Logistics is a key element in e-commerce. When you know that the satisfaction of your customers depends largely on it, it is obvious that its management is crucial. However, far from being obvious, it requires real organization, often complex, as well as time and flexibility. Indeed, the more the activity of your e-commerce increases, the more substantial your logistics operations are. In this context, a question arises: is it better to outsource part or all of your e-commerce logistics? But what are the pros and cons of this choice? Or how do you choose the right partners? Follow the guide!
E-commerce logistics describes all the elements that come into play in the processing of an online order. From order acceptance, to storage, packaging and delivery, all these processes are part of it.
When you decide to opt for the outsourcing of e-commerce logistics, this means that you entrust some or all of these operations to an external service provider.
In general, logistics outsourcing focuses on the following areas:
If the question of logistics outsourcing for e-commerce arises, it is because it offers many advantages. What are the reasons that prompted some to take the plunge?
Identifying and finding the right packaging for your products, packaging products one by one and protecting them for transport or even generating postage labels are all extremely time-consuming tasks. To keep up with your growing business, sometimes it's better to delegate.
By entrusting this tedious and repetitive step to an external partner, you can benefit from its expertise as well as its technologies. Indeed, some external service providers have all the tools in hand to automate certain tasks. This saves time, but also money.
Of course, each professional has their own specialty, yours being online sales and not the logistics associated with it. Logistics is a profession in its own right that evolves regularly. Calling on professionals whose daily work allows you to benefit from all their expertise in the field.
Accustomed to working with a lot of retailers and transporting all types of goods, companies such as Shippr exist to relieve you of the constraints and the management of deliveries.
Specialists in the field, logistics providers have multiple technologies and tools dedicated to optimizing the supply chain. For example, some software makes it possible to provide accurate and clear inventory reports, others allow for optimized inventory management. In terms of deliveries, an external logistics provider can provide you with numerous technological advantages such as real-time tracking of packages, automatic optimization of routes, etc.
By benefiting from the technological tools of a logistics partner, you contribute to the growth of your business. More productivity, efficiency and precision will thus have a positive impact on your business as well as on the satisfaction of your customers.
Outsourcing your e-commerce logistics allows you to focus on your core business. Indeed, the time that you do not allocate to managing your stocks, preparing and sending packages or even managing returns is additional time to devote to your core business.
Time is one of our most precious resources and logistical management requires a lot of time. By outsourcing your e-commerce logistics, you can therefore focus on the evolution and growth of your business: development of new products, marketing and digital strategy, commercial strategy...
Online sales activities experience peaks in activity during the year, especially at the time of sales or the end of year holidays. By outsourcing your e-commerce logistics, you can more easily and quickly gain flexibility to ensure these increases in delivery volume, for example.
Additional deliverers or replacing your absent internal delivery person, management of unexpected events on the road, outsourcing allows you to entrust this management to your partner who can react quickly and appropriately.
Outsourcing your storage allows you to position yourself strategically. In addition to saving space, you thus reduce your transport costs.
Using an external service provider allows you to save money and space, especially if your business is subject to multiple variations. This is the case if you sell seasonal products for example. To avoid paying for a large warehouse all year round without being sure to optimize all the space at all times, outsourcing is a real asset.
Acquiring your own warehouse can mean a real cost in your budget. Especially since there is a certain limit imposed by the budget in terms of storage and shipping spaces. Therefore, deliveries can therefore be longer and therefore more expensive. Outsourcing this logistical part gives you the freedom to choose different storage locations. By having deliveries from the storage location closest to the final destination, you reduce trips and the cost of these trips.
Curious to know all the steps to create your e-commerce site? This toolkit is made for you.
Of course, any service from an external provider comes at a price. It is therefore essential to know if outsourcing is the right solution for you at this precise moment.
As with many beginnings, many e-retailers start by doing everything themselves. In fact, it is an excellent way to learn and know all the facets of your business. However, starting with a certain volume, it can be complex to manage everything internally. Entrusting some or all of your logistics management to someone else means losing some control and putting it back in the hands of a partner. Even if time savings in particular are often highly appreciated, it can still be anxiety-provoking to accept losing some of your control.
When you reach a certain number of orders, when you no longer know how to focus on your core business or when the management of operational and logistical contingencies becomes too complex, it is normal to ask yourself the question of outsourcing.
Also to read: Outsourcing logistics: when, how and why?
Storage is one of the fundamental steps in e-commerce logistics. The objective of outsourcing your merchandise storage is to optimize the management of your e-commerce, starting with your margins.
Indeed, an external partner can help you share storage costs in secure and constantly accessible warehouses. Internally, the cost of a storage center dedicated to your e-commerce can be significant on your overall budget. Several storage solutions dedicated to professionals exist such as Homebox.fr for example.
You can also optimize your storage space in order to guarantee a better performance of your warehouses. Indeed, a poorly designed warehouse loses speed and productivity. To best organize a warehouse, several methods exist. For example, you can sort according to the size of the products, their immobilization period or even program an alert configured for inert stock.
Order preparation is a process that, if optimized, can help you significantly reduce your production costs. To optimize this process, this step must be accompanied by a thorough check at three different times:
To help you, implementing an accurate labeling system that allows you to easily and quickly find products in your warehouse is a solution.
Before considering the delivery of packages, the packaging stage is essential to ensure safe transport. This phase must be methodical to be effective.
There is always a certain risk when delivering packages. Packaging is therefore of paramount importance in terms of protecting the goods. However, packaging comes at a cost. Especially since with the growing importance given to ecological issues, this cost is not likely to decrease.
There are several concrete and effective actions to optimize the packaging phase of e-commerce products such as:
Even in terms of transport, some choices of external logistics partners allow you to reduce packaging costs.
Also to read: 5 ways to effectively reduce your packaging costs
Entrusting part or all of its deliveries to a professional external partner has many advantages. In the e-commerce sector, parcel shipping is one of the most important operations. Complex and time-consuming, delivery management also requires numerous resources. Delivery vehicles, dedicated couriers, returns management or even operational parcel tracking management, outsourcing helps you optimize each of these aspects.
By choosing a same-day delivery specialist such as Shippr for example, you avoid going to a sorting center. Directly linked to the previous point, this type of specialization allows you to drastically reduce your packaging costs.
No more risks of breakage, loss or exchange in these sorting centers that receive an incalculable number of orders every day. Whether the delivery is scheduled or express, the professional delivery person and Shippr partner takes care of picking up the package at your collection point and delivers it directly to the final recipient.
Another important gain that outsourcing offers: the possibility of offering a wide range of delivery solutions to your customers. Delivery at home, at the weekend, to their office, of fragile or even bulky packages, Shippr offers tailor-made deliveries. When we know the importance given to the personalization of service that consumers now demand, offering them this choice has become essential for customer satisfaction.
Not to mention that this wide range of delivery solutions is also favorable for you. Indeed, Shippr allows you to make transfers between your physical points of sale or even your storage centers for example.
Did you know that Shippr has a plug-in in the Shopify platform as well as an API? Whether you have created your e-commerce on Shopify or if you want to integrate our API directly into your site, the integration is fast and above all effective.
Also to read: Shopify x Shippr
Outsourcing your deliveries to an external partner finally allows you to benefit from their expertise. This includes real-time monitoring or even operational support.
Requiring the implementation of precise technology, real-time monitoring can be very time-consuming to set up internally. The advantage of an external partner such as Shippr is that it takes care of this follow-up. As is the communication around the delivery stages. Emails, SMS and real-time tracking links for you and your customers, everything is entirely managed by Shippr.
Does an unexpected event occur during delivery? Internally, operational work is a heavy workload. However, it remains essential to the sustainability of your business and to the satisfaction of your customers. Shippr knows this and that's why we have a support team available 7 days a week to manage the operational aspects of all deliveries.
Do you want to know what Shippr can do for you in terms of logistics management? Do not hesitate to contact one of our business experts.
