Indian business scene is highly competitive. Most businesses require adequate fulfilment services due to the high demand from their customers. Regardless of whether you are running a large company or an e-commerce startup, select the right fulfillment center. This can affect your operational efficiency and the bottom line.
This blog aims to help you to identify the right center that suits your business. So, how can you figure it out? With the knowledge of the features and workings of the centers, you can select the one that aligns with your business and inventory needs.
So, without further adieu let’s see how you can find the perfect fulfilment needs to support sustainable business growth.
How to Choose a Good Fulfillment Center?
It is important to find one that matches your business requirements meeting customer demands. A great center can facilitate operations, improve delivery speed, and enhance customer experience. Here are the guidelines for choosing correctly.
Choose the Right Type
There are quite a few types of centers for fulfilment purposes. Select one depending on the needs and structure of your business. Here are the types:
- Public Warehouses: This is perfect for small businesses who are looking for short-term storage.
- Private Fulfillment Warehouses: Large businesses can go for this and it provides short-term storage facilities.
- Bonded Fulfillment Centers: Perfect for businesses who deal in imported goods.
- Smart Fulfillment Centers: Uses the latest technology and automation to optimise operations.
Let’s see some other factors that you need to consider when it comes to choosing a fulfillment center.
Factors You Need to Consider When Choosing the Fullfilment Center
Here are some unmissable factors you need to keep in mind while choosing fulfillment centers for your business:
Shipping Speeds
Lightning-fast delivery is now the norm. This means modern customers are expecting faster shipping than it was before.
So, as a business how can you keep up with the evolving demands? The best way is to work with an order fulfilment company. They can deliver the items on time, so you don’t lose out on revenue.
63% of customers say they have abandoned an order due to longer delivery times. However, with an efficient and effective fulfilment process, companies can get the products to the customers on time. This can happen when they have multiple strategically -located warehouses along with software that simplifies the process.
Location is Important Too
Five factors determine the location of the center. They are:
- How close it is the suppliers and customers
- Access to transportation infrastructure (highways, ports, railways)
- Local labour and costs
- Government regulatory rules and environment of local business
- How it impacts delivery times and logistics costs
Apart from this, the cost of the operation is also crucial.
Cost Factors
The fulfilment center costs include purchase or rental costs, maintenance, utilities, labour, insurance and transportation. If you have invested in technologies like automation and management systems, then they are for long-term savings and efficiency.
Features in the Facility and Infrastructure
Evaluate the center’s physical attributes, including its size, layout, loading docks, material handling equipment, storage systems, climate control, security measures, and IT infrastructure for inventory management.
Technology
Modern fulfilment centers greatly benefit from advanced technologies. You can implement a Warehouse Management System (WMS) for improving inventory tracking. Take into consideration automation and robotics, IoT for real-time monitoring and data analytics to optimise operations.
As these types of centers play a big role in distribution networks in supply chains, let’s see what features they have.
Order Fulfilment Process Features
When you are an eCommerce business owner, you have a lot going on. You already have various digital tools., applications and platforms that you need for your daily use. So, implementing another software might seem like a hassle and frankly annoying.
That is why companies need to know the kind of fulfilment software they have. They need to choose a partner who give them software that aligns with the company’s requirements.
Make sure that the process is easy to implement and is usable throughout the day. Also, it must seamlessly integrate with other platforms that you use.
Visibility and Transparency
With countless companies, offering similar products, it can be overwhelming for consumers. When they do find a trustworthy brand, they tend to stay loyal. But how to build their trust? Through transparency.
In a survey, 56% of consumers said they would be loyal to a brand for life if it provided complete transparency, and 81% would try the entire product line if they were comfortable with its transparency. Fulfilment plays a crucial role here-88% of consumers value real-time shipment tracking, and 69% are less likely to return if a delivery is late.
If you promise two-day shipping on your website and fail to deliver it, you will likely lose the customer’s trust. So, choose a fulfilment partner that has visibility, reliability and transparency.
Packaging Options
Apart from branding, you need to choose a fulfillment center that has a wide variety of packaging options. This would depend on the product that they are shopping for, not all boxes are equal and slime needs extra caution. There are multiple types of packaging. Having the right package is important as it reduces the risk of damage to products.
Other than protecting the materials, what’s on the inside also counts. So, it’s neat to be extra careful and have insulation materials like styrofoam corrugated paper or air pillows.
It’s best to keep an eye out for how your team packages the products. A dedicated warehouse knitting team can ensure that your package is secure and safe.
Not just packaging, these centers also take care of returns. Let’s see how.
Returns Management
You don’t want the fulfillment center to not respond once the product is shipped.
Did you know that 30% of the products that are ordered online are returned? It’s hard to explain some of the returns. The customer may not like the product. However, the fulfilment company with work on your returns management to mitigate all controllable reasons.
This can reduce or eliminate any return issues thus improving your logistics. You should be able to identify “serial returners”, with your fulfillment center software. These are the customers who are making the purchase only to return them.
When you identify them, you can hold off on sending them free promotional material when you have a large-scale sale. Such centers help you maintain the principles of inventory management.
FAQs: Choosing the Right Fulfillment Center: Guide for Business Success
What factors should I consider when choosing a global order fulfilment center?
There are quite a few factors that you need to consider when you are choosing a center. Some of the important ones are location, shipping capabilities, storage capacity, order processing and returns management.
What is the difference between a warehouse and a fulfilment storage?
A warehouse has all the items in storage for a longer, in fact, indefinite period. However, in the case of fulfilment facilities, the items stay there only for a short time. This means that the fulfilment inventory has a better turnover than a warehouse.
Is third-party logistics and dropshipping the same?
No- fulfilment spaces do not offer dropshipping as a service. Some eCommerce merchants might act as the middlemen and carry zero inventory in some or all products. For such companies, dropshipping is the order fulfilment method.
After the drop shipper gets the order, they buy the item from a third party. The third-party supplier handles the delivery on behalf of the drop shipper. A key aspect of this model is that the items are sold from the supplier’s inventory, not the drop shippers.
Conclusion
If you are looking to optimise your business, you need to choose the right fulfillment center. This will also help you to meet customer expectations. Making the right call can streamline processes, reduce costs and enhance customer satisfaction.
With the insights from this guide, you are now equipped to select a center that aligns with your business needs. Ready to elevate your supply chain efficiency? Partner with Qodenext for tailored solutions that drive sustainable business growth. Contact us today to get started!
