The Power of 3PL
When online shoppers click the order button on your website, they expect to get their items quickly and in perfect condition. And if your business is growing well, there might come a time in your journey where you struggle to make this happen. Maybe you’re spending too much time fulfilling your orders, perhaps you’re having peaks in demand (and don’t want to have costs associated with these peaks) and maybe you’re running out of storage. If so, the time has probably come to look into fulfillment and customer service functions and harness the power of 3pl.
What Is 3PL
Third Party Logistics or ‘3PL’ refers to the outsourcing of eCommerce logistic activities. Essentially, it’s a service that enables enterprises to outsource or make use of third-party businesses to carry out tasks to completion in its supply chain. Today, 3PL can service almost all aspects of your supply chain, providing you with a range of flexible storage and distribution services to your customers.
Benefits of 3PL
More and more businesses, both large and small, are looking for external support and expertise to run their supply chain more efficiently and gain competitive advantage. Just a few of the benefits associated with using a 3PL company include:
Save Money
Not only do 3PL companies have exclusive relationships within the logistics sector (meaning they have greater influence during negotiations), but they can also help to offer greater volume discounts to clients. These can both minimize your overhead costs.
Access To Expertise and Experience
3PL service providers have knowledge and experience in everything from transport documentation, import and export, international compliance and economic regulations.
Focus On Core Competencies
Moving the management of your non-core but critical functions such as logistics to an experienced company gives you the time and leeway to focus on your businesses core competencies instead.
Gain Flexibility and Scalability
When sales are down during slower or non-peak times, there are no redundant investments and unutilized resources, and when there’s a surge in demand, you can quickly and easily upscale.
Enable business growth and market expansion
Being able to manage inventory in a new market without having to spend money on warehousing, equipment, and labor can save you money, as well as the effort of learning the logistical nuances of a new market.
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Changing Landscape For Businesses
Customer expectations are tightly linked to current macroeconomic conditions, and since we’ve had such major global events take place over the past few years (most notably of course, the pandemic) it has made things particularly challenging for businesses. If you want to thrive as an enterprise, it’s so important to keep adapting to current consumer preferences and so fulfillment and customer service functions is one area of your business to pay close attention to. Online sales have been growing as a percentage of overall retail revenue for some time now. That trend has taken a significant upturn since the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus and is likely to become the ‘new normal’ as the pandemic continues