The Benefit of Omnichannel Fulfillment for Your Business

You and fellow stakeholders in your company must be aware that your business is only as strong as the supply chain and logistics services you rely on to move products into the marketplace.

To gain a competitive edge over other businesses operating in your industry, it’s important to gain a better understanding of the process of omnichannel fulfillment. Read on for insight into B2B fulfillment services as well as services for retail fulfillment and efforts to improve your direct-to-consumer fulfillment capacity.

Omnichannel fulfillment is a way for companies to dramatically improve how they process orders, which involves centralized, automated systems over multiple channels (including TV, radio, text, chat, email, web forms, phone, web, and in-person contact) to accomplish these vital tasks as efficiently as possible:

If you’re on the fence about whether to pursue an omnichannel fulfillment approach, here are the chief benefits:

Customers appreciate that they receive their orders faster and can track them in real-time, or are able to pick them up locally from your store or warehouse. Your brand will grow in popularity when customers share with others their stories about how easy it is to purchase from you.

With the integrated approach that comes with omnichannel fulfillment, you will be able to open your sales opportunities, such as guiding customers through the sales funnel via a web contact form, then an online chat, followed up with a text message to confirm the details. Or, customers viewing a late-night infomercial respond by phone.

Computerized systems for 3PL track all the relevant sales data, so you can identify patterns, such as noticing an uptick of purchases from small businesses in a region experiencing economic development that you can capitalize on with more targeted advertisements.

Omnichannel fulfillment gives you cost savings as you scale up your operations, as the software tools you use will help you manage the torrent of information. More efficient operations mean you can fulfill more orders with less staff, often supported by automated, robotic systems.

No matter what sales channel your customers use to engage with your offerings, you can achieve greater brand consistency, whether D2C via social media or B2B marketing through an emailed newsletter.

The data-collecting aspect of omnichannel fulfillment helps you spot trends and then respond to them, such as the system prompting you to hire more workers to complete pick-and-pack operations. If you identify a growing number of product returns in a particular category, it could signal a shift in customer awareness of the drawbacks of a product.

You can pick, pack, and ship orders faster with omnichannel fulfillment systems than you can by employing the traditional approach to selling products to businesses or customers. The resulting competitive advantage will help you grow in scope and size over rivals in the marketplace.

The computer systems and automated equipment allow you to process more orders, faster, and with greater accuracy (to avoid preventable errors that would prompt returns, and dampen customer enjoyment).

You can grow organically without worrying about being unable to meet a sudden change in demand. Whether you are launching a new product line through a crowdfunding campaign to test the waters or moving into a new geographical region, omnichannel fulfillment enables you to scale up your business smoothly.

Some companies will have sufficient staff to handle omnichannel fulfillment on their own, in-house.

But given the often seasonal nature of the business, it can be challenging to maintain a healthy bottom line and still keep enough workers on staff to provide flexibility in your response to consumer demand.

You might find it difficult to manage inventories with multiple SKUs when selling through more than one channel. Or, you have a variety of options for customers to choose from in your subscription box service.

And if your team lacks the technical expertise to work with automated systems, you will be hampered in your efforts to take care of omnichannel fulfillment under your own roof.

The third-party logistics experts at B&C Logistics have years of experience providing customized solutions to businesses in need of omnichannel fulfillment services, and other fulfillment and logistical requirements.

Since omnichannel fulfillment enhances your customers’ experience, delivers more sales opportunities for your staff to explore and will optimize how you manage your inventory, you can anticipate seeing improvement in your processes. When you add deep data insights and faster order fulfillment that scales up as consumer demand increases, it’s easy to see how omnichannel fulfillment can help you grow your business.

However, if your staff has limited experience with these advanced logistics techniques, it makes sense to partner with 3PL professionals, such as the team at B&C Logistics. To learn more, contact us today.