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They will also need more space to hold inventory to make sure that
they have enough products in stock for customer orders.
While it’s the dream of many ecommerce store owners to get to the
point where they have a facility and their own employees, some
business owners prefer to stay small. They make things in limited
quantities and only produce what they are able to at a certain time.
No matter which order production and fulfillment option you choose,
make sure that it works best for you. You can always change your
scale depending on the needs of your business.
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Other things to consider when choosing a fulfillment option are:
Ɉ
Shipping costs.
Big Commerce states
that a majority of online
customers will abandon their online shopping cart and not make
a purchase if the shipping cost is too high.
Ɉ
Shipping time. Some customers may
not choose to buy if they
aren’t going to get the products soon enough
or as fast as expected.
Ɉ
Packaging and handling costs. The cost in time and resources
to package and ship orders needs to play into a product’s overall
cost and amount to ship.
Ɉ
Inventory storage and costs. Having inventory on hand isn’t
a big deal if inventory moves quickly. However, if it doesn’t
do so during certain times of the year, the costs to store the
inventory start to add up to a loss.
Ɉ
Ease of growth.
It’s often easier
to scale up or down when an
external party such as a dropshipper or order fulfillment company
is handling the orders for your business. If you rent or buy a
warehouse, there is a lot more on the line as you can’t reduce
or increase the size of your inventory easily. Adam Enfroy lists
some of his
recommended fulfillment companies
in his blog
post on the topic.
Ɉ
Shipment tracking: many customers expect and appreciate being
able to track where their order is in the shipping process. It’s also
beneficial for businesses because they are able to verify whether
something got delivered. No matter which fulfillment option is
used to deliver orders to customers, it’s recommended to always
use shipment tracking for every order.
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Overall, when it comes to fulfillment, it is usually best for companies to
start small and scale efficiently as they need to. There’s no need to buy
more inventory or rent storage space over what is presently needed now
and in the immediate future. It cuts down on risk and a potential loss or
fluctuation
in revenue.
“...it is usually best for companies to start
small and scale efficiently as they need to.
There’s no need to buy more inventory or
rent storage space over what is presently
needed now and in the immediate future.”
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It’s crucial to track metrics about your ecommerce site and its sales.
The reason for this is to determine what products are selling best
on your site and see areas where you can improve. There are all
sorts of metrics that can tell you different things about your site.
Some of the key metrics to track and review include:
Ɉ
Conversion rate. What is the
ratio of people that come
to your site and those who actually buy something?
Ɉ
Cost per Sale. How much does it cost to sell a product
on your site.
Ɉ
Traffic sources. Where is your website traffic coming from?
Knowing this can tell you what channels to focus on most
and where you may need to improve. For instance, if you aren’t
getting many sales from social media, that may be an indicator
that you need to spend more time improving your marketing
presence there.
Ɉ
Average order value.
What is the average amount of your orders?
This lets you know the average price point that customers are
willing to spend on your site. This may influence what types
of products you choose to carry in your store and which ones
are going to work.
Ɉ
Bounce rate. The bounce rate is a percentage of how many
times users leave the website after only visiting one page.
You want the bounce rate to be a low percentage.
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