Onmichannel is the new norm for retailers, with research showing that the more customers engage with a retailer’s touchpoints, the more likely they are to make a purchase and, furthermore, to become a loyal customer.
From small, curated collections, to dropshipping via the big box chains, e-commerce merchants are using Shopify’s platform more than ever. For starters, their stock rose 207% in 2016, thanks in large part to 133,000+ new merchants utilizing Shopify last year. Just one of the many reasons that e-commerce retailers love this platform is that Shopify helps improve their customer’s businesses in conjunction with their own growth with great customer service available 24/7 and even a retail tour.
In a recent comparison of the top 5 e-commerce platforms, Shopify was the only to receive a 10/10 score and blew its competitors out of the water.
Whether you’re a Shopify veteran, new to the Shopify party, or just getting started and looking for the best e-commerce platform, make sure that the fulfillment center you choose to warehouse and ship your products has the technological infrastructure to support Shopify. Companies like Fulfillment.com (FDC) offer free integrations with top platforms, including Shopify.
A fulfillment service is a third-party warehouse that prepares and ships your orders for you. Using a fulfillment service is a great option if you don’t want to have to deal with shipping, or if you’ve grown beyond your existing warehousing capabilities to a point where you can’t ship items manually anymore. It also is sometimes CHEAPER than doing it yourself.
The obvious benefit to using a logistics company is that you don’t have to do it yourself. But the benefit really goes deeper than that. Outsourcing warehousing and fulfillment can have a meaningful impact on your business’s growth. Grow Faster, Make More Money, Focus more on Marketing.
Consider, too, your returns policy, which can make or break your bottom line. With companies like UPS experimenting with drone delivery, every point on the supply chain is looking to shorten the length of time between placing an order and receiving it. But if you don’t have a robust front end website, and the customer service to back up your products and services, free shipping or speedy deliveries aren’t going to be enough to keep your business in the black.
