How a Fulfillment Company can solve inventory problems

Ask any retailer about their least-favorite task associated with running their business and the most common answer will undoubtedly be inventory management. Dealing with understock, overstock, reordering, reporting, counting, proper storage, and more can be more than just a headache – it can be a nightmare. Here are some of the top reasons why a fulfillment company can help. 

They Can Offer On-Demand Warehousing

Inventory storage space is expensive. If you sell products that must be held at a specific temperature and/or humidity, the costs only climb higher. What’s more, as your business grows, you will have to continuously expand your warehouse space – or, worse yet, even move your inventory from one warehouse or another to accommodate that growth. Fortunately, there’s a solution: you can hire a fulfillment company that provides on-demand warehousing that immediately scales with your needs. This warehousing is affordable and available without long-term contracts, too. 

They Give You Weekly Reports

Inventory reporting is a pain, especially when your business is still relatively small, and you lack the time and resources to make reporting a snap. Fulfillment companies already have those resources in place, which makes it easy for them to simply run a report based on things like sales, returns, orders, and more. Each week, you will be able to see a summary of your business so you can get a better understanding of your growth and success. 

You Can Avoid Overstock and Understock

Both overstock and understock are detrimental to your business. With overstock, there’s a chance you could get stuck with an abundance of a product that you can’t sell, and inevitably, you will end up taking a loss. On the other side of that coin, understock can be detrimental to customer service. When your customers order a product only to have to wait because it’s on backorder, or when they can’t place the order at all because your website shows it as “out of stock,” this will send your customers straight to your competitors. Order fulfillment companies have the tools and experience to avoid these potential disasters and maintain the right amount of inventory at all times. 

They Can Manage the Supply Chain

Depending on your agreement with your fulfillment partner, the company you choose may be able to manage much of the supply chain on your behalf. Rather than relying on you to serve as the middleman who sends finished products from the manufacturer to the warehouse, you can remove yourself from this equation and allow your fulfillment partner to place those orders on your behalf. This way, your warehouse is always stocked, you have fewer orders to place, and you have far more time to focus on more important business matters. 

The right order fulfillment company can not only offer you on-demand warehousing, but they can also help you avoid common pitfalls that can make or break your business like overstock and understock. They can even offer you weekly reports so you can watch your business grow in real time and see just how much value they are providing to you.