Taking Your Packaging and Shipping Outside Your Organization Can Help You Save Time and Money
Once you go through the logistics of making or assembling your products, getting them ready to ship is another challenge that can take a lot of time and money out of your production schedule. If you already have custom designed packaging, you’re one step ahead of the game, but a fulfillment warehouse can make your packaging, shipping, and delivery processes even smoother.
Fulfillment warehouses are a great way to eliminate excess work and stress by outsourcing the last few steps of your supply chain to a third party logistics (3PL) warehouse that you trust. Why should you consider using one? Packaging and shipping are time-consuming and challenging processes, especially when you’re managing other more important tasks with your supply chain. It’s easy for things to slip under the radar, which can lead to more time and money spent on correcting problems with shipments. It also costs money to keep things running, which could be spent on growing your business.
However, packaging and shipping is a key part of any supply chain and an expert can assist you in creating a smart strategy rather than a repetitive operation. When you’re stretched thin, a fulfillment warehouse is one place that you can turn to.
What Are the Advantages of 3PL Warehouses?
No matter how complex your supply chain is, a 3PL warehouse will be able to help you organize and support your packaging and shipping through their warehouse — all you have to do is ship your product to them.
From there, they handle everything necessary to get your product out the door and make sure it gets to its destination on time. This can include a number of steps. If you are using protective packaging, these services ensure that everything is packed properly and safely. For orders that need labeling, they can handle that too. Almost anything you’re currently doing can be carried over, but the real advantage is that they’ll do it more efficiently to save your business time and money in the long run.
This can happen in a number of ways. Fulfillment centers specialize in packing and shipping products, among other things. With your partnership, they’ll be able to impart some of that expertise onto you to help streamline even your most complicated challenges. They’ll also be able to identify issues that might come up in the future or help you sort out current struggles that you’re already dealing with and are stuck on. For example, how your orders are packed — could they be loaded differently to save space? With the right partnership, your business can become more productive — and profitable — overall.
Along with that, if investing in warehouse space, transportation, or employees is cutting into your budget, a fulfillment center takes those costs off the table. You’ll be able to focus on fewer costs and get the time back that you spent on organizing and managing the warehouse floor.
If you have retail packaging that needs to be assembled in order to be shipped to your customer, fulfillment warehouses can even take that work off your plate by assembling the display, packing the product, and shipping the entire package to the store already prepared for the sales floor.
By outsourcing your warehouse, you’ll be able to scale the size up or down based on the amount of inventory you have. 3PL warehouses are a great resource if your company experiences seasonal highs or lows because of their ability to adjust for your needs. This will also help you save money in the long run because you won’t be paying for space that you’re not using, or scrambling for space when things get busy.
Many e-commerce businesses find a lot of benefit in using a fulfillment center due to the fact that they aren’t operating through a brick and mortar location. Taking advantage of 3PL allows e-commerce businesses to eliminate the need of storing their product and preparing it for shipment, as well as making sure it gets delivered on time.
For both B2B and B2C businesses, using a fulfillment warehouse helps your company save time and money, and ensures that you have experts managing your order delivery schedules.
No matter what industry you fall into, your time should be spent on maintaining your business and creating more effective strategies. With a fulfillment warehouse or 3PL team on your side, you’ll be able to focus on growing your business along with taking advantage of the expertise of those who understand how to build strong systems for the packaging and shipping aspects of your supply chain.
At Jamestown Container Companies, we already know corrugated packaging inside and out. Our Buffalo, New York facility is dedicated to 3PL and acts as a fulfillment warehouse. Whether you need an item shrink-wrapped and shipped to customers, or a full display assembled with product before it’s delivered to a retail store, our team can help you manage and maintain your deliveries. Plus, through our fleet of trucks and affiliation with the Packaging Alliance Network (PAN) we can help make sure any delivery, around the country and to Canada, can get where it needs to be on time. If you’d like more information about our 3PL and order fulfillment services, reach out to us here.