When Is the Right Time to Switch to Outsourced Fulfillment?

If you’re asking yourself the question of when is the right time to switch to outsourced fulfillment services, the answer is likely today. When you partner with a company like BR Williams with six southeastern fulfillment centers, it relieves the heavy burden of order fulfillment and a strained supply chain. Here are six signs that it’s time to outsource order fulfillment to a responsible third party:

1. You’re Struggling to Meet Increased Order Volumes

Are new order volumes becoming a problem? It may be the best kind of pain point, but the inability to keep up with skyrocketing orders begs a solution. The last thing you want it to do is impact customer service. If you don’t have the resources to support your e-commerce growth, it’s time to reconsider your order fulfillment strategy. Working with a partner like BR Williams will not only help you fulfill customer orders, but they will also make sure your infrastructure scales with your continued growth.

2. Your Efficiency and Speed of Service Has Gone Down

You can’t afford a decrease in efficiency and longer delivery times in a world of fast-paced shipping and high customer expectations. It might be convenient to ship everything directly from your business’s in-house location. Still, it won’t translate to ideal transit times or favorable costs for all your customers. Maybe you need a more organized warehouse layout, or your shipping process has become clunky. To obtain faster delivery times and more efficient shipping processes, consider partnering with a third-party company to handle your e-commerce order fulfillment. BR Williams provides outsourced fulfillment solutions, strategically located near ports, interstate highways, and various manufacturing facilities with six locations across Alabama and Florida to speed up shipping times.

3. You Have Little to No Space in Your Warehouse or Distribution Center

Your business has grown to the point where you’ve nearly maxed out your real estate and need more room. Sound familiar? Rather than lease more space, think about outsourcing your fulfillment and storage. An outside organization specializes in solving these problems and can accommodate your growing inventory levels. With warehouse and distribution centers comprising over 1.7 million square feet, BR Williams can accommodate customers of every size.

4. You Want More Time to Focus on Your Core Competencies

Are you spending more time on your operations than selling or marketing your products? It’s time to get back to the defining capabilities that distinguish your business from your competitors. Offloading order fulfillment services to a trusted business partner and 3PL will allow you to re-center your focus back onto what you do well.

5. Your Overhead Costs Are Getting Out of Control

Increasing costs for warehouse picking, packing, returns handling, materials, and labor can sneak up on you when you’re busy growing and meeting customer fulfillment demands. Labor is often one of the most expensive line items, and it can quickly get out of hand. Pickers, packers, receivers, replenishment workers, and managers need to be trained, paid, and supervised. When you outsource order fulfillment, much of these costs and other miscellaneous expenses will disappear and become the responsibility of your fulfillment service provider.

6. Your Technology Is Falling Short

Keeping up with changing technology and the latest platforms can often feel like running a marathon. If your tech maintenance and costs are starting to seem never-ending, it’s time to switch to outsourced fulfillment. By working with a 3PL for order fulfillment services, you can save on the up-front software acquisition and long-term maintenance costs. Any provider worth partnering with will offer integrations into the most popular platforms, marketplaces, and ERP systems. It’s one of the main things to look for when choosing a fulfillment company. They invest in advanced technology and training of their professional team to store and care for your products.

E-commerce order fulfillment can be stressful. It’s not easy to keep up with constantly changing demands. The right 3PL partner can do more than simply fulfill customer orders. From analyzing your current supply chain and providing you solutions, BR Williams ensures every customer is satisfied and receives the service they deserve. Contact BR Williams today, and give yourself time to concentrate on your core business while the experts optimize your operations!