Read No Further! Here’s All You Need to Know about 3PL Fulfillment
What is 3PL fulfillment exactly? Why the heck should I choose 3PL fulfillment? What is in it for me? These are questions commonly asked by many e-commerce practitioners but rarely answered, even with the massive amount of information to browse through on the internet. Worry no more, we are now going to brief you on the definition, development, and benefits of third-party fulfillment, and clear your confusion once and for all. Hopefully, you do not have to read another article, once you finish reading this one.
What is 3PL Fulfillment?
3PL, short for third-party logistics, refers to the logistics and transportation services offered not by the first or the second party (namely the sellers and the customers), but by the third party that typically specializes in integrated operations of warehousing, delivery, and transportation services. The businesses outsourced the transportation to professional logistics companies, so as to boost their efficiency and control the cost.
Traditionally, 3PL fulfillment was limited to shipping and nothing more. Now, 3PL fulfillment covers basically everything, with transportation, warehousing, QC inspection, inventory & order management, and packaging all integrated into one service chain. Such transformation could be caused by the reconstructed shopping patterns. Consumers used to shop offline, and the third-party logistics companies were only required to transport their items from one place to another. Yet, in recent years, with the booming online business and e-commerce, the ever-changing sales channels, and businesses too occupied to manage the orders themselves during the promotion seasons, the 3PL fulfillment gradually expanded its business scope to live up to the trends.
The businesses are happy to see such expansion. 3PL fulfillment separates the businesses from these tedious and tricky works, allowing them to focus more on research & development, marketing and business development. Also, 3PL fulfillment has created so much more values, to the point where the businesses would hate it if they had to work without them.
Why is 3PL Fulfillment So Great?
Here are four reasons why third-party fulfillment is a good choice for ecommerce fulfillment services.
- Efficiency
The third-party fulfillment is carried out by professional logistics companies engaged in this industry for years, even decades, and the transportation efficiency is guaranteed. Most third-party fulfillment companies promise to complete each transportation step in a certain period. Take the YunFulfillment as an example. Once the order is placed, dispatch would be done within 24 hours with relevant information timely updated online for reference.
- Cost-effectiveness
Since the 3PL fulfillment companies integrated multiple services into the same service line, choosing them would surely be more economical than choosing separate service providers, each of which can only carry out one, singular task. Also, if you are doing cross-border business, the YunFulfillment Warehouse set in China beats its American and European counterparts in the warehouse rent and labor costs. That is how you get your expenditure under control.
- Time-saving
Again, you do not have to busy yourself coordinating each party, since YunFulfillment covers them all, saving you a lot of time, trouble and cost. Another good news is that overstocked products or overseas logistics accidents are no longer your concerns. As previously mentioned, you are finally good to focus more on research and development, marketing and product development.
- Delivery Guaranteed
How could you rest assured when you are not even sure if your package will be delivered to its destination safely and timely? In other words, what makes 3PL fulfillment as reliable as it claims to be? Well, everything has its own risk. But for YunFulfillment, delivery accuracy reaches as high as 99.99%. Even if anything does go wrong and falls to that 0.01%, compensation will be made.
Conclusion
The solid cooperation between e-commerce practitioners and 3PL fulfillment is nothing new. In the past decades, the shopping pattern has drastically changed, as an increasingly large proportion of consumers prefer to shop online rather than offline, internationally than domestically. While the businesses have been striving to adapt to such transition, 3PL fulfillment rises as well in response to their growing needs. By integrating warehousing, packaging, transportation, and more, 3PL fulfillment join hands with e-commerce practitioners of all sizes, home or abroad.
As a new rising star in 3PL fulfillment, YunFulfillment has earned itself many cooperative partners all around the globe ever since its establishment in 2018. Short is the time we engaged in this game, and long is our commitment to our partners with constantly efficient, cost-effective, and trustworthy services. If you are a cross-border e-commerce practitioner looking for the ecommerce fulfillment service, we are happy and proud to offer you creative solutions for complex logistics challenges.
