Online sales have been strong ever since the idea of eCommerce was first introduced to the Internet. However, with recent events and the increased convenience of shopping online, sales are higher than ever. Quite literally, trillions of dollars are now being spent around the world with online shopping, and as the orders increase, businesses are needing more help to handle everything. One of the greatest helps is by hiring a fulfillment center for your business. A fulfillment center is a warehouse where all your inventory is safely stored. The fulfillment center is then in charge of stocktaking, picking, packing, and shipping, of any orders you get. Of course, this service is not free, but is it worth paying for? Let’s look at the advantages so you can decide for yourself.

Free Your Time

Undoubtedly, one of the greatest advantages of using a fulfillment center is how much of your time is free because of it. When someone else is doing the job of picking and packing the orders, labeling and shipping, and keeping on top of stock levels, you could save yourself several hours a day at work. What can you do with that time? Well, you might like the idea of having extra time each day for yourself to do what you want. Or you can use this time to work on growing your business. This extra time means you can concentrate on marketing, getting more customers, and bringing as much attention to your company as possible. This extra time could equal extra money for your business.

Free Your Space

Another great advantage is the free space you now have. Perhaps your stock was taking up your garage or making its way into your house. Maybe you were even paying separately for storage space. Either way, you now have extra free space back or you no longer have that extra bill.

Better Customer Service

You will benefit either one of two ways. Firstly, a lot of fulfillment centers also take care of the customer service for you, they have customer service agents on hand 24/7 for your customers to call. They take customer service seriously and are always quick and efficient at solving issues. They can easily check orders, track parcels, and reassure your customers. Your customers will be more than happy with the service they receive. Secondly, if the fulfillment center doesn’t offer this as part of the package, you will still be able to provide a better service yourself because now you have more time and less stress. It’s easy to deal with customer complaints when you have fewer things to worry about.

Increase Your Size

If your company is limited with aspects such as storage and staff then you’ll find it much harder to grow your business. If you can’t fulfill the volume of orders or stay on top of marketing then you won’t be able to increase in size, you’ll forever be a small business. However, a fulfillment center means you can grow to be a big as possible, when you have a fulfillment center on hand, even a thousand orders a day isn’t a problem.

Low Shipping Costs

Generally, fulfillment centers will always get the lowest shipping costs. Because they are sending out thousands of orders every day for hundreds of different companies, they will receive large discounts from shipping companies. They also regularly check other shipping companies and haggle for the best deals all year round. Both you and your customers will also be able to benefit from these low shipping costs and they are a lot lower than you’ll ever get if you’re handling it alone.

Better Technology

In order for fulfillment centers to keep on top of the stock, orders, picking, packing, and shipping for the potentially thousands of businesses they work with, they have to have some seriously good technology. After all, if they can keep up with stock levels and shipping then the whole operation is a bust. Fulfillment centers use really high-end technology to stay organized and you too can benefit from this. The fulfillment center will set up a digital communication with your store so stock levels on both sides will be automatically updated as well as shipping statuses. You’ll be able T see exactly what is going on in your store and on their end at all times so you never have to feel like you’re in the dark.

Most of these reasons alone are good enough to want to hire a fulfillment center. Despite the fact that you have to pay for the service, the low cost of this service will be more than worth the benefits you get in return. Especially if you are able to increase your scalability because of it. In short, a fulfillment center is a sound investment and will improve many areas of your business.

How Can a Fulfillment Center Help Your Shopify Store Compete with an Amazon Store

An Amazon store is often seen as the highest rung on the eCommerce ladder, if a store is an Amazon store, it has reached the top. But this isn’t always the case, and you can absolutely do things with your Shopify store in order to complete with an Amazon store.

One of the biggest things you can do is hire a fulfillment center to take care of all your administration, shipping, and inventory management. By freeing up your time, you can focus on growing your business. And a professional fulfillment center can streamline the customer journey even more meaning you offer a service that is just as good, if not better than an Amazon store can.

Dropshipping is not a complicated business model, but it is one that requires a lot of time, effort, commitment, and working with a team you can trust so why not Contact Us at E-commerce Express and let us help you kick off your business with dropshipping fulfillment that you can trust and rely on, and you too, can make it to the top of the ladder.