Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Your ECommerce Fulfilment

Starting an E-Commerce business is a daunting prospect, not only do you need to source product and find customers but you also have to work out how you are going to get the product to the customers. One option is to move your fulfilment to an outside provider however, it is not always as simple as it seems and we would be remiss in not informing you of the pros and cons of taking this daunting step.

Pros:

More Time – order fulfilment takes time, you have to receive stock, store it and then pick and pack once the order comes in. All of this takes time, time that could be spent on marketing, range review or expansion, growing your customer base or looking into additional sales channels.

Expansion – as your business grows as does the need for your fulfilment operation. By outsourcing this is dealt with by your fulfilment provider. You pay for the services that you need and do not pay for idle staff or inefficiencies in the operation.

Increase your competitive edge – by outsourcing your fulfilment this allows you to take advantage of facilities that only bigger companies would ordinarily have access too. This allows you to compete with the bigger companies without having to invest huge amounts of capital into technology or space.

Leave it to the experts – outsourcing gives you access to expert in their industry. You have on tap a resource to help handle large project or daily operational issues

Cons:

Control – outsourcing your fulfilment can be scary, you pack all your stock up and send it to a warehouse miles from your home or office and lose the ability to walk the shelves and see your stock. For many small businesses being able to see your stock and walk your warehouse give them a sense of security as they can see the stock they have invested in.

One way to manage this is to run a phased approach to moving your fulfilment. Move some of your fastest selling lines to see how it goes and whether or not outsourcing is the way forward.

Low Volumes – the challenge with having low order volumes is that storage charges diminish your profits. Typically to make outsourced fulfilment work then clients would need around 250+ order per month. However, by managing your inventory though our WMS system you are able manage your stock levels so that storage costs don’t diminish your profits.

Outsourcing your fulfilment is a daunting proposition but with help from the right team you can make it work. Feel free to get in touch with the team here at Bertle Fisher and they can assist you with any questions you have.