As your business and your customer base grow, one the important parts of your business to consider is the supply chain. Startups and small businesses usually start out doing their own order fulfillment, which may be working just fine for you right now. If your company specializes in custom or hand-made products, or is a new business in an untested market, self-fulfillment is probably the best solution.
What if your company or its products are featured in a national media campaign? If your business starts growing faster than you anticipated, will you and your staff be able to keep up with order fulfillment? Or will it be more like walking a 200-pound dog with a thin leash?
If your business is struggling to make sales, it’s probably not yet time to consider a southern California 3PL company. But self-fulfillment may not be an option long term if your business continues to grow. If your business begins to escalate, you’ll have to decide on outsourcing part or all of your supply chain to keep up with your sales.
When To Upscale
When you are filling ten or more orders a day, it’s time to start thinking about outsourcing to make your team and your organization more agile. At this point, self-fulfillment can become more expensive, and take up more time and resources than they should.
The task is to find a provider that will not only be able to handle your current shipping volume, but also be able to adapt to an increase in stock and/or orders. Many 3PL companies and fulfillment providers offer plans and pricing that are adaptable and can accommodate to your company’s fluctuations in sales and ordering. Alternately, if your company’s sales slows, your warehousing costs should decrease as well, even with a short-term or month-to-month contract.
Benefits of Outsourcing To a Southern California 3PL Company
If you’ve considered outsourcing, you may be looking primarily at what it will cost. It’s certainly a consideration, but you should also consider what you get for the money:
- Professionals who do supply chain work every day with an established logistics network
- Keeping more capital instead of spending it on real estate for warehousing, equipment and transportation
- No need to hire and train extra staff for peak periods
- No need to handle, package and ship your products
- Easier scalability for spikes in sales, and for the holiday shopping season
- Accurate reporting metrics for your company
- Improved customer service and efficiency
Outsourcing your fulfillment allows your team to concentrate on product development, sales, marketing, customer service as well as the core competencies that keep your customers coming back.
Are There Drawbacks?
There can be.
It’s important to carefully consider and choose your 3PL company, because bad customer service on their part also becomes bad customer service on yours. If your orders aren’t being delivered, or sent incorrectly, or anything else goes wrong, your customers will be looking to you to fix the problem.
Finding the right 3PL company takes a little due diligence on your part to find the company that you can work with that suits your needs. Whether you start with a Google search or start asking business owners for recommendations, it takes time to find the right one that will be an ideal partner for your business.
Contact 3PL WorldWide For Your Supply Chain Needs
With warehouses on both coasts and a host of support services, 3PL Worldwide takes the hassle of supply chain management off your hands. Let us handle your entire supply chain, or just parts of it. You take care of what you do best. Interested in talking to us? Contact us at (888) 456-1920 or use our online contact form.