Your web store may be virtual; however, the products you are selling must exist in the physical world. It means that you need to store them, take care of inventory, ship and replenish your products as the business grows. That’s where e-commerce wholesale suppliers in China come to your rescue.
E-commerce wholesale services manage product distribution and fulfilment for businesses. It includes accepting product shipments, logs them in, stores them, packs them and sends them out.
Ecommerce Wholesale Suppliers in China – Save your Time, Effort & Cost
Using eCommerce services can save a huge amount of effort, time and cost. It is quite beneficial when you are selling more per month. However, there are a lot of factors that must be considered while choosing an eCommerce wholesale supplier.
Before researching for eCommerce services, you should be clear with the purpose of why you need them. What type of product will you be shipping? Is that product heavy, fragile or large? How many items will be shipped monthly and top what locations? What kind of shipping options will you be offering to your customers?
You must consider all these questions and features while choosing the right eCommerce service providers.
- Basic Fees & Added Costs
eCommerce wholesale suppliers start with the basic fees that include accepting and managing inventory, storage, packing the products and shipping. Billing depends on the shipments per month, and the companies who ship products in bulk can expect discounts.
There could be additional costs depending on the company’s specific needs. These costs usually include insurance, breakage, special packaging, branded boxes, etc.
2. Storage Facilities
Considering the number and location of storage facilities is essential when choosing e-commerce services. Customers nowadays expect their orders to be delivered more quickly, preferably within four days. The access to more warehouses means more shipment options and faster delivery to the customers.
You must have proper research data to make such business decisions. Make sure to evaluate and integrate features with other e-commerce management tools.
3. Damages & Insurance
The ultimate goal is customer satisfaction. Therefore it is important to take care that the services received by the customers should not be damaged shipments, mistaken shipments or returns. Getting a complaint from the customer regarding the damaged or missing product can harm the reputation.
Some eCommerce wholesale suppliers in China may also require you to buy extra insurance, especially when dealing with fragile or expensive products. Others hold their insurance fees in the monthly fee.
However, the eCommerce service that provides a higher level of supervision and control can help you determine responsibility.
4. Professional Certifications
Many industries these days have certification programs that professionals sign up in order to get certified in their particular field. You can also look for some certifications when choosing an e-commerce service.
Nowadays, there are independent organisations that certify the facilities or the people running them.
5. Basic Security Protocols
Security is one of the major concerns when choosing an eCommerce wholesale suppliers. You should make sure that they have basic security protocols for the safety of your inventory. It doesn’t only mean having video monitoring or guarded entrances.
You should know how your inventory is followed, right from the truck to storage and then everything about packaging till shipping.
Offering the samples can be a great source to test the market.
It is important that you get all the product reports that include price, appearance, quality, weight, dimension, package integrity, applicable functionality, and product photos.
These days, each and every step is monitored by using video, UPC codes or a combination of both can be helpful.
Some eCommerce services also let you inspect their facilities.
6. Annual or Monthly Contracts
Don’t get stuck in the long-term contacts. Make sure that there are no contracts as you might get stuck with e-commerce services with which you are not happy.
The services provided to small merchants are based on a monthly basis so that you can move if any problem occurs.
If you are moving a thousand items per month, then you need an annual contract. In case your e-commerce service does not insist on a contract, make sure that contract has a reasonable cancellation policy.
7. Real-Time Customer Support
Remember that a good e-commerce service will give its online retailers with immediate access to information on inventory via excellent customer support. Your eCommerce service should offer seamless testing to product line expansion. Also, a right service provider offers 100% free inspection of incoming goods.
This advantage is offered through web-based software. This feature can vary widely, but there are certain basics available to everyone.
To commence with, you should be given real-time access to how much inventory is available in each service warehouse. You should be aware of when the product arrives from the manufacturer, when orders arrive, when packing and shipping are done and when returns arrive and what is done with those returns.
8. Electronically Accepted Orders
An important service that an e-commerce fulfilment company can offer is to accept orders electronically. All it requires is to integrate e-commerce applications. So if you have already invested in a third-party shopping website, then you will want to check if the e-commerce fulfilment services work with your existing setup.
9. Sales, Marketing, & Reports
Some of the other features that e-commerce fulfilment service should include the ability to analyse and track weekly or monthly sales. It should be able to produce a variety of reports or enter a support request.
Some services offer outstanding features that help with marketing, such as sorting the customers according to their locations or collecting the data of many products that are bought by each customer.
Though these features might not be on your top need but they are added plus for business growth in future.
Conclusion
The satisfaction of the customers can judge the success of an e-commerce fulfilment service. The eCommerce wholesale suppliers in China take care that the customers are delivered with their products quickly and efficiently.
Choosing the right e-commerce fulfilment service is like choosing a partner for your company’s success. So, choose carefully!