What Is a 3PL and Why Are They Important to Retailers?

(This article was last published on May 12, 2016. It has been updated for accuracy and completeness.)

Providing a good delivery experience can determine whether a customer buys from you again or not.  

According to ShipStation’s latest report, 83% of consumers are less likely to re-purchase from a retailer after a negative delivery or shipping experience. 

Unfortunately, a lot of online sellers struggle with delivery, causing their business to suffer. But, building and managing your own logistics network is challenging, as it’s expensive and time-consuming. 

To meet customer expectations and protect their bottom lines, merchants are partnering with 3PLs to outsource their fulfillment needs. In the years to come, 3PLs will be critical to competing online and growing your business.  

Shopify Plus reported that demand for 3PLs is set to nearly double to $408 billion in the first half of this decade. 

So, what is a 3PL exactly? What role can they play in your business? And, how to do pick the right one to partner with? 

Vendor-Managed Inventory Benefits & Advantages

(This article was last published on July 21, 2015. It has been updated for accuracy and completeness.)

While vendor-managed inventory (VMI) is not a new concept, it’s still not widely adopted by merchants. Yet, when executed correctly, a vendor-managed inventory strategy can bring huge benefits to your business (think cost savings and better customer experience). 

In this post, learn what exactly VMI is, it’s benefits, and how you can implement a VMI program for any size business.

Everything You Need to Know about Partial Shipment

(This article was last published on June 29th, 2016. It has been updated for accuracy and completeness.)

You can’t always ship an entire order at once. You might even prefer to ship items separately to ensure they arrive on-time. Some items could ship from a service like Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) while others are fulfilled from your own warehouse.

Fulfillment of a single order in multiple shipments is referred to as partial shipment. While often necessary, it’s difficult to monitor on the backend of your operations. How do you track partial shipments in your systems? How do you ensure orders are mark completed only once all items are fulfilled?

Before executing partial shipment, you’ll need to know what the process is, why it’s important to get it right, and the best way to do it.  

eCommerce: How to Ship Your Products

As brick-and-mortar stores close due to the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers are turning to online shopping and thus putting pressure on merchant’s fulfillment processes. During this time, you could be opening a digital storefront and shipping for the first time. You could be dealing with closed warehouses and shipping suspensions by Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) causing you to diversify your supply chain. Some merchants might be experiencing an influx of online orders and trying to handle it the best way they can.

No matter what your situation is, we hope to cover your top options when it comes to successfully shipping online orders.

Q&A: The Future of Cross-Border Commerce and International Shipping Experience

Learn from FlavorCloud Founder/CEO Rathna Sharad on cross-border commerce’s explosive growth and the challenges of the international shipping experience. 

Trends like the “The Amazon Effect”, growth in eCommerce, success of direct-to-consumer brands, and lower barrier of entry in the global supply chain space are all leading the explosive growth of cross-border commerce. Online selling through webstores, social media, and marketplaces are making it easier than ever for brands to reach more customers around the globe. It doesn’t matter where a customer is located, they’re searching and finding the products they want. Merchants should be ready to serve them. 

The challenge isn’t necessarily reaching customers online, but rather shipping your products overseas, which often doesn’t always go as smoothly for both parties. Merchants have to prepare customs documentation an fees like duties and taxes, all while maintaining favorable shipping costs to your customers. Just like domestic shipping, you must think about selecting carriers, shipping rates, last mile delivery and returns. 

To understand more about the complexities of international shipping, we sat down with our friends over at FlavorCloud, experts in cross-border commerce. Check out this Q&A with their Founder/CEO Rathna Sharad to learn more about what cross-border commerce is and how merchants should approach international shipping to ensure the best possible experience for your customers.