The fulfillment process is a fundamental element of the subscription box business. Although it sounds simple enough to do it all on your own, this can be a distraction that pulls time away from other important components of your business. As a business owner, you should be focusing on growing your customer base, not on trying to be a fulfillment company. Choosing to outsource your fulfillment needs provides your business with a professional, affordable and scalable solution for your subscription box business. Take a look at the top 3 advantages of outsourcing:
- Leave it to the Experts: Subscription box fulfillment is not a service that all 3PL’s provide and certainly not one that all do well. This should be left to the experts who have a strong reputation with credible resources in the industry. An excellent fulfillment company treats you as a partner, not just a client and views the products as their own. Subscription boxes require accurate and precise assembly that is seamless with your program to ensure your brand is being delivered straight to the customer. The appearance of the package upon delivery and the presentation of the product when open opened by the customer all impact their impression of the brand. Leave it to the experts to guarantee it’s a great one!
- Outsourcing Lowers Your Expenses: Fulfilling your orders in-house means you are not only paying for labor costs, but also rent on large commercial spaces. Outsourcing to a subscription box fulfillment expert becomes a single expense, as opposed to a long list of costs associated with operating your own fulfillment operations. You avoid time spent interviewing, hiring and training employees in different positions, when you could be focused on expanding business. Additionally, since the 3PL is already operating out of their own space, you instantly save thousands on rent, utilities, technology and the infrastructure needed to perform daily operations.
- 3PL Companies are Scalable: Outsourcing fulfillment means you don’t have to deal with storing and receiving product. This may not be a daunting task in the beginning with only having a handful of orders, but as you grow, your needs will also increase. You will require much more space for pallet storage, racks or bins for picking, packing stations for box assembly, as well as shipping technology to ensure your customers receive their subscription box at the same time each month. An experienced 3PL will already be utilizing a warehouse management system for inventory control and order management as well as transportation management systems to route your orders in the quickest and most cost-effective manner possible. All of this is necessary to achieve the growth needed to obtain success in the subscription box industry.
The order fulfillment process is quite possibly the most important part of the subscription box business. During the beginning stages, it may make sense to fulfill the orders yourself. However, the more your business grows, the more outsourcing the fulfillment operations makes sense. Being able to save money and allow the fulfillment experts to handle the daily operations gives you the ability to focus on the elements of your business that really deserve your attention.
Here at TAGG, we provide accurate subscription box assembly with a custom packing slip, shipping confirmation, superior customer service, a variety of packing options and quick and cost-effective shipping. If you have questions regarding subscription box fulfillment, please contact us today.
