Has your social media marketing strategy generated more sales than you can handle? It’s time to outsource your fulfilment and here’s why.
The very best eCommerce brands have stopped thinking about traditional marketplaces being the places where they need to sell their goods. They are seamlessly engaging with their client base on social networks, creating desire and need, and facilitating the ease of purchase by incorporating adverts that instantaneously trigger the fulfilment and delivery process to the customer. It is the most seamless purchase process that we think we’ve ever seen from marketing to fulfilment.
But with this great user accessibility and the ability for some promotions to go viral very quickly, we have seen some eCommerce brands receive an unprecedently level of orders that they have struggled to fulfil and keep up with customer demand. We often see online brands budget for unsuccessful sales and are prudent in terms of their operational infrastructure. However, there have been instances recently of quite a few brands damaging their reputation when there fulfilment has not matched their customers expectations, particularly in the run up to Christmas last year.
How can you be prepared?
When a brand focuses it’s sales strategy via social media, it is difficult for them to forecast the popularity of the campaign and how best to prepare for an influx of online orders. The harsh reality is that you cannot rely on yourself and your in-house team to cope with a substantial increase in demand. To plan ahead by engaging with a trusted logistics partner who can be adaptive and, if need be, happy to recruit additional team members and extend opening hours in order to fulfil your exceptional orders. A great fulfilment centre is adaptive and used to flexing demand, going from 70% to 150% capacity in anyone day.
Will there be volume restrictions?
Another point to add, is that fulfilment centres, like Diamond Logistics, have a breadth of carrier accounts which means there will not be any restrictions in terms of how much outbound consignments they can distribute. Previously, a select number of carriers would restrict dispatches because of volume issues. With Diamond, we have a multi-carrier solution which ensures business continuity because we always have a second choice carrier and as we are corporate customers, we get a better service guarantee than the normal consumer would get.
What about warehousing?
As an eCommerce brand, you also have to consider the physical space you require for storage, warehousing and dispatching. To prepare for peak sales you have to ensure you can cater for optimal stock levels whilst having the flexibility to reduce the space you require at times when demand is low. It can be very expensive renting your own warehouse when really you need a flexible storage solution which is where outsourcing can be beneficial.
Our final note…
Finally, you should be concentrating on what you do best which is generating those online sales and creating innovative products. Outsourcing your logistics can be hard but once you find a great fulfilment and delivery partner it should make your life easier, which buys you time to market your business even more. We always say finding a great logistics partner is a bit like finding a great mechanic. No one wants to service their own car; you need an expert to do that. And it’s the same with logistics.
If you want fulfilment and delivery experts, then give us a call and see how we can help you deal with exponential product demand when your social media marketing strategy increase demand for your brand. Simply call 0333 567 5888, email us at sales@diamondlogistics.co.uk or use the form below.
