10 Tips for Choosing an E-Commerce Fulfillment Provider for Your Business
Finding the right e-commerce fulfillment provider for your business is important—it could be the difference between growing a business to the next level and leaving it stagnant. Good e-commerce fulfillment can increase your sales, reduce your costs, and increase satisfaction for your customers. Here are the top 10 things to look for when choosing your e-commerce fulfillment provider: 1. Location: The location of an e-commerce fulfillment provider can have a big impact on your margins. The closer a provider is to your customers, the cheaper your shipping rates will likely be. For instance, if many of your customers are located in...
Different Options for Shipping from Your Online Store
One of the elements common to any e-commerce web site is situations when customers will place products in their virtual shopping cart but never follow through with the transaction. There are a multitude of reasons for this behavior, but one of the largest is because they felt the shipping and handling costs were too high. Shipping and handling costs can not only cause potential purchases to be abandoned, but they can leave customers disheartened and more likely to look elsewhere in the future. This is why a key part of any successful e-commerce logistics operation is an affordable freight shipping...
How to Improve the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Supply Chain
One of the most complicated types of supply chains is those meant for pharmaceutical and/or medical device fulfillment. These complex products have highly-regulated quality controls, varied and precise lifecycles, numerous safety and security concerns, and warehousing needs, and feature a quickly increasing number of stock-keeping units (SKUs). Despite, or sometimes because of, these challenges, supply chains for healthcare fulfillment need to constantly work to improve their cost, speed, and accuracy or else risk getting left behind as their fields advance. Managing to create a properly integrated global supply chain is a multi-faceted effort that affects everything from strategy to fulfillment...
Secrets to the Perfect Order Fulfillment Process
Perfect order fulfillment has a very specific meaning. It refers to any order that is made on time, with complete and accurate documentation, and no delivery damage. While straightforward in concept, it is not always easy to accomplish. Outdated processes, slow responses to sudden shifts in demand, limited visibility on aspects of the supply chain, trouble managing supply chain risks, and difficulty reacting to unexpected developments are just some of the ways perfect order fulfillment can be disrupted. Imperfect order fulfillment is more than an annoyance for the customer. It creates very real labor costs for additional shipping, replacement products,...
3PL Support Warehouse and Distribution
Third-party logistics providers (3PLs) work with shippers to manage their logistics operations. But 3PLs provide much more than logistics management, they find ways to accommodate consumer demands. Many 3PLs offer complete fulfilment of logistical services, including handling orders, storage and product shipment. With the growth in services, companies now more than ever are relying on 3PLs for many of the aforementioned services; a one stop shop for all logistical needs. Fortunately, 3PLs are meeting the challenge and offering warehouse and distribution services at a high level. Here’s why this is important: Accessing IT infrastructure: Implementing and executing a warehouse management...
How to Deal With Slow Moving Inventory
Slow moving inventory is a situation which almost every retailer has to deal with at some point. The good news is that you can prepare for slow moving inventory if you focus on proper inventory management practices. Managing these circumstances carefully saves capital and keeps your profit margins stable. Defining Slow Moving Inventory There are actually a few different ways to define what slow moving inventory means. For example, some define it by the number of overstocked items. But the most inclusive definition concerns the amount of time a product remains on the shelf before it is eventually restocked. This...
How to Manage Supply Chain Risks
From startups, to small operations, to large corporations; one of the common methods many businesses use to get an edge is to go global. This can involve anything from moving manufacturing to a more affordable foreign location, to actively expanding operations and sales to an international level. As the supply chain grows longer and branches grow further, increasing complexities and risks will occur that require proper management solutions to avoid harming your business. (more…)
Effective Returns Management
Retailers are on the eve of what will be the most profitable segment of the year. September through to the Christmas season typically means higher volume sales and more customers walking through doors and visiting web sites. But then the best months of the year are immediately followed by the worst, as it relates to returns, that is. Just like the last few months of the year account for higher sales, the first few months of the year account for the highest proportion of returns, between 40%-60% by most statistics. From January to March, the regret starts rolling in and...Reasons to Use Direct Mail Marketing Over Email Marketing
Direct marketing is a form of advertising where communication from a business is used to motivate action from a consumer. At the most basic level, this desired action could be to make a purchase, but it doesn't need to be. Visiting a website or ordering an information packet are other examples of the desired action. In today's electronic age, it may make sense to use email as the way to deliver your business's message. It is, after all, much faster and more widely-used than traditional "snail mail". However, direct mail marketing still retains several important advantages over email that must...
How to Gain Supply Chain Visibility
Getting a product from point A to point B sounds so much easier than the actual reality. The truth is, gaining effective supply chain visibility takes the trust and cooperation of several partners, along with the implementation of modern technology, in order to successfully track a product from manufacturer through to the customer. (more…)
