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We’ve written before about what manufacturers and marketers should look for in the fulfillment companies and services they choose.
While the traditional fulfillment service staples, including warehousing, inventory management and shipping are obviously important, emerging technologies and online marketplaces have added significantly to the services you can choose. Order tracking, transaction services, CRM and customer support are now commonly available to allow start-ups and established businesses alike to precisely tailor their operations to maximize ROI.
Seek Out the Harbinger of Change
Volumes have been written about the changes in services and the relationship between fulfillment companies and their customers. While your company chooses services partly to help mitigate risk, there is one risk that the increased reliance on third party fulfillment creates.
Yes, the rate of change in the fulfillment sector has increased in recent years. But unlike previous years, where manufacturers and marketers were inherently able to keep pace with the evolution, their increased use of fulfillment services can have an unexpected side effect. Without their day-to-day involvement in the logistics that they now outsource, they can become distanced from the changes that occur in their supply chain and their overall industry.
One More Fulfillment Service You Require – It used to be that you hired a fulfillment company and, as long as they delivered on what they promised, the relationship remained fairly static. The service level rarely changed unless it was necessary based on a shift on your business.
Today, that business shift is as likely first detected by your fulfillment company as by your company. That means you need to seek out a logistics supplier who not only keeps on top of the rapid changes that will continue to sweep through the business, but one that actively and regularly communicates any change that could positively or negatively affect your business.
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