5 Signs it May Be Time to Switch Your 3PL Fulfillment Partner
The last few years have proven that retailers must respond to change with flexibility, agility, a laser focus on customer experience, and a keen eye for protecting profitability. Part of this equation is your e-commerce fulfillment provider. Is it keeping pace with you?
E-commerce businesses have experienced a massive boon in the last few years with many growing faster than their fulfillment provider has been able to scale.
Here are 5 signs that may indicate you need to switch e-commerce fulfillment providers and what to look for in a third-party logistics (3PL) partner.
- Orders take too long and cost too much to get to your customers.
Insufficient distribution centers within 2-3 days of most customers can lead to slower fulfillment, higher shipping costs, and damage to brand reputation and customer experience. Choose a 3PL with a scalable infrastructure that aligns with or exceeds your growth strategy. They should understand your needs, future plans, and prepare for events like viral sales or peak seasons. - KPIs get missed during peak season.
If your 3PL missed KPIs, struggled with timely order fulfillment during peak seasons, or caused high return rates due to errors, they might lack the scalability to meet your needs. Scalability should be a present capability, not a future promise.
A reliable 3PL must adapt seamlessly to peak and low seasons, scaling operations accordingly. Choose one that transparently explains their scaling methods and proves their readiness through automation, capacity, efficiency, and successful seasonal hiring history, ensuring positive experiences for peak customers.
- Promised technology solutions are not delivering results.
The excitement around artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) is undeniable, with many vendors emphasising AI in their product marketing. While some solutions genuinely enhance productivity, many remain immature. If your 3PL’s promised benefits aren’t materialising, it may be time to seek a provider with a proven impactful technology strategy.
AI is on everyone’s radar, but do not buy into overhyped advertising from yet-to-be-proven software. Look for a 3PL that offers and uses technology that produces the results you need now – with an eye on future growth and AI innovation. Solid, proven solutions that yield real-time inventory visibility, a robust, easy-to-integrate order management platform, and reporting that delivers insights to make crucial decisions in the moment will help you meet your promises from click to delivery. - Automation is overshadowing the human touch.
Automation is essential for every 3PL to boost efficiency, cut costs, and enhance accuracy. However, if your 3PL prioritizes robotic automation over the personal touch, it may be worth reconsidering. Customers appreciate personalization, including thoughtful unboxing experiences and hand-written notes, which set e-commerce brands apart. A 3PL should support this.
Look for a 3PL that values people and leverages the human touch to tailor personalization solutions that are right for your brand.
- Order fulfillment seems disconnected from the rest of the business.
If your 3PL only focuses on order fulfillent without taking a holistic interest in your e-commerce business, you will miss your omnichannel customer experience goals. Order fulfillment is integral to customer experience; it cannot stand alone. Yet, some e-commerce fulfillment providers operate as a single-point vendor, focusing strategically on order fulfillment, and leave you to consider how the rest of the business fits in.
A 3PL should understand how your business operates and work with you to be part of a holistic omnichannel approach. Look for a 3PL like Radial that has deep e-commerce expertise that goes beyond fulfillment and that takes an invested interest in the whole of your business. The more comprehensive a 3PL can be in integrating tailored solutions that meet your needs, the more streamlined operations you’ll experience.
If any of these 5 signs resonate with you, take the time to evaluate whether your current fulfillment partner is truly meeting your needs or whether you need to switch to a 3PL that has the infrastructure, experienced people, industry expertise, scalability, and partnership mentality that will support you today and be there for you in the future.
