April 2020

When eCommerce businesses want to know how they can reach the next level, there is invariably one competitor to whom they look: Amazon. The online store giant offers elements that are tricky for smaller businesses to match – with same-day deliveries on some items, and 48-hour turnaround on a wider selection of goods. At the present time, their same-day service is not something practised by all eCommerce businesses, but it is estimated that 75% of such businesses offer it, or soon will.

The truth of the matter is that, with such a major player offering delivery at this speed, it is going to be expected that others follow suit in their order fulfilment. If you run an eCommerce business, this means that you face the challenge of trying to get as many orders out, as quickly as possible, and keeping costs from spiraling out of control.

How Do You Keep a Lid on Costs?

If you want your business to move with the times, then it is a necessity to offer an effective delivery solution. This means streamlining your process from start to finish – improving software on the ordering side of the business, adding capacity and improving response times in your warehouse. Partnering with the likes of ShipJoy eCommerce fulfilment can be the best bet for a business without the long reach of an Amazon.

How Much Should Fulfillment Cost?

On average, 18% of the cost of online sales comes at the fulfilment stage. That’s nearly a fifth of the cost, but it is not too much for an eCommerce business to remain profitable. If however, that amount is higher within your business, it can be a cause for concern. In truth, you need to be including fulfilment costs at an earlier stage of the accounting process than most businesses do. 

The simple truth is that fulfilling orders costs money – when you acknowledge that, you can aim for savings, and set prices and targets more realistically. Include the costs for fulfilment services such as ShipJoy eCommerce fulfilment in your sales costs. Leaving these calculations out of your accounting strategy at this point leads to spiraling costs which you’ll have to face later.

How To Get The Best Results

In keeping with the accepted wisdom that mistakes made early on end up having a distorting impact as a process continues, it is vital to keep in mind the importance of operational efficiency at all stages of your fulfilment process. It’s all the more important, in consultation with the likes of ShipJoy eCommerce fulfillment, to ensure that you’re making the right decision every time you come to a Yes/No question.

You should, for example, clamp down firmly on waste – both in materials and space. The more extraneous packaging you use, the more you are spending every day on fulfilment; and the more space you will be taking up in fulfilment vehicles, meaning a reduction in fewer items per consignment. In addition, have more than one go-to carrier with whom you work – some will work better for a lot of short hops while others will fare better on a long haul. 

Your fulfilment strategy needs to take account of all the ways you can lose money through poor decision-making. You face different challenges than the billion-dollar eCommerce giants – but if you meet them with the right decisions, you can achieve impressive results.

For these reasons are more, ShipJoy is the choice for intelligent eCommerce brands to profitably grow their businesses. Contact us today for more information about how we can help your company.

When Amazon launched its Prime service in 2005, it set new standards for eCommerce and order fulfilment. With low-cost next-day delivery and free two-day delivery, it altered consumer expectations regarding delivery times causing many online shoppers to expect comparable speeds elsewhere. 

Matching these expectations is tough for many retailers with meeting the speed requirements of the consumer being one of the biggest challenges in their supply chains. 

But if you’re not able to deliver quickly, your customers may go elsewhere. 

Here’s how to improve your order fulfilment speed in your business with four key strategies. 

Micro-Fulfillment Centers (MFCs)

Instead of opening large distribution centers covering the entire country, open smaller MFCs situated strategically close to major urban areas. By doing this you will shorten delivery times. 

The drawback to this may be the combined real estate costs. 

Work With Third-Party Logistics (3PL) Providers

If your current distribution infrastructure can match the speed demands of your customers, partner with a 3PL provider with their own existing fulfilment centers across the country to meet this need. They can handle your order fulfilment, receive and store products, and pick and ship.  

Make Use Of Your Brick-and-Mortar Stores 

If you have a brick-and-mortar retail element to your business, utilize it to meet fulfilment demands. 

For many grocery stores offering online shopping, this has been a valuable strategy. 

Warehouse Automation 

When looking for global warehouse solutions, retrofit warehouse automation such as robotic order picking systems. This improves picking times and covers gaps in labor shortages. 

In eCommerce you need to keep your customer happy. This means fulfillment of orders needs to be quick, offering free delivery, and providing great service. One area that should not be overlooked though is how you handle product returns. 

Returns can be problematic for eCommerce businesses, but they are essential. If the process is not correctly managed, you can ruin your reputation and your brand. 

But returns are an essential part of the business. If you manage them well, they won’t be a problem that you need to worry about. 

Here’s how to make sure returns don’t ruin your business. 

Online shopping is huge. It’s predicted that by 2021 over 2.1 billion people will buy online. But it’s a massive sector, and you need to compete with so many other online retailers. To do this, you need to offer the best service on your returns. 

Offer Free Returns

Shoppers are savvy. 67% of online shoppers check the returns policy before they buy. If you don’t offer a returns policy that stands up to their needs, they won’t buy. 

Most customers will expect free returns, however, many online retailers don’t offer free returns. If there is a restocking fee, it can put people off making a purchase in the first place. 

So, to increase sales, offer free returns.  

Make sure that your free returns are only valid within a specified time frame. 

Understand Why Goods Are Returned

There are several reasons that customers make returns. Reasons range from damaged goods, picking errors, wrong sized clothing, faulty items, the product not matching the description, and the customer changing their mind.

Understand the main reasons for customer returns in your business and adapt your operations to minimize returns in these areas. 

Create A Straight Forward Returns Policy

The less complex you can make your return policy, the easier it will be to follow. Customers will be put off by a returns policy that is unclear, has grey areas, or is hard to understand. 

Don’t try to be too formal with the way the policy is written. Make it user friendly. 

Be specific with any instructions, however, avoid using heavily worded instructions. 

Lay out what the customer can expect at every stage of the returns process. The more informed they are, the more assured they will feel. 

Position your returns policy in an easy to find place on your website and link to it from several key places. Make sure that your returns policy is unique to your company. 

Develop The Reverse Logistics Aspect Of Your Supply Chain 

Work at improving efficiency in the way that returns are managed within your supply chain by investing energy and resources into reverse logistics. 

Work out what needs to happen at every stage of a return; getting the item from the customer, checking it, processing the return on your system, and then restocking, recycling, or returning the product to the manufacturer. 

During this stage of the process, record as much information as possible about the returns. Look for patterns and adjust your manufacturing or buying accordingly. Keeping an eye on the stock getting returned will allow you to act quickly should you ever need to issue a full recall. 

For assistance in managing the returns in your supply chain, get in touch with ShipJoy today. 

There are a few different things to think about when it comes to order fulfillment for your eCommerce business. You need to take time to think about what options will make the best fulfillment strategy for your business. Three of the most popular strategies are:

• Direct Fulfillment: this is a strategy where a business will take all orders on themselves and run them in-house. For smaller businesses or businesses that are run from home, this can be something that works well as there will be a number of orders that can be coped with. However, it can work for larger corporations if they have the space for a warehouse to do it all themselves. 
• Drop-Shipping: this is a strategy to fulfill orders where you will pay for the order to be completed, as and when the order comes in, and it will go directly to a vendor or manufacturer to complete the sale. When you have a customer place an order, this will be sent to the ‘drop shipper’ who will pack the order and send it out for you. The drop-shipper picks, packs, and ships the product on your behalf. If you are running an eCommerce business where you don’t want to hold a lot of inventory, if any at all, then drop shipping could work for you.
• Third-Party Logistics: this strategy, also known as 3PL, is where the details of the order get handed over to a third party provider. So although you will have the inventory and be responsible for purchasing the inventory, you will use the third-party provider to pick the order, pack it up and then ship it. 

Knowing what will work best for you does depend on your business and the needs that you have. You might even find that using a combination of methods can work well for you and your eCommerce fulfilment strategy. To know what will work best for you, it can be a good idea to think about inventory first. For instance, if you have a business where you build and design your products in-house, then using direct shipping or 3PL could work best, simply because your inventory can’t be bought anywhere else (for drop shipping). 

Scalability is another factor to consider. Although your business may be small to start with, direct fulfillment may not actually be best if you are planning growth or don’t have the space for inventory. Planning ahead for the future is a must, when thinking about your eCommerce fulfilment strategy. Technology is another aspect to think about when it comes to your order fulfillment.

Fulfilling orders in-house might be your plan, but having the right technology and software to help you organize and process orders (such as CRM) is important. If you don’t have the right technology in place, that can be where ShipJoy comes in to help. We have software that collects data from across your operation and presents it in simple, actionable insights. 

When you’re thinking about order fulfillment strategy, there are several factors to consider; not a right or wrong way of doing things. Plan for the future, as well as taking into consideration your customers and price points, and it can help you to make the right choice. 

If orders are increasing for your business, congratulations! With more products to ship out and more room necessary to store items, your next best step might be outsourcing fulfillment. Once you do so, you’ll likely find you have more time on your hands. So, what is the best way to spend that extra time?

1. Invest Your Time Wisely

When you first began the business, you likely were spending half your day boxing and shipping merchandise. Now that you have a reliable fulfillment service provider like ShipJoy to do that for you, you can be more mindful with your time.

As we work through the corona chaos, now is the time to enjoy quality moments with loved ones. Take time to connect at home as you mentally recharge your batteries. Then, when you return to the office, you’ll feel reinvigorated and have fresh ideas about how to take the business forward.

2. Create New Products

With the extra time you now have because you’re outsourcing fulfillment, why not spend part of it developing new products or services? If you’ve been wanting to add to a product line but haven’t found an hour here and there to brainstorm ideas, now is a great time to do so!

If you’re not sure where to start, why not think about where there’s a need and how you can fill in that opportunity. See what the competition is offering and if their item is lacking anything that you could provide instead. Next, work on the concept and test the prototype thoroughly before launching it.

3. Strengthen Your Business Reputation

It’s always important to take stock of how well your brand is doing and adjust anything as needed. As you won’t have to worry about fulfillment anymore now that you’ve outsourced it, now you can set to building a recognizable brand.

For example, you might look at redesigning the logo or website, or establish a brand mission statement if you don’t already have one. Continue to share your brand personality to appeal to the target audience.

4. Marketing Activities

If you weren’t previously able to spend time marketing your products on social media and elsewhere online as it would have meant you couldn’t keep up with shipping orders on time, now you can do so. You’re in capable hands with ShipJoy handling fulfillment.

Put your focus on marketing to help attract new customers. For example, consider sending out emails and newsletters to your website subscribers that offer specials and discounts. Rest assured, orders will fulfill on time, even when you’re busier than before, now that you’re working with a capable fulfillment provider.

5. Inventory Tasks

Managing inventory doesn’t have to go out of the window when you partner with a fulfillment service like ShipJoy. Instead, appreciate the support you receive at all steps of the process.

ShipJoy uses advanced technology to support the inventory, as well as orders, shipping, and purchasing activities. By watching stock weekly, you’ll see at a glance what’s available, what needs ordering, and how different products are doing, so you can make the best decisions to ensure all orders get met for happy customers.

If you want more time for building your business rather than fulfilling orders, contact us now to start doing exactly that.

How can eCommerce companies ensure deliveries arrive on time and with minimal costs? It all revolves around the fulfillment center. An excellent location means orders can be fulfilled and shipped with minimum fuss. Keeping that in mind, what are the top cities for eCommerce fulfillment?

At ShipJoy, we know what it takes to find the best fulfillment centers in the best cities. Some cities are much better than others. Why? It’s mainly down to the location of the city in relation to the location of your target market. If most of your customers are located on the East Coast, then it makes sense to have a fulfillment center close to them. 

So, what are the top cities for eCommerce fulfillment in the US? We’ve crunched the numbers and produced this list: 

Seattle, Washington

It almost feels like Seattle was created purely for eCommerce fulfillment purposes. There’s a very busy port with great shipping links to nearby coastal cities, and you can reach as far as Eastern Montana and British Columbia with relative ease. If you have a high concentration of customers spread throughout Washington, California, or other nearby states, then this is a great choice for you. After all, Amazon themselves have a fulfillment center here – so that tells you everything.

Los Angeles, California

You get two bustling ports in LA, but the downside is that it can be quite an expensive place for fulfillment. But, if your eCommerce business can afford the costs, then you’ve got instant access to cities across the country from the Port of Long Beach and the Port of LA. 

Dallas, Texas

Many of the world’s biggest eCommerce brands set up fulfillment centers in Dallas. The urban area is absolutely massive, which means there’s a huge amount of customers here. But, this is also one of the best places to transport goods to Mexico. If you have customers from across the border, then this may be the best city for you. 

Edison, New Jersey

A highly popular city for eCommerce fulfillment due to fantastic transport options across land and sea. It boasts a frantic commercial port that’s always busy, and great road access across the US. Whether you’re delivering goods near or far, this is a great option to consider. 

Atlanta, Georgia

If you’re looking to access the South East, then Atlanta is the place to be. There are two main things that stand out here. Firstly, the cost of doing business is low. Secondly, it’s very close to posts in Miami, Charleston, and many other cities. 

Get help choosing your eCommerce fulfillment cities

There are plenty of cities for you to consider in this article. However, there are still many more throughout the US that present good fulfillment conditions. If you need help choosing your eCommerce fulfillment cities, then let ShipJoy help you out. 

We can work with you to identify the best options based on your business needs. As a result, you will streamline your supply chain and make fulfillment a breeze. Orders will be processed quicker, shipping costs will be reduced, and customer satisfaction will go through the roof.