If there’s one major difference between large and small ecommerce-based businesses from the consumer’s standpoint, it’s shipping times. When customers order from a larger company, they have their goods in hand within two days, sometimes even the same day. With smaller companies, that same package may take a week or more to arrive. In the following article “Trying to Get Packages to Customers Faster? Try Outsourcing Your Order Fulfillment,” learn the best way to speed up shipping times and compete with larger businesses.
Why do the Large Companies Have Access to Faster Shipping?
The major shippers in the United States – UPS, USPS, DHL, and FedEx – are companies just like any other. They earn revenue by collecting payment from their customers for moving parcels from one location to the next. They are all fairly successful in their endeavors. Just like other companies, these shippers provide volume discounts to companies that guarantee work. This means the more packages a company sends, the cheaper the shipping. As shipping costs get cheaper, companies can afford to upgrade their packages to two-day, next-day, or even same-day delivery without having to charge their customers a great deal extra for the faster shipping times.
How Can Smaller Businesses Compete?
Many smaller ecommerce-based businesses feel left out of the loop. For example, a company that sends 10 to 20 parcels out a day cannot compete with the likes of Amazon or Walmart, which sends out thousands of parcels each day. In fact, consumers will often pay slightly more for a product if it will be delivered only one day sooner. This is particularly true in the case of household goods. This means that if your small business wants to compete with larger ones, you’ll need to speed up your shipping.
The Best Way to Improve Shipping Times
Because larger companies send more parcels, and because it’s cheaper for them to do so, it stands to reason that if your company had more parcels to send, then you’d be able to send them at lower rates. Fortunately, this is entirely possible – even if you don’t have many orders each day just yet. You can outsource your order fulfillment services to a trusted partner that ships hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of packages a day from its warehouses. They receive lower shipping rates due to this volume, and that savings can be passed along to you. In the meantime, because you have a partner handling your orders, inventory, and returns, you can focus on what’s truly important – growing your business and increasing your revenue.
Starting a new ecommerce-based business in today’s day and age can be intimidating, especially in the wake of the ecommerce giants that dominate on a global scale. Nevertheless, with the right partner, and with an open mind, it’s possible that any company with a solid mission and a great product can be wildly successful. Outsourcing your order fulfillment is just the first step in making it happen.
Leave A Comment