If you’re the owner of an eCommerce business that is growing in success, you’ll already have put in a lot of hard work to get to where you are now. Starting an eCommerce and remaining consistent in your supply takes effort, determination and persistence. Successful eCommerce owners know that it’s important to be savvy through each stage and to ask the right questions.
As your business grows and develops, you may reach a stage where you begin to wonder if outsourcing your fulfilment is the right move for your eCommerce. Like any other important investment, it is vital to consider what this step could mean for your business, and if it is the best move for your eCommerce at its current stage of growth.
Here are 3 pivotal questions to ask before you decide to outsource your fulfilment.
1. Is my product suitable for fulfilment to be outsourced?
It’s no secret that eCommerce businesses come in all shapes and sizes, and the types of products that are provided can vary vastly from industrial beauty supplies to hand-knitted jumpers for pets. When it comes to outsourcing eCommerce fulfilment, it’s important to ask whether the kind of products you offer to your customers would suit this type of fulfilment. If your eCommerce provides bespoke, hand-crafted items, for example, then outsourcing your fulfilment might not be the right step. Outsourcing fulfilment works best when you have a large number of duplicate products, where there is no need or expectation for variations in each order, in the way that specific hand-made items might require.
2. Is my eCommerce receiving enough orders to make outsourcing fulfilment worthwhile?
The decision to outsource your fulfilment is one that is made, ultimately, to benefit your business. Most eCommerce owners start to consider this possibility when their business is at a specific state of growth. If you are still managing to store and fulfil your orders in-house without much problem, then it’s best to leave it until your business has grown before you consider outsourcing your fulfilment. If, however, you have reached the stage where you are struggling to fulfil orders yourself and are having to put in unreasonable hours just to make sure that everything is completed, then now could be the time to outsource your fulfilment. Your fulfilment service provider will ensure that orders are fulfilled professionally and in a time-efficient manner.
3. Is fulfilling my orders in-house an effective use of my time?
When you’re starting up your eCommerce business, it makes sense to fulfil your orders in-house. You may only have a small number, and you can get to grips with the ins and outs of fulfilment at the beginning of your business. When the orders start to pile in, however, trying to fulfil all your orders in-house could be both frustrating and impossible. As well as this, you could be doing yourself and your business a real injustice by not outsourcing your fulfilment when your business has grown to the level that requires it. Choosing to outsource your fulfilment means choosing to value your own time and energy as worthwhile, and better spent on big-picture aspects including growing your business further.
Outsourcing your eCommerce fulfilment is the next best step for many businesses. Use these questioning methods to be sure that it’s the next best step for your business at this time.
