Great 3PL Fulfillment starts with great 3PL Solutions: what you need and why
Software that combines various WMS systems to make 3PL fulfillment simpler has recently attracted a lot of interest.
When these businesses begin their search, they typically express a great deal of anxiety and confusion: “Is a specific 3PL solution really needed? Or are we able to manage inventory fulfillment independently using an in-house WMS or ERP?”
“We want a dedicated WMS framework, but there’s something off about the timing,” is a common response.
Due to the severe labor shortage, every warehouse should invest in a specialized third-party logistics (3PL) solution as soon as possible.
Dedicated 3PL fulfillment solutions are essential for maintaining profit growth in volume-heavy, unfamiliar markets like Direct–to–Consumer (DTC).
What a good 3PL fulfillment looks like
Having a warehouse that can oversee and support a client’s growth journey is an essential part of being a 3PL leader, whether the client is a small business or a global omnichannel leader.
Through DTC, marketplaces, B2B channels like Walmart and Amazon, or anything else they require, it entails providing them with new services and new ways to sell without harming the provider’s margins.
There are easy ways to get this going, but if the company is still using outdated software instead of cutting-edge warehouse management software that is fast and easy to use, development will be difficult.
By combining multiple systems into a single modern 3PL solution that can handle everything on a single platform, including billing capture, the company gains rapid value and competitive advantages. The business is able to:
- Fulfill very high volumes without hiring new staff
- Automate time-consuming customer service workflows
- Meet increasingly sophisticated client requirements
- Onboard new clients in just minutes
- Ship orders fast, with a <1% error rate
- Keep systems adaptive to constantly shifting goalposts
When a 3PL’s fulfillment team outgrows their WMS, whether the business has 10 clients or 1,000, the impact of 3PL WMS or fulfillment solutions needs to be examined to see if it is helping you grow:
- Automate time-consuming customer service workflows
- Meet increasingly sophisticated client requirements
- Onboard new clients in just minutes
- Ship orders quickly, with a 1% error rate
It is too much for omnichannel to rely on manual or paper-based procedures. The risk of using manual inventory management strategies, which will never be able to keep up with the speed at which orders are placed, is eliminated by modern 3PL fulfillment solutions.
With the introduction of real-time inventory availability, syncing, order updates, and automation, the warehouse team will be freed from dealing with backlogs, manual catch-up work, missed shipments, and errors that kill deals.
It is easy to interface a top tier 3PL answer for ERPs and other usually utilized programming bundles. Key performance indicators like hourly picking rates and daily shipments benefit greatly from this, and teams always have access to the most recent information.
Is it reliable?
The majority of the time, enormous product suites break down, frequently causing disruptions to the business and employees. For powerful 3PL businesses that would prefer not to worry about blackouts ceasing their operations at the extremely worst times, framework stability is unquestionable.
The ideal 3PL solution will guarantee customers 100 percent system uptime, even during the busiest times of the year.
Is it possible to begin immediately?
How long does it take to set up a new service or customer? Does the management of the system’s custom requests require the use of an exception procedure?
Given how quickly customers are placing orders, no one has time for that.
Onboarding more clients into a 3PL solution necessitates a new level of speed and automation. Look for an easy-to-use user interface that can train new employees on the software in under an hour and significantly shortens this process.
Is billing done by default?
Reduce the amount of time spent calling or emailing for answers with modern 3PL fulfillment solutions that seamlessly integrate with client billing systems.
Users can reduce the length of the billing cycle, avoid costly errors, and receive payment for services that were previously provided for free due to a lack of complete information. Moreover, this allows for more efficient staff management, which is a struggle all by itself.
Is the solution adaptable enough to offer services that add value?
When evaluating a 3PL solution, carefully examine its adaptability to processes and value-added services.
For instance, you can include client-specific UCC128-compliant labeling requirements in your standard menu of customer options and incorporate them into the outbound order fulfillment procedure to increase revenue.
Will it assist clients with decreasing transportation costs?
Due to the fact that both retailers and customers place a high value on free shipping, a specialized 3PL solution can be an essential component of the strategy for cost reduction and value offering.
Deposco’s 3PL fulfillment solution’s built-in WMS and shipping platform with rate shopping allow for fulfillment times of less than 24 hours and significant savings on shipping. The system has native WMS capabilities that are directly integrated with parcel and local carriers for multi-carrier rate shopping.
This can be used to automatically compare shipping rates, make labels, connect to billing, and provide complete real-time tracking and documentation by your 3PL warehouse staff.
The 3PL software from Deposco can undoubtedly decide the proper box size for bundling.
It also makes it simple to combine multiple orders going to the same location to send all of the goods in a single box and supports kitting, work order management, EDI integration, and custom label/packing slip generation by customer and trading partner.