Is Your 3PL Ready to Handle Social Commerce?
Social commerce is a fast-growing e-commerce channel, blending lifestyle, digital habits and influencer trust. Shoppers will easily buy from tailored social posts and ads, making the experience seamless and relevant. In 2024, social commerce revenue is expected to total $1.64 trillion, a 30.8% increase from 2023. Facebook Marketplace leads though Instagram and TikTok dominate when it’s excluded. Overall, social commerce is booming, offering big opportunities for brands expanding their omni-experience strategy.
But, when a product is featured by an influencer or unexpectedly goes viral, brands must be confident that their third-party logistics (3PL) partner can scale, contain costs, and provide an amazing customer experience. Can yours?
High Volume, High Stakes Order Fulfillment
Social commerce sales can surge fast, with thousands of SKUs selling within hours to days. These high volumes can continue for weeks or even months. A 3PL needs to have distribution centers close to customers, a robust delivery network, tailored automation, modern technology, the capacity to collaborate, and experienced people to handle this scale while also managing your other channel order fulfillment.
Social commerce customers that purchase based on an influencer’s experience of a product expect to have a similar experience. They want a personalized shareable unboxing experience. Brands want this, too. Much of social commerce hinges on reviews and word of mouth marketing. The entire click to delivery experience needs to be positive so customers will share their experience online. Likewise, social customers will also share negative reviews if their experience fails to live up to expectations.
A brand that experiences a viral or sudden sales event generates a lot of immediate revenue, but continued sales to those customers over time needs to be the overall goal.
Getting social commerce order fulfillment right at any point is essential — and during high volume events, the stakes are high.
So, what does your 3PL need to be able to do to deliver on that experience?
Expect these things from your 3PL:
- Distribution Hubs in Proximity to Customers
Your 3PL’s infrastructure should include the capacity to centralize inventory for multi-channel distribution as well as have multi-node fulfillment centers. Social customers typically expect fast delivery, which means a 3PL needs to be able to move product quickly — without exorbitant costs. Having inventory in proximity to customers helps contain costs and meet customer expectations.
- A Robust Delivery Network
A 3PL can achieve fast fulfillment timelines, but unless it has strategic partnerships with carriers it won’t be able to meet delivery deadlines and be able to optimize final mile costs. Transportation management becomes critical during spikes in high volumes and fast timelines.
- A Tailored Approach to Automation
A 3PL that invests in automation is investing in scalability. Robotic automation reduces time for pick and pack, kitting, and empowers employees to work more efficiently. Radial tailors its robotic automation strategy to each client to ensure that the right aspects of order fulfillment are scaled to meet their unique needs for every channel.
Automation also plays into systems and processes, cutting down routine, manual work to improve accuracy, speed, and efficiency. Automation should never come at the cost of a great customer experience.
- Easy to Use Modern Technology
The technology a 3PL uses should easily integrate into your systems and provide clarity to everyone on your team. This may include real-time inventory visibility, transportation management software, an order management system, and analytics and reporting. This becomes critical during high volume sales events and peak seasons.
- A Capacity to Collaborate
When partnering with influencers, remember their reputation is on the line too. They want their followers to enjoy a brand experience that reflects their values—often through personalized unboxing, possibly with their own promo materials. Your 3PL should support this, offering scalable, shareable touches like handwritten notes to elevate the experience. - Values People
In a tech-driven world, the value of skilled people in high-scale fulfillment is often overlooked. A great 3PL values human expertise as much as automation—using judgment, empathy, and insight to enhance every step. Your customers will notice the difference.
Social commerce is an exciting channel for many brands. Before you jump into it, be sure you have the right 3PL partner that will have your back and be able to scale to any capacity you need. Be sure they have this capacity in place and are not promising it down their roadmap. The right 3PL will grow with you, but will also be the steadfast partner you need to help you manage your success immediately.
Radial provides order fulfillment solutions for brands selling across all eCommerce channels, including social commerce.
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