Launching an online business is a real challenge: choosing suppliers, products, sales channels and, of course, managing order logistics. In this article, we’ll explore the advantages of outsourcing your logistics through fulfillment, enabling you to concentrate on your online sales while keeping your costs under control.
With the constant evolution of e-commerce and consumer habits, you are now faced with increasing logistical challenges. 85% of e-buyers consider that a bad delivery experience would make them decide not to order from the same site again.
While logistics are undoubtedly a fundamental element of any e-commerce site, they can add considerably to your workload and require a significant investment.
So what’s the solution if you want to focus on your sales, without having to worry about deliveries, while keeping your costs under control? How can you expand your business across Europe without making it an insurmountable challenge?
Thanks to fulfillment, you can outsource your logistics by completely delegating this activity. You entrust your products to a service provider who will keep track of your stock and dispatch your orders to your end customers on your behalf.
Discover the 5 advantages of outsourcing your logistics with fulfillment.
Fulfillment advantage #1: Improve customer satisfaction
The speed and reliability of deliveries today play a vital role in a successful shopping experience. According to our IPSOS study, 85% of consumers consider delivery time to be a decisive criterion. On-time delivery is essential, but so is the condition in which the product is received. 59% of online shoppers say they write a negative review when delivery fails to meet their expectations. This has a considerable impact on your brand image and can have serious repercussions in the event of a bad experience. With a fulfillment provider who has a perfect command of the supply chain, order fulfillment and goods distribution, you can offer your customers fast, high-quality deliveries, naturally improving their satisfaction.
Fulfillment advantage #2: Save time
Using a fulfilment solution allows you to save the time previously spent storing goods and preparing and delivering your parcels. You no longer have to prepare and send each order yourself. This means you can concentrate on your core business and increase your productivity. With a fulfilment solution that connects to all your sales channels and automated workflows, as soon as an order arrives, the logistics team will take care of its preparation and dispatch for you, ensuring that the product is packaged correctly and delivered quickly.
Fulfillment advantage #3: Reduce your logistics costs
By delegating the management of your order logistics, you save directly on the significant costs of storage in your warehouses, the purchase of packaging and human resources dedicated to order preparation and dispatch. Fulfillment providers also benefit from competitive preferential rates negotiated with various carriers. As a result, an e-merchant using a fulfillment service will have access to rates generally granted for large sales volumes, which they don’t necessarily have themselves.
What’s more, many marketplaces increase the visibility of fulfillment products. In fact, fulfillment deliveries are considered more reliable, and products move up the search engine rankings. This increases the visibility of your products, and naturally leads to more sales.
Fulfillment advantage #4 : Delegate returns management
Managing returns is a major challenge for e-merchants. Indeed :
- 84% of e-buyers say that product return conditions are essential in their purchasing decision (Octopia x Ipsos)
- 51% of French people have already abandoned an order because of returns conditions
(IFOP, June 2022)
To meet this consumer demand without having to deal with the logistical complexity, fulfilment service providers simplify management by taking care of customer returns.
Fulfillment advantage #5 : Ship internationnaly
Thanks to extensive storage capacities, an optimized preparation chain, automated processes, dedicated qualified teams, and direct partnerships with numerous carriers, fulfillment solutions enable you to better manage the increase in your business volume.
In the event of peak consumption, such as during sales periods, or expansion into new markets, they avoid both potential delays and the need to hire seasonal workers. A fulfillment provider can support your international expansion by operating from warehouses in several countries.
Conclusion
Time savings, profitability, improved productivity, enhanced customer satisfaction, simplified returns management, absorption of business peaks and international expansion are just some of the benefits of considering a fulfillment offer.
Discover Octopia Fulfillment
At Octopia, our fulfillment offer has been developed to simplify your logistics management. We handle the storage, preparation and dispatch of your orders, as well as the return of products to stock. Our solution automatically integrates with e-commerce platforms such as Shopify or Prestashop, and our interface enables you to have all your stock, incoming goods and shipping information in one place.
In addition to saving you time, Octopia Fulfillment allows you to save up to 50% on logistics costs compared to in-house management. With 99.7% of products shipped on time, and a wide range of delivery methods available, sellers integrating Octopia Fulfillment generate an average of 15 extra points on the Net Promoter Score (NPS).
Thanks to our extensive network of warehouses in France, the UK and Spain, we can ship your products to over 20 European countries at competitive rates and lead times. Capitalizing on more than 10 years’ experience in fulfillment, our teams and account managers are available to advise you on the management of your logistics and help you propel your commercial expansion.
Finally, with Octopia Fulfillment, pricing is clear and without surprises, with no obligation to join or minimum volume. If you’d like to take advantage of the benefits of outsourcing your logistics, discuss your needs with our specialists.
Octopia Fulfillment for marketplaces
Having discovered the benefits of outsourcing your logistics with a fulfillment solution, now consider extending these benefits to your marketplace by offering a fulfillment solution to your sellers.
Explore the benefits of deploying a fulfillment solution for marketplaces in our dedicated white paper.
