How Third-Party Logistics Can Simplify Shipping For Your Business
Posted on: 13 January 2023
Manufacturing and selling products to consumers can be a lot of work. The logistics involved can be time-consuming and hard to navigate, so considering a 3PL or third-party logistics warehousing solution may benefit your business.
Third-Party logistics
If you are considering a 3PL warehouse solution for your business, you need to understand how it works and what benefits you get from the service. 3PL or third-party logistics is a term used to describe warehouses that receive stock from a manufacturer or business and hold it until items sell. Once a sale is made, the 3PL warehouse ships the product to the customer directly, allowing the manufacturer to concentrate on production without dealing with shipping.
The manufacturer will need to ship the product to the warehouse. However, that is done in bulk, as the product is manufactured and processed. The shipping is limited to one location, and the time it takes the manufacturer to deal with this is much less than if they were shipping the product directly.
Sales Management
A 3PL warehouse may also manage the sales of the items through a proprietary marketplace that allows them to sell and fulfill the items in their warehouse. The advantage to this for a business is that their product is available worldwide and online, making it easy for consumers to find and purchase.
Several large 3PL warehouse operations are in the US and sell worldwide. These warehouses work with manufacturers and small businesses to help market, sell, and ship their products in volumes that might not otherwise be possible, and since the warehouse is so large, they can offer services like lower shipping rates and overnight shipping that will benefit the customer.
The sales process is handled through their marketPLace, and the manufacturer or small business can monitor sales as they occur. The service also makes it easier to offer customer support effectively, and the 3PL warehouse can help with returns and exchanges when necessary.
Business Models
There are several ways 3PL warehouse services can be helpful, but for any business that does not have the personnel to manage shipping and sales or does not have room to store large amounts of product, the 3PL warehouse can help. Since the products are made and then sent to the warehouse, the scheduling of shipments can be tailored to the space you have for storage.
If shipping once a month is a good fit, you can. However, if you need to move items to the warehouse weekly, that option is there as well. Often a 3PL warehouse will charge a fee for materials coming in, so you may want to try and ship as much as possible at one time to reduce the costs, but the system is flexible and works for many businesses.
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