Some of the reasons you should consider outsourcing your logistics with a fulfillment center include:
They Eliminate Storing Inventory and Managing Fulfillment Staff
Keeping tabs on inventory and managing fulfillment and shipping staff is not easy – both for startup businesses and established ones. Fortunately, fulfillment centers are here to help you handle all the problems associated with product storage, packing, and shipping so you can spend your valuable time on other core functions of your business.
When you use a fulfilment center to manage your inventory, you eliminate the need to pay a fixed warehouse lease cost. In fact, you only pay for the space you use, which means that your warehousing costs become variable instead of fixed. When your inventory draws down, you pay less.
They are Experts at Storage and Fulfillment
Companies that specialize in fulfillment services are experts at everything to do with fulfillment and shipping. They know how to handle various situations that you may not have experience with. While your company may have some competencies or capabilities with inventory management and shipping, fulfillment centers have greater depth and breadth of knowledge, which will help you streamline your operations, avoid pitfalls, and deliver the greatest fulfillment experience for your customers.
They Will Lower Your Overall Logistics Costs
In addition to lowering your storage costs, fulfillment centers can lower your shipping and fulfillment expenses as well. First, because fulfillment centers ship for a multitude of customers, they can obtain extremely aggressive freight rates from the shipping carriers – discounts off published rates that will be lower than what you’re able to achieve on your own. Fulfillment centers pass on some or all these savings to you, leaving you with a net shipping spend that will be lower than if you negotiated with carriers on your own.
Second, fulfillment centers can also help you achieve lower fulfillment costs, including both the labor cost of picking and packing orders, as well as the cost of materials such as boxes and packaging fill.