In the dynamic world of ecommerce, Shopify has emerged as a leading platform, powering a a significant amount of businesses globally. With around 2 billion digital buyers around the world, leveraging a platform like Shopify is crucial for your ecommerce business. However, it’s important to remember that success in ecommerce is also about efficient, effective, and transparent fulfillment services.
Maintaining cost control is a crucial aspect of running a successful ecommerce business. As a business owner, keeping a tight rein on expenses can mean the difference between success and potential financial stress. One of these key expenses can be the various fees related to order fulfillment. Understanding these costs is integral to your business planning.
While some fulfillment services may present hidden costs, some third-party logistics partners like Shipfusion value transparency. As a Shopify logistics partner, Shipfusion ensures clear, upfront pricing, with no potential for hidden charges.
This article will further explore how Shipfusion’s integration with Shopify delivers seamless order fulfillment, offering the best fulfillment services for Shopify of any 3PL partner.
What Makes the Best 3PL for Shopify?
Handling Shopify Returns
On average, customers return 30% of all products bought online. The last thing you want is to hire an ecommerce fulfillment center that takes a hands-off approach to returns. A good fulfillment service will have a program designed to make ecommerce returns management easier for their clients.
Some of the best fulfillment centers have software designed to process returns and find serial numbers. This may help this buyer feel more confident about their purchase, which may help you avoid returns from them in the future.
Having Multiple Fulfillment Centers for Shopify Orders
If you want to guarantee your ecommerce customers lightning-fast shipping, then you need to choose a fulfillment service with warehouses in the right locations. Finding the places where most of your customers live can help you narrow down the vast array of fulfillment centers at your disposal.
For instance, if the bulk of your orders are coming from all orders in the US, you will want to use Shipfusion’s flagship Chicago location. Doing this allows your orders to be processed and shipped in record time.
The more you know about your customers, the easier it will be to choose an ecommerce fulfillment center that can meet their needs.
Shipping Speeds when Fulfilling Orders with Shopify
One of the main ecommerce problems that can affect your business is slow shipping speeds. Modern consumers expect the items they order online to arrive promptly. Online ecommerce juggernauts like Amazon offer two-day and one-day shipping options to their customers.
Before you hire a fulfillment center, you need to find out more about the shipping speeds they can offer. A well-established ecommerce fulfillment center will have warehouses spread out all over the United States.
This means they can supply great shipping speeds to their customers. Finding a fulfillment service with the capability is crucial to the long-term success of your ecommerce store.
Having the Capability for Custom Packaging
As an ecommerce business owner, you need to realize just how important packaging is to consumers. Not all boxes and packaging materials are created equally. If your products show up in boxes that are damaged, flimsy, or unappealing, it can affect your ability to generate repeat business.
Therefore, you need to find out more about the packaging options offered by the fulfillment services at your disposal. Be sure to confirm that the fulfillment center will have plenty of excellent quality insulation materials to pack your products with.
These packing materials should be high quality dunnage like bubble wrap, molded inserts, and corrugated paper. Not only can this dunnage protect the items being shipped, they also provide the consumer with better product presentation.
Having Inventory Management Software
The average business owner in the ecommerce industry uses a lot of different technical tools to keep the company running effectively. As you start to research different Shopify logistics partners on the market, you may realize the software used can differ wildly. It is important to find out how reliable the order fulfillment software is used by a service before hiring them.
Make sure the software can be easily implemented into your existing infrastructure. You will want a company that offers software with multiple choices of features that make taking and filling orders easy for everyone involved.
Shipfusions’ proprietary Inventory Management technology is an example of software that is customizable for each individual clients’ needs, including real-time visibility, inventory forecasting, and reporting tools.
Using a 3PL for Shopify Shipping and Fulfillment
Ecommerce fulfillment warehouses can help automate and handle the shipping for you. When you choose to work with a fulfillment warehouse, you will store your inventory at one of their warehouses. Depending on their level of integration with your shopping cart, when an order comes in, your fulfillment partner will automatically be sent the order to pick, pack, and ship the purchase order on your behalf.
There are several advantages to using a fulfillment warehouse including:
· Cheaper shipping rates. Because fulfillment warehouses ship such massive quantities for multiple vendors, they receive cheaper shipping rates. They also have ecommerce shipping integration capabilities (usually) with all the major shipping logistics and 3PL companies, giving you easier access to the widest range of shipping options.
· Shorter shipping times. Strategically choosing your fulfillment partner and the warehouse to store your inventory means you can store your inventory closer to most customers.
Fulfillment warehouses are not for everyone, though. There are several disadvantages as well that must be considered.
· Branding experience. If you use your packaging presentation as part of your branding experience, like Trunk Club, you will be hard-pressed to find a fulfillment warehouse that will work with that level of dedication and customization for your brand.
· More costs. Although you will receive better shipping rates working with a fulfillment partner, there are other rates that need to be paid including what is commonly referred to as ‘pick and pack fees’ as well as warehouse storage fees. These fees can be decided by order or by monthly fee, so be sure to investigate the details and choose what is best based on your volume.
Seamless Shopify Fulfillment Integration
Get the most out of Shipfusion with integrations to popular ecommerce platforms and an intuitive, web-based app that lets you manage inventory and fulfillment on any device. Our onboarding team ensures the accuracy of data for new customers with a complete analysis of SKUs and multiple tests run between Shipfusion and existing systems, including Shopify.
Efficient Shopify Delivery
The minute an order is placed on your Shopify store, Shipfusion will find the quickest and most affordable shipping method based on where your inventory is stored and your client’s delivery preferences. We partner with all major carriers across the globe.
Affordable Shopify Fulfillment Fees
Businesses in North America automatically get access to pre-negotiated shipping rates with all the top shipping carriers—UPS, USPS, DHL Express, and Canada Post. Normally you would need to get your own account with each of these carriers and negotiate your own discounts (often based on your earlier shipping volume). But if you are just starting out, business costs are already high, and the last thing you want is to pay high rates for shipping.
With these online store shipping rates, you now have options. You can use these rates to show the exact shipping costs at the checkout and pass on savings to your customers. You can also use these rates with Shipfusion’s built-in label printing. To fulfill an order, you can print out the corresponding USPS, UPS, DHL Express, or Canada Post shipping label, a visit to another website, or paying a third party to print labels.
Shipfusion has fulfillment centers across the US and Canada, making for a cost-effective solution to split and store inventory across major shipping zones, lowering the overall price for both you and your client.
Scheduled Pickups
Dealing with a stack of orders is a boon and a curse. It is exciting you have made all these sales, but now you need to get them to your customers. Instead of ordering an Uber, driving through traffic, and waiting in line, you can book a pickup for UPS or DHL Express shipments directly in Shopify and Shipfusion. Just go in and schedule when you want a driver to arrive at your door, including same-day pickups, with no minimum volume needed.
Shipfusion sets your business on autopilot and combines flexible, reliable fulfillment with powerful, real-time technology. Shipfusion has multiple fulfillment centers across the US and Canada– making it easy to manage your eCommerce business. For more information on how to set your business on autopilot, contact one of our fulfillment specialists today.