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Fulfilment

When Should Your Start-up eCommerce Business Use a Fulfilment Centre?

Achieving your biggest goal in life and starting your own business is something to be super proud of. All the dreaming, planning and hard work you have put into the process has finally paid off. 

Although, it might not feel as thrilling and fulfilling as you may have once imagined it to. Correct us if we’re wrong but we are pretty sure this is down to the draining order fulfilment process.

If you find yourself surrounded by packaging materials way past midnight, this means you are no longer living the Cinderella fairytale and instead drowning in orders. Your evil step-sisters, you guessed it, are your competitors who are scaling faster than you.

Using this analogy, we would say that  fulfilment companies are the fairy godmothers of the industry. They swoop in and alleviate you and your team of the stressful and never-ending fulfilment process.

You may find yourself wondering when your business should begin using a fulfilment centre. If you are receiving a steady flow of orders and running out of space, we think you are ready. 

The next thing you need to do is learn what a small business fulfilment centre actually does, how they can benefit your business and which would be the best fulfilment centre for start-ups.

What can fulfilment centres do?

Fulfilment centres are at the core of the eCommerce industry, providing businesses with the opportunity to streamline their fulfilment process and scale their business. 

Using a fulfilment centre means you hand over your stock to them and they take over the picking, packing, shipping, returns and storage on your behalf.

Not all fulfilment centres are optimised for startups. Often you will find a small business fulfilment centre works better for startups compared to the huge industry leading centres. 

A small fulfilment centre will first have you arrange your stock to be sent out to them. Once it arrives at their warehouse, their team will then begin the unloading and storage procedure. 

This often includes bringing the delivered stock into their facilities, unpacking and barcoding each item, scanning them into their system and finding a suitable storage place for them.

During this process at a small business fulfilment centre they will then have a dedicated picking team that will place the items from storage shelves into order baskets ready for the packing team.

Items from each order basket will then be placed into the most suitable mailer or box. The shipping process is usually decided by the cheapest and fastest option available at the time. Using a fulfilment centre offers you discounted shipping rates, next day delivery options and even international scaling opportunities.

If dealing with your customers’ returns has been taking a toll on you, then you can rejoice in the fact that most fulfilment centres handle the full process of returns.

The benefits of using a fulfilment centre

Learning about what a fulfilment centre for startups takes care of might have already influenced you to sign your business up. 

If you haven’t already decided to take this route, we have a long list of benefits that come alongside working with order fulfilment companies below.

Focus on growing your business

When your business begins using a fulfilment centre, one of the biggest benefits is that you now have the time and space to focus on growing your business. 

No longer having your stock taking up your professional and personal space results in you gaining back your office. 

This allows you to enter into a clearer mindset each morning, setting you up for a day full of brainstorming, researching and designing new products or scaling ideas. It essentially lets you get back to doing what you love, running your business, not doing extensive and stressful manual labour.

We suggest startups use this newfound time to work on developing their online presence as a brand. This can be through updating social media profiles, website design and using marketing techniques to build a stronger relationship with your customers.

Save time and money

A dedicated fulfilment centre for startups moulds their core values and processes around the needs of small businesses. 

At Parcel master, this is exactly what we specialise in. As a small business ourselves running multiple successful startups, we understand what it takes to build your brand and scale. 

The first place you would save money is on shipping rates. Fulfilment centres secure discount shipping rates due to the high level of orders they ship each month.

Parcel Master currently ships over 10,000 orders each month and we can guarantee that for each order we select the cheapest courier price at the time. 

Outsourcing fulfilment also saves your company from renting a storage facility to hold your stock. Saving you from paying heating, installation and maintenance costs. 

The area where you will save the most money is not needing to hire, train and manage staff members. Our team at Parcel Master is made up of the most experienced warehouse and processing staff. 

As you can imagine, not having to process orders yourself or manage staff doesn’t just save you money but also time, so you can get back to doing what you love. Choosing a small business fulfilment centre is essentially taking the weight off your shoulders.

Efficient process for inventory storage and distribution

Outsourcing your order fulfilment to a company results in a more efficient process for product storage and distribution. 

When all your inventory is organised into specific sections it speeds up the whole process and ultimately the speed of delivery to your customers. The faster the delivery process is for customers, the more likely they are to shop with you again. 

Our system at Parcel Master includes inventory tracking, tech-driven processes and data reports, giving you all the information and updates you need to still feel in control without having to lift a finger.

More flexibility, and a greater ability to scale your business quickly and sustainably

Greater flexibility is achieved once you free yourself from the repetitive nature of order fulfilment. Doing this allows you to gain back precious time each day that can be dedicated to growing your business.

You will have more time to plan new ventures and network with various companies and manufacturers. Joining with a fulfilment centre for startups can even offer you the opportunity to scale internationally. At Parcel Master we are open and flexible to discussing this avenue for your business.

Using a fulfilment centre has an obvious benefit, orders are processed and delivered to your customers faster. This can lead to a rise in your customer base because who doesn’t love a quick turnaround time.

Infrastructure and increased agility enable your business to enter new markets with ease

As mentioned above, order fulfilment centres open the door for your business to move into international markets. 

This is something that tends to be out of budget for startups due to import fees, custom fees, long delivery times and pricey shipping fees. Fulfilment centres handle all of this, giving you a head start among your bigger competitors.

How Parcel Master Can Help You?

We are a small business fulfilment centre that includes specialised benefits tailored towards startups within our services.

As a small business ourselves we understand that doing all the work yourself feels as though you are saving yourself money. However, what you save in money, costs you valuable time. Letting the experts help you out will take your business to the next level.

After all, Parcel Master was built to help startups scale and succeed. Some of the ways in which our business can help startups is that unlike bigger companies, we do not hold a minimum order quantity. Even if you only receive 10 orders a day, we are happy to help. 

Our services are honestly priced with no hidden fees, making us an affordable option.

We provide free integration with multiple channels, do not hold a minimum contract length

and we are also 100% flexible to your needs.

The biggest benefit we offer is a customer service team that does not consist of robots. Just real people who are skilled experts in the field and ready to ease any problems. 

If you’d like to know more about what we can offer, don’t hesitate to request a quote or contact us.