Every business is looking for new ways to increase profits. Many are shifting their focus to the Cloud, concentrating on their online businesses to achieve the growth they're hoping for. One of the most overlooked denominators of a business's growth strategy is shipping, which is vital to the business and can heavily impact a company's bottom line if done right. Here are the 3 best shipping practices you need to know to improve your business efficiency online and lower your company's expenditures right now.
1) Understand Shipping Logistics
Knowledge is power. The more you understand the basics of your online business, the better. Several factors go into shipping such as cost, automation, carriers, storage & warehousing, shipping regulations, and more. That's a lot of detail for an online business that's trying to focus on increasing its bottom line. In many cases, outsourcing can save a great deal of time and money. Just ask Phillips Healthcare, who reported a 15% increase in profits and a 10% reduction in inventory by outsourcing their logistics. If you're planning to take this route, make it a practice only to involve yourself as a business owner in the minute details of the shipping process and keep your focus on making your business more efficient and improving your growth strategy.
2) Ship Packages To Your Customers
Make sure to always carefully evaluate the cost to ship to your customers. You will need warehouse space, equipment, and labor to ship the product out. It may very well cost you upwards of $5500 a month to maintain your shipping in-house. When shifting to more of an online presence, many companies decide to go with a third-party vendor for the shipping and packaging of their products. This not only saves money by letting someone not on your payroll take care of the shipping but frees up your time. It's always important to choose a vendor that has a robust software package it will keep track of your costs, logistics, and customer information so you don't have to worry about any missing paper trails later down the line.
3) Understand Your Growth Strategy
As your business grows along with your online strategy, it's key to always plan for the future. When your business reaches a certain size, it becomes ever so valuable for you to outsource as much of the shipping process as you can. Better yet, if you can get the manufacturer of your product to ship it directly to your customer using a fully-automated shipping platform, you can cut out storage costs altogether, and save yourself an enormous amount of time processing shipments. If you're looking for an added bonus, partner with a shipping & fulfillment company that has a fully capable in-house Customer Service department that can field customer issues that come with shipping. That way, instead of handling shipping complaints, you'll be able to free up your own time to focus on what's important: growing your business.
Shipping and fulfilling your customers' demands becoming overwhelming and eating away at your time and profits? Contact us and spend time growing your bottom line. We’ll do the rest.
