July 2022

Many companies used to spend the time shipping during daylight hours. The new normal has meant that overnight shipping is stepping forward. It’s a great way to get an order into customers hands quickly and in a society where we are looking for instant gratification in everything, fast shipping is the answer. The demand for fast shipping is increasing right now, with customers ordering next day delivery on most items. It could be so tempting to offer something overnight shipping but you should really consider the costs before you do it.

Overnight shipping is the delivery option that guarantees that products will be delivered the next business day. It’s a fast delivery option, and most customers are willing to pay the price to get their items as fast as possible. There are pros and cons that come with overnight shipping, so let’s take a look at a few of those because with the right planning overnight shipping can be a great option.

The Pros

There really is one main pro of overnight shipping and that’s that your customers are going to get their products the next day. As a company that offers a quick delivery option, you will become a preferred supplier for most customers no matter whether it’s in a business space or in the retail space. You can exceed customer expectations and really push the last minute shopping to buy your products when you offer the next day delivery option.

The Cons

Overnight shipping tends to be quite expensive, and while your customers may be happy to pay a big portion if not all of the cost, what is the cost of your business? Your cost will rise and try to turn out products faster if you don’t have the inventory, and you also have to consider the weight of your packages, the amount of shipping zones that the packages have to travel and your ability to negotiate the shipping rate with a carrier. Overnight shipping is affordable if you plan, but it can get very expensive depending on the distance.

The good news is that you can work on negotiated rates with your overnight shipping so it doesn’t have to be as expensive as you think. If you work with a 3PL company that does a lot of business with larger carriers, they may be able to leverage their existing business to get clients overall rates that are lower.

The Right Solution

Almost all e-commerce businesses will offer an overnight shipping option at some point. It’s the best practice that provides the option of a convenience to customers and those are your bread-and-butter. Understanding the ins and outs of overnight shipping is important, and what is the new normal, you have to ensure that it is the right thing financially and logistically for your business. It can feel complicated to organize overnight shipping solutions, but with the right company you’ll be able to impress your customers while also managing a smooth transition to overnight shipping from the shipping.

To provide exceptional service to your customers and scale your business get in touch today with ShipJoy.

Do you need a warehouse or fulfillment company? Choosing the right warehouse company or the right fulfillment company takes some time. Many shipping professionals use the times warehouse and fulfillment center interchangeably but they are very different. These are two methods of storage that are not the same as each other, and the logistics of running a warehouse are often much simpler than running that of a fulfillment center. This is mostly because the fulfillment center is much more involved in the order fulfillment process than the warehouse. Let’s take a look at the differences.

Warehouses

To have the maximum quantity of products in the past, a business would need to have a large warehouse ready to go at all times. A slow information flow was what once necessitated vast amounts of goods, and advances in modern technology and communication systems have changed all of this. 

A warehouse can store products for an extended period, and this is much longer than a fulfillment center does. The modern supply chain can effectively predict product months now, so it’s always important to have the correct amount of goods at any given time. A warehouse is usually an in-house tool used by a company to build an infantry. This inventory can anticipate product  popularity – so warehousing never really meets the customers.

Fulfillment Centers

These are commonly known as distribution centers and the storage in order fulfillment centers is different from warehouses. They don’t just store the goods. They are also in charge of fulfilling the orders that come through, specifically from ecommerce spaces. They could mix products, packages and even more. The velocity of distribution flow is much higher than the warehouse, and the fulfillment center can handle the complex logistics involved in meeting customer specific orders. 

They can also evaluate shipping costs and manage store inventory. The fulfillment center also uses different technologies than the warehouse to be able to fulfill the order to move the products. In warehousing, the goal here is in storage, but in a fulfillment center the technology has to keep up with the fast ordering from ecommerce stores.

A warehouse management system needs to be top of the line to handle order picking, but modern warehouse management systems include robotics, drones and more traditional technology.

Which One?

If your company is dealing with e-commerce goods, you need to be able to have somewhere that you can put your products and continue to store the inventory safely. The decision between whether you choose a warehouse or fulfillment company is going to depend greatly on what kind of products you deal with in the first place. Warehouses are designed for a long-term storage solution, and they are optimized this way. Distribution and fulfillment companies are designed for quick intake and quick output.

It’s important that you choose the correct one for your business needs, and if you would like to learn more about the best shipping, for filling and storage solutions for you, contact us today and see how we can help.