Editor’s Note: This is a guest post written by Anjale Jayawardena, Marketing Specialist at Swyft.
Choosing to have a foreign footprint for your eCommerce business is always a wise decision. Today, many consumers are digital adopters who are willing to purchase items from a global marketplace, especially if they can find affordable shipping – or if a seller is willing to provide them the option via an online marketplace – which can be tough if you want to maintain affordable pricing.
Whether you are selling on eBay, Etsy, Amazon, or any other marketplace (including your own store), you may choose to work with multiple partners for various purposes. So why not include a fulfillment centre on that list? Let’s explore some reasons as to why you should take this plunge below.
An eCommerce fulfillment centre’s sole purpose is to make your business easy to manage. When you choose to store inventory via a fulfillment centre, especially in a foreign location, you are making your products more accessible. Think of all the times someone may have wanted to order from your store but put it off due to long transit times and high shipping costs.
Storing and shipping via a fulfillment centre makes your products more accessible and attractive to those who may have previously not considered buying your product.
Because you are no longer picking, packing, and shipping your items on your own from a different part of the world, your product can now be delivered faster, at a better rate, helping you boost your international sales.
Source: Primaseller.com
Recent studies show that about 69% of customers abandon their shopping carts during the online checkout process. One of the biggest contributing factors is the high cost of shipping that is sometimes almost as much or higher than the cost of the items themselves.
Using a third-party fulfillment centre will give your eCommerce store the competitive edge of offering low shipping rates that are very attractive to your consumers.
Using a fulfillment centre in the U.S. also means:
The time taken for your shipment to be delivered to its destination is much faster than before. You no longer need to worry about customs clearances, taxes, and duties as these would be handled by the centre themselves.
Additionally, choosing shipping options based on cost and transit times, with the possibility of eliminating transit times altogether, allows you to offer better pricing to your customers.
Fulfillment centres do not have a maximum or a minimum weight or item bracket requirement that you need to meet to use their services. There is a common misconception when it comes to fulfillment centres as many think it’s expensive and can be afforded by businesses that have made it. This is untrue – a fulfilment centre is for everyone, even for businesses that are starting out. They often offer the option for businesses to ramp up and even ramp down based on seasonal sales as and when needed.
Similarly, if you see your business growing exponentially over the next few months, these centres have the capability to absorb new orders and work as you expand, making this the perfect solution for your business’s shipping needs.
Finally, the biggest turn-off for customers is an expensive and time-consuming returns and refunds policy. And this only gets complicated for international shipments. By choosing to store your goods at a fulfilment centre, customers can easily return their items back to the fulfillment centre and opt to either have it replaced with something else or receive a refund both of which you can communicate to the necessary parties from your end.
Having a U.S.-based fulfillment centre poses less of a risk and holds a higher guarantee for your customers as they don’t have to bear expensive shipping costs or deal with complicated export customs clearances when returning items.
In addition to the ease of cross-border shipping, your fulfillment centre also manages the generation and printing of shipping labels, eliminating one time-consuming and despised task off your shoulder.
With lower shipping costs and transit times, ease of returns, and refunds, you can create a unique selling point (USP) to entice customers, minimize item losses during returns, eliminate re-shipping taxes and repurpose your stock with maximum efficiency all of which will add value and help you grow your revenue.
In today’s eCommerce space, its rightly said “you’d better learn how to manage your inventory before it manages you”.
After all, inventory on a shelf or rack represents your investment in the business. Tracking that inventory is critical for your cash flow and opens the way for more complex analysis that will guide your strategic thinking.
If you want to start transforming your business or are keen to know more about using a US-based fulfillment centre, reach out to Swyft – Swyft is an international delivery provider for Asian businesses with over 10 years of fulfilment expertise in help eCommerce brands go global. Reach out to them at hello@swyft.lk or visit their website on www.getswyft.com to know more.
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