Outsourcing fulfillment is a great solution for high-volume e-commerce businesses looking to grow. With warehousing, fulfillment, and shipping taken care of, you'll have time to focus on winning more customers.
Order fulfillment is essential as it gives your customers assurance that you are reliable. Modern customers expect exceptional, prompt service and timely delivery of their goods.
Just having a quality product is no longer enough. You must focus on offering exceptional service to your customers. However, whether your customers will be satisfied or not primarily depends on your e-commerce fulfillment solutions.
69% of online shoppers do not shop with online sellers in the future if their orders were not delivered within two days as promised or if the goods were not in perfect condition. Therefore, it's critical that you find a trustworthy fulfillment partner who can facilitate timely deliveries.
This blog post offers insight into effective e-commerce fulfillment solutions for high-volume distributors and why these solutions are needed now more than ever.
Why E-Commerce Fulfillment Solutions Are so Crucial
1. To Meet the Rising Demand for E-Commerce Buying
The success of e-commerce is founded on a highly reliable fulfillment strategy, especially for vendors who ship thousands of products per month. Now than ever, e-commerce fulfillment solutions are vital because fulfillment can either drive revenue or increase costs.
E-commerce buying has escalated within the last decade, and COVID-19 led to an increase in e-commerce buying. When lockdowns were put in place, consumers and businesses went digital, and most people started to shop for goods and services online.
2. To Fulfill Online Shoppers’ Desire for Convenience
Online shopping is highly convenient, unlike conventional retail, where customers must leave their comfort zones searching for goods. Today, over 87% of consumers search for services and goods online before buying. That's regardless of whether they'll shop in a physical or an online store. The highest percentage of shoppers opt to order goods online for convenience.
3. Increase in Mobile Sales
The increase in mobile sales results from mobile shopping convenience. Furthermore, the availability of mobile payment options has improved the mobile shopping experience. This has allowed many consumers to realize that they can now buy products on the go. In 2021, mobile sales are expected to hit over $3.56 trillion, and mobile commerce revenue for 2021 has tripled since 2016.
4. To Meet the Demand for High-Volume Shipments
This is the right time to boost your e-commerce business by ensuring that your fulfillment solutions can handle over 1,000 shipments per month. As your brand continues to grow, your sales may have skyrocketed, forcing you to adjust to meet global demands.
If you are shipping many goods and do not have a reliable fulfillment solution, you'll have unending cases of lost or damaged shipments and unpredictable delivery times.
But, with a reliable fulfillment partner, bulk shipment of products is not only beneficial, but it keeps you on top of the game. This creates happy customers and improves your chance of creating repeat buyers.
What Should High-Volume Distributors Look for in a Fulfilment Partner?
As a high-volume distributor, you can't afford to make mistakes when selecting the best e-commerce fulfillment solutions. Below are the features you should look for:
Automated Processes
A good fulfillment partner should offer automated services. That way, it will be easy to monitor your bulk cargo projects per your needs. The best company should offer customized packages to meet your unique e-commerce needs and have the automation in place to seamlessly fulfill orders.
Fulfillment partners should also have modern software to make it easy for your business to boost its supply chain. Opt for a service provider equipped with IT solutions such as business intelligence and real-time inventory tracking.
With cutting-edge technology becoming more and more adopted, the use of traditional manual fulfillment will leave your e-commerce business in the dust.
Unique Technology
The high-volume distribution of goods calls for the integration of great software that builds on automated processes in place. Your fulfillment technology should integrate with any system, including Amazon, e-commerce plug-ins, online portals, and so on.
SWIMS and Bubbles technology from Smart Warehousing also enhances flexibility, provides transportation insights in real-time, offers integrated account support, and streamlines the fulfillment process from the first click to final delivery. If your technology is not modern enough to handle these capabilities and be your system of record for inventory, your high-volume orders will likely fall by the wayside.
Brand Representation
A true fulfillment partner should ensure that your brand stands out and acts as a real extension of your team, not just some third party stuck in the middle. The right fulfillment partner can either make or break your industry.
At its best, your fulfillment partner acts as an invisible hand that connects you and your customers to deliver an exceptional client experience. At its worst, though, a fulfillment partner can get in the way of delivery and actually hurt your long-standing relationships with customers.
Nationwide Coverage
High-volume distributors have a high number of orders. Thus, you must engage a fulfillment partner who can make that happen. They should be able to meet the needs of your many customers regardless of their location without causing any inconveniences.
Customers' expectations for fast deliveries increase each day. Most expect to get their products within two days, with one-day shipping quickly becoming the norm. A suitable shipment partner should align with these high expectations to avoid losing revenue.
Transparency
Transparency helps you earn your customers' trust. There are multiple suppliers of similar products, and to outshine your competitors, it’s crucial to prove to your customers that you are reliable by maintaining open communication and transparency.
To attain that, your e-commerce fulfillment partner must have the systems and processes in place that allow you to track goods in real-time, be aware of the entire process, and stay updated in the case of any setbacks.
Find Your E-Commerce Fulfillment Solutions
At present, e-commerce businesses are braving an increasing demand for online buying. As a result, high-volume distributors can no longer meet the demand without a reliable fulfillment partner who can offer solutions tailored to specific business needs. Smart Warehousing is the solution you need.
With 34 locations across the U.S. and growing, we offer personalized services to clients to enable them to meet their fulfillment needs. We are experts in storing, packing, and shipping products for high-volume distributors. Get in touch with us today so we can shoulder your e-commerce shipping burden.