PART TWO
Choosing the right partner can make or break your company’s logistics, customer service, and repeat purchases. Using a fulfillment center like Shipfusion frees you from navigating the fulfillment landscape with zero stress. Below are some insights on how Shipfusion can take your business to the next level.
The Benefit of Logistics Planning
Businesses are about interests. You want to know the impact of every process before you invest your money to support it. Logistic planning has wide-ranging benefits to a business.
1. Satisfy Customer Demands Quicker
ECommerce thrives on customer satisfaction. Your ability to meet customer needs is among the core pillars of a successful online business. Well-planned logistic systems lead to better achievement of customer demands. If you can cut the wait time whenever customers request your products, you’ll likely build a solid customer base within a short time.
Logistics planning allows you to hone operations, maintain inventory, and secure fast shipping options ahead of time. Businesses that can meet these essential thresholds often meet customer demands quickly. This also translates to their ability to turn over high sales volumes.
For most eCommerce businesses, meeting customer demands can be a daunting process. This is why you also need to have an order fulfillment partner by your side beyond setting a logistics plan in place. Shipfusion offers a unique eCommerce fulfillment solution for you. Nothing can step in the way of an eCommerce business that has an elaborate logistics planning mechanism and a seasoned order fulfillment partner. Companies that embrace logistics planning often have the most fulfilled client base. Regardless of the disruptions that may affect the market, your firm has the assurance of satisfied customers as long as you have a well-crafted logistics roadmap.
2. Increase revenue
Of course, increased revenue is a natural consequence of all the other benefits your eCommerce business will derive from logistics planning. Even then, this is an essential benefit of logistics planning! After all, companies are in it to make revenue. A business that focuses on designing a solid logistics plan often wins over customers and expands the market reach.
The combination of satisfied customers, an expanded market reach, and a consistent flow of commodities automatically increase revenue. ECommerce businesses that design an elaborate logistics plan derive hefty profits in the long term. It’s even better when the logistic planning blueprint includes a partnership with a seasoned fulfillment facility like Shipfusion. Fulfillment centers have warehouses in multiple locations across the globe, making product penetration easy. This leads to higher profits.
3.Cut Supply Chain Costs
The process of managing customer and market demands can be overwhelming. Most times, you end up exceeding budgets to meet last-mile obligations. The extra costs can be overwhelming given that, in most cases, they are unbudgeted from the start. This is why eCommerce businesses need logistics planning. When you have a logistics plan in place, you rarely end up overspending on your budgets since you put all contingencies into account before commencing the process.
Logistics planning ensures that retail eCommerce businesses stay grounded. You rarely panic and make hasty decisions when you have a clear logistics plan for your supply chain. Logistic planning entails careful consideration of all the expenditures, contingencies, and changes in market dynamics that may affect costs. When you have a plan, it’s possible to tick boxes and review any hidden costs you may have failed to include in the first place.
Most experts advise that logistic planning precedes any other step when dispatching your product. This helps you have a clear roadmap of what you need to do to get your commodities in the market in the proper condition and within the right time, without incurring high costs. Part of the reason most retail eCommerce retail businesses opt to outsource the logistics process is to minimize costs.
You could consider outsourcing the logistics process to a seasoned fulfillment solution as an alternative. The advantage of this decision is that any additional costs accruing from the order fulfillment process aren’t your concern. In your logistics planning process, you may opt to outsource this critical function to a partner who offers eCommerce fulfillment solutions. The move saves you time and expenses.
4. Helps You Map the Path to Reach Your Long-Term Goals
As noted earlier, the core concepts of logistics planning relate to long-term goals. These goals include customer satisfaction, defining competitive advantage, and developing a supply chain management process. Even then, these are complex long-term goals that may be hard to fulfill without a clear roadmap. Retail businesses that want to thrive often design a logistics plan to accommodate these three critical long-term goals.
Logistics planning is the only tool that can force a business to think more about the set goals and how best to attain them. It’s one thing to set goals, but it’s another to achieve them without the possibility of incurring costs or straying from the primary mission and vision. But with logistics planning, you can set and achieve these long-term goals by constantly focusing on the timelines and benchmarks.
Logistics planning helps businesses approach critical processes such as storage, shipping, and fulfillment from an informed point of view. It’s hard to meet such complex long-term goals without a roadmap. However, logistics planning helps you separate short-term goals and long-term goals. This way, you can define the extent of budgets to allocate to the short and long-term goals depending on timelines. In the end, setting and attaining short-term goals can be a stepping stone to executing long-term goals.
It’s important to note that you may fail to meet all the long-term goals due to internal limitations. However, you can work around this concern by partnering with trusted order fulfillment services providers like Shipfusion. These providers help you meet the supply chain management process, enabling you to meet customer satisfaction. In your logistics planning process, it’s critical to consider outsourcing some supply chain functions to firms that have been in the trade longer.
5. Helps Your Business to Create Value
A well-designed logistic plan has a massive impact on creating value in your business. The better a business is at availing products and services to customers, the more valuable the brand will be. With value addition, you also get to experience higher sales margins. One of the most common challenges with supply chains is always the ability and capacity to sustain a consistent flow of supplies in the market. When a brand has a consistent flow in the market, it can quickly determine the market value attached to the products they offer.
A fulfillment company that focuses on logistic planning can take advantage of various locations. This expanded market leads to more customers. The approach also contributes to lower distribution costs for the firm.
Tips to Optimize Your Logistic Plan
It’s essential to approach logistic planning from an informed point of view. Here’re some tips to consider.
- Always consider diversifying your suppliers: This helps you remain in control when outages and shutdowns occur.
- Develop Demand Forecasts: Demand forecasts help you minimize the risk of over-or-understocking when preparing your supply chains.
- Evaluate the Most Cost-effective Transport systems: Transporting your supplies is at the core of your business. Your plan should include comparing all the available options in the market to ensure efficient supply chains while upholding cost balancing.
- Consider Warehouse Automation: It’s essential to utilize warehouse automation where necessary. Automation helps improve efficiency and reduce human error.
- Settle For Order Fulfillment Strategy: Order fulfillment is at the heart of your eCommerce business. Once you develop a logistic plan for your business, the last part should be to settle for an order fulfillment strategy. In most cases, you may need an order fulfillment provider with the capacity to scale as your business expands.
Trust Shipfusion for Your Internal and External Logistics
Finding a reliable logistics partner can be a stressful process for any business. It would be best to source for an eCommerce fulfillment solution provider with the capacity and experience to help you meet the long-term goals set. Shipfusion is at the center of your logistics planning process.
Our team of experts has the necessary industry knowledge, strategic warehouse locations, and scalable fulfillment facilities to help you during your business journey. Managing your supply chain is no longer a daunting process. You can now manage your internal and external logistics better with us on board.
Shipfusion sets your business on autopilot and combines flexible, reliable fulfillment with powerful, real-time technology. Shipfusion has multiple fulfillment centers across the US and Canada– making it easy to manage your eCommerce business. For more information on how to set your business on autopilot, contact one of our fulfillment specialists today.
