Trying to do business online can be overwhelming. Whether your store is 100% digital or has brick-and-mortar locations, managing inventory and sales in cyberspace is challenging – but doesn’t have to be. In fact, you can build a thriving ecommerce business without ever handling your own inventory. By just building a storefront, choosing what you want to sell, and managing things like customer service and marketing, you can delegate the logistics off to others.
This delegation is called fulfillment warehousing.
What is Fulfillment Warehousing or a Fulfillment Center?
Fulfillment warehousing (also known as a fulfillment center) is when a third-party logistics partner manages the storage and shipping of your products on your behalf. If you have a brick-and-mortar business, a fulfillment warehouse can hold onto the portion of inventory you intend to sell to your digital customers. If you’re a one-person ecommerce business, you can easily send your goods to these warehouses from wherever they’re from (i.e. print-on-demand services, wholesalers, etc.) without the need for you to ever touch them.
By partnering with a company that handles fulfillment for you, you can focus on all the other aspects of your business. Logistics – especially if you’re selling into other countries – can be stressful, even for business veterans. Leaving this to companies who specialize in handling the supply chain and have the technology and tools to do it well will take a load off your mind, not to mention save you plenty of space not having to manage your inventory directly.
5 Benefits of Fulfillment Warehousing
No matter how big your business is or what you’re selling, there are plenty of benefits to using a fulfillment center to handle your shipping and warehousing needs. The following list isn’t exhaustive, but highlights a handful of the main advantages to fulfillment warehousing:
Streamline Shipping
Creating a profitable business is all about playing to one’s strengths. From choosing the right niche and products to focusing on what you know how to do best, fulfillment warehousing is one solution for those who get headaches thinking about things like shipping, managing returns, or finding a place to store their inventory.
With that in mind, it makes sense to delegate these processes to professionals who are passionate about logistics, fulfillment, and supply chain management. Unless you have a background in logistics and the means to handle fulfillment effectively yourself, partnering with a company that specializes in this is another way to play to each party’s strengths which, in turn, will make for faster shipping and happier customers.
Grow Your Distribution Reach
While domestic shipping is rather straightforward, international shipping can quickly become a nightmare, especially if your business has never done it before. Each country has its own customs laws, import regulations, and tax codes and running afoul of any of those can cause more problems than you’ll ever need.
Some fulfillment centers also specialize in international trade and shipping, allowing you to have a physical address on foreign soil that makes it much easier for you to conduct business. This is also great for businesses who don’t have the resources to buy their own physical footprint with another office, or hire accountants and attorneys to help translate all the regulations that go with it.
By finding the right partner, you can grow your business’s reach beyond your home country, opening up a whole world of new opportunities.
Save Money and Time
Efficient processes mean efficient resource use. Fulfillment warehousing can help you save time and money by leveraging their workforce, technology, space, and other tools – not to mention removing the stress that comes with it.
Improve Customer Satisfaction
All of the above points culminate in better customer satisfaction. By being able to serve them quicker at better prices with better reach, you’ll be able to keep your customers happy and eager to return to buy more from you.
Focus on Growing Your Business
Even if you’re passionate about logistics, unless your business’s main focus is providing those kinds of services, your brainpower should be going toward how to grow your ecommerce presence. Using a fulfillment center can help you scale your business quickly, enabling you to set up shop selling whatever you’d like (within regulations, obviously) without needing to own a warehouse or physical storefront.
Indeed, the sales savvy can set up a completely functional ecommerce site and get their first sale within a month by leveraging fulfillment warehousing to their benefit. Without needing to worry about the finer details of warehouse management and logistics, you’re free to market, interact with your customers, and choose the right products for them.
Partnering with UCanTrade for Your Fulfillment Warehousing Needs
Regardless of what you’re selling or which side of the border you’re on, UCanTrade is happy to help you with your warehousing and fulfillment needs. If you’re in Canada, our physical presence on the American side of the border can make international shipping and logistics a breeze without unnecessary extra trips across the border. If you’re in America, our automation and warehousing processes can help you save money and time (and stress), especially if you operate within the Pacific Northwest.
If you’re interested in learning more about our fulfillment warehousing services, please visit our service page or contact us directly for quotes tailored to your business’s goals and needs.
