Running an ecommerce business is a great way to make an income, but it is certainly not easy. Between managing import taxes, finding warehouse spaces, hiring quality staff, and ensuring business growth, there is often little downtime. However, there is a way to mitigate many of these problems while saving both money and time in the process. And it comes down to seeking aid from a Canadian Fulfillment Center.
What is a Canadian fulfillment center?
In short, a Canadian fulfillment center is a Canadian based third-party order fulfillment company that provides order redistribution services to businesses throughout North America.
Under a typical e-commerce business model, you order overseas goods, store them in your warehouse, and then ship them to your customers when you receive an order.
But a Canadian fulfillment center does this for you.
They receive large shipments of overseas stock on your behalf and store them in their warehouses. Then, when you receive an order from a customer, they proceed to package it and ship it off.
And although this might seem unnecessary given you could do it all on your own, it comes with a myriad of key benefits that can support the growth of your business.
1. Cheaper Importation
In 2016 several import tariffs were introduced by the US government making it seriously more expensive to ship overseas goods onto American soil — a cost that genuinely destroyed numerous e-commerce businesses across America.
However, these import tariffs do not exist in Canada.
As a result, if you enlist the aid of a Canadian fulfillment center (who happens to have a warehouse located in Canada), you can significantly reduce importation costs and save a lot of money in the process.
And what if you are not located in America?
Well, the benefits don’t stop there.
2. Faster and cheaper shipping
Third party fulfillment companies specialize in order distribution. They have an innate understanding of the global shipping network and are renowned experts within the field of shipping logistics.
When this is combined with a vast network involving all of the major shipping companies, you get two significant benefits.
- Your shipping speeds increase, and
- Your shipping costs decrease
The typical Canadian fulfillment center guarantees 1-3 day shipping throughout North America. And because they ship such a large quantity of orders every single day, they get notably better rates from large shipping companies than other, smaller, businesses.
All of which means your orders get out faster, and you save money.
3. Custom warehouse kitting
Kitting describes the process of taking different, but related products, and combining them together to create a single order.
You can think of warehouse kitting as the process of fulfilling customer orders by pre-assembling individual products into kits that are ready to be shipped at a moment’s notice, instead of having to pack them individually.
This packages items that are frequently ordered together and creates one single unit within a given inventory. This helps cause a significant reduction in order preparation time, while reducing the shipping costs associated with sending multiple products within a single order.
Any good Canadian fulfillment center will offer custom kitting options that further act to reduce running costs and increase customer satisfaction.
Which is a huge win-win.
4. Removal of fixed warehouse costs
One of the largest costs that come with a growing e-commerce business are related to the leasing of warehouse space and the hiring of warehouse staff.
In short, as a business grows, it needs larger and larger warehouse spaces to manage an inventory of products. This comes with a need to hire more staff to help manage this space and assist with order distribution.
But taking on a Canadian fulfillment center for a partner that does this for you eliminates these costs completely.
5. Accelerated Business Growth
This last point is arguably the most important — while saving money is integral to increasing profit margins in the short term, it does little to contribute to the long-term growth of your business.
But saving time does.
With this in mind, the time saved on organizing, packing, and shipping customer orders can be dedicated to conducting market research, developing new marketing strategies, and improving customer support.
All of which have the potential to spark huge business growth.
By taking on a Canadian fulfillment center as a business partner, you enlist someone to take over all of the mundane tasks associated with running an ecommerce business. This ensures you can use your time to increase the size of your business, which is what contributes to lasting increases in profits over time.
Summary
The average Canadian fulfillment center specializes in third party order fulfillment. As a result, they take the entire process of order distribution out of your hands.
This not only leads to a reduction in shipping and warehouse costs, faster shipping times, and greater customer satisfaction, but also frees up important time that can be spent on growing your business.
There has never been a better time to go into business with a Canadian fulfillment center — so what are you waiting for?
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