Have you ever wondered if you need a third-party fulfillment provider? Could it streamline processes and improve workflow for your business?
In this article, we’re sharing some warning signs that indicate you will benefit from outsourcing the fulfillment and shipping element for your crowdfunding campaign. The same tips can also apply to your ecommerce store business.
Having the perfect system in place with a trusted provider can make all the difference between a lubricated business “machine” and one that becomes a huge stressor in your life.
As a business owner, it can be tough to remember to work on your business rather than in your business. Luckily, we’re here to help.
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For now, let’s do a deep dive on the warning signs that could lead you to spark a highly beneficial relationship with a third-party fulfillment service.
When Should You Consider Third-Party Fulfillment Service?
As a business owner, it’s your job to keep your focus on what matters, whether that’s:
- Product development / innovative thinking
- Marketing and generation of revenue
- Hiring, onboarding, and scaling your business
When you find that your energy and attention are being taken off your customers and sales strategies to be bogged down in operational processes of just getting that product to the end-user, you’re likely a great candidate to outsource fulfillment.
As a CEO or Founder of a company, your time is extremely valuable. And as any startup owner knows, you’re already extremely busy trying to grow the business.
Most people don’t get into business with the goal of dealing with tedious operations. If you’re struggling with this, the warning signals should be blaring that it’s time to take this off of your plate with a third-party provider.
Another tell-tale sign of the need for a new fulfillment logistics strategy comes in simply outgrowing the space that you have.
Many creators, especially on crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo, will take on order fulfillment in their own garage.
And while this romantic, nose-to-the-grindstone mentality is functional for a while, as you receive more orders and make the transition to ecommerce — eventually it just becomes a matter of space.
The worst thing that you can do for your business is to find yourself overwhelmed by order fulfillment and then make mistakes. Because mistakes just lead to more work when you’re already strapped for time.
The Cost of Your Labor
Many business owners are severely unaware of their own labor costs.
What do we mean by this?
Think about it this way: picking and packing, inserting mailers, adding labels, working with inventory spreadsheets, making extra trips to the post office — all of these things take up your time.
In the early stages of your business, this might be necessary — especially if you’re lacking financial resources to pay others.
But as you get more orders and more customers, your time becomes increasingly valuable. So for you to spend two to three hours per day maintaining order fulfillment for your product means that your business slows down.
Partnering with an order fulfillment company is an investment in the long-term success of your business. Sometimes, it’s difficult to acknowledge your own potential and take that leap of faith. But without it, stagnation occurs — thus taking a big chunk out of potential profits.
How much could your business be losing out on by tying up your time in order fulfillment? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands?
Only time will tell. It’s best to get yourself ahead of the curve and capitalize on the momentum of your business while you have it!
What a Fulfillment Provider Can Do For You
When you bring on a third-party fulfillment service, the packing and shipping element of your business runs independently from you.
We know — this sounds a little bit scary at first. But it doesn’t mean you won’t have your foot in the door. A trusted fulfillment partner works as a member of your team, providing you with:
- The labor required to get orders to the masses
- Management of various shipping rates and expenses
- Automated tracking using barcodes that are integrated in easy-to-access software
- Return processing and other problem-solving
Over time, this sort of expertise can be leveraged to help you grow your business. Larger production scales and order volumes become very much on the table because you have the time, resources, and space to get it done.
Conclusions – Is It Time to Outsource Order Fulfillment?
Here’s the deal — if you’re running a small crowdfunding campaign with a couple of hundred orders, you can probably take care of order fulfillment on your own.
But if you’re operating a large-scale campaign or plan to continue your business via e-commerce, an order fulfillment partner becomes an indispensable member of your team that will streamline logistics, save you time, and in the long run, leads to increased profitability.
At CrowdCrux, we’re proud to suggest Fulfillrite as your turn-key solution to all things order fulfillment.
We always suggest Fulfillrite to our coaching students and clients — their trusted name has helped hundreds of businesses to scale their operations, and yours could be next.
Want personalized insights into order fulfillment or running your own crowdfunding campaign? Book a coaching call with the founder of CrowdCrux Salvador Briggman — our expert team is ready to guide you!
Not ready to book a coaching call just yet? Check out some of these great educational resources we have for you to further your understanding:
- The Crowd Crux blog, podcast, and Youtube channel where we’re always working to deliver the best insider tips, tricks, and secrets from experts who have a wide range of experience in the industry.
- The Crowd Crux weekly newsletter that delivers awesome, valuable insights to your inbox every Thursday.
- Books and courses designed our founder Salvador Briggman, such as The Kickstarter Launch Formula and it’s sister UDEMY course
We hope that this article was helpful for you in identifying if a third-party fulfillment provider is right for you!
Good luck with your startup. Make us your go-to resource.
