:
Location:
Does the
logistics company have fulfillment centres strategically around the
locations where most of your deliveries are made to? The locations an
order fulfillment provider has will directly affect your relationship
with your customer. The closer the logistics partner has locations to
your delivery areas, the faster the deliveries and lesser the returns
and higher the loyalty.
Compatibility:
Genre
of merchandise and the tally of transactions in a month are crucial
factors in determining a suitable partner for order fulfillment. The
size of the item is an important parameter. Larger the item, larger
the space, and higher the cost that the order fulfillment provider
has to shell out. Whether the logistics partner you have in mind is
going to charge you on dimensional weightage is a definite point to
consider. Also, not all logistics companies are eligible to carry all
sorts of items. Perishables and specialised items that require a
particular form of composure and care conditions for storage and
transit will need a logistics company that can understand, provide,
and maintain mandatory facilities to keep the items in a prescribed
state of order.
Information:
It is
important to know just how much information the order fulfillment
provider is able to provide. The more you know the better. Will they
be able to give you a real-time inventory information, will they give
you a detailed charge for their services, what software they are
using, how much of what they see you will be able to see when it
comes to information about inventory and customers, and will the
order fulfillment provider make any intimation to the retailer in the
event of need for more inventory of a particular species – all these
elements are vital.
The order
fulfillment provider must be able to scale up with the retailer’s
demand with schedule and inventory. Also, it is advised that the
retailer check for references on the logistics company, peruse the
detailed break up of services, assess their flexibility when it comes
to overseas shipping and see if insurance coverage is provided for
the merchandise.
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