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There are many e-fulfillment strategies that deliver profits. Ecommerce accounted for about $2.3 trillion in sales in 2017 and is expected to surpass $4.5 trillion by 2021. Online retailer and e-fulfillment services cash in on this trend by providing consumers with easy access to their most coveted products and stellar customer service. As a business owner, ensure the quick, accurate, and efficient secure delivery service of orders to retain customers and increase profits over time. Read on to discover five e-fulfillment strategies that deliver profits.
Location Considerations
The location you’re shipping orders from is an incredibly important factor in providing quick delivery at low costs. Since both these considerations are equally important to consumers, optimize your business based on where customers reside. For example, don’t ship internationally or from one end of the country to the other. Instead, consider using an urban fulfillment center, since they are in densely populated locations. This way, you maximize your chances of orders only needing to be shipped short distances. Also consider using multiple fulfillment centers and distributing inventory between them. Surely, considering the location of your fulfillment centers keeps shipping costs and distances low.
Warehouse Design
Considering the design of your fulfillment warehouse also impacts your profit margins. Often, the most important feature of warehouse space to rent as it relates to order fulfillment is height. By providing extra height, you multiply your storage space threefold, making your warehouses incredibly efficient uses of space. This efficiency pays dividends on warehouses in locations with high real estate costs such as urban areas. This way, you maximize the value of your warehouse real estate while keeping it in an active location. Absolutely, considering the design of your warehouse improves profit margins by maximizing value and reducing losses.
Warehouse Automation
Investing in automation features within your warehouse also impacts profit margins significantly. For example, robotic order picking systems store, retrieve, and move products at much higher speed and precision levels than humans. A system with high-density storage capabilities can safely store SKU data with room to spare. This way, significant room for growth and expansion is created. Automated fulfillment centers are often up to six times more efficient than manual centers. Certainly, automating your fulfillment centers in various ways keeps both costs and fulfillment times low.
Third-Party Fulfillment
Third-party fulfillment strategies involve working with someone else to ship products to the end customer. If you make the product, it’s shipped directly to the third party’s warehouse. If you source form multiple manufacturers, you buy inventory in bulk and ship it to the third party warehouse. This way, you shipping needs are met by professionals dedicated to the shipping industry. Often, this leads to discounted shipping rates because third-party fulfillment providers ship in bulk. Additionally, you may access larger brands of products that only offer appliance wholesale purchases. Definitely, using a third-party fulfillment solution provides reduced shipping costs and increased quality in shipping services due to dedicated shipping professionals.
ERP Systems
Using ERP systems is another e-fulfillment strategy that delivers profits. Business ERP systems help process and dispatch high volumes of orders. You can choose to implement a full ERP system or subscribe to a cloud-based system. Either way, their robust automation features drastically increase the number of orders that you can fulfill in a day. If you don’t think your business is ready for such high volumes, you can contract a third party fulfillment provider to use their ERP systems. Of course, implementing ERP systems provide significant increases to your business’s growth and expansion capabilities.
There is a myriad of e-fulfillment strategies that deliver profits. Deciding on an optimal location strikes a balance between keeping shipping costs and distances low. Considering the design of your warehouses maximizes the value of the real estate and reduces losses. Automating various warehouse processes improves their efficiency, keeping costs and shipping times low. Engaging a third party fulfillment solution provides dedicated professionals that improve the quality of your shipping at reduced costs. Finally, business ERP systems provide massive growth and expansion capabilities. When wondering about e-fulfillment strategies that deliver profits, consider the strategies described above.
