Logistics Outsourcing: A guide for e-commerce businesses

E-commerce logistics present many challenges: finding the time to deal with them, ensuring quality service and controlling costs. And poor logistics will leave a bitter taste in your customers' mouths. So the question arises: should you outsource your e-commerce logistics?

In this article, we'll outline the advantages of outsourcing your e-commerce logistics, and the steps you need to take to do so in the best possible conditions.

What is e-commerce logistics outsourcing?

Inventory management, order preparation, parcel dispatch, after-sales service in the event of product returns... E-commerce logistics (or fulfillment) encompass numerous factors that merchants need to take into account and master. Retailers can choose to manage these logistics in-house, or outsource them.

E-commerce logistics outsourcing is the process whereby a company entrusts the management of its logistics operations to a specialized service provider.

Companies can outsource some or all stages of their supply chain, such as :

• Warehousing
• Order preparation
• Packing
• Shipping
• Customer returns and after-sales logistics

This practice enables retailers to free themselves from logistical constraints and concentrate on their core business, while ensuring a satisfactory delivery experience for their customers. Outsourcing e-commerce logistics offers many advantages!

The benefits of outsourcing logistics

Focus on your core business

E-logistics involves a number of factors, such as stock replenishment, order preparation and dispatch, and renting a warehouse to store your products for sale.

By outsourcing your e-commerce logistics, you leave this time-consuming management behind, delegating these tasks to an external company that makes it a point of honor to save you time and money.

This frees up precious time, allowing you to concentrate on what you do best: selling.

Finding new levers for growth, developing your offer, negotiating prices for new references, uncovering tomorrow's trends... These are all crucial points for a retailer like an e-merchant, which you can address more often by outsourcing your e-logistics.

Benefit from the expertise of a logistics provider

By working with a logistics provider, you benefit from its expertise, network and tools to improve the efficiency of your logistics and transportation.

For example, a logistics service like Rakuten Fulfillment Network gives you access to tools that provide you with real-time information on the status of your stocks, orders and sales. This means you can easily replenish your stocks to avoid stock-outs.

Optimize your logistics costs

Nearly 12% of retailers are unprofitable due to distribution costs. Yet outsourcing logistics can often be more cost-effective than maintaining an in-house logistics infrastructure.

Logistics providers often benefit from negotiated rates and faster handling by their network of delivery partners. So you benefit from faster, cheaper delivery!

You also reduce your storage costs. A logistics service provider will generally invoice you for the storage space actually used, and not the rented space, even if it's not used in full.

Manage variations in activity

Between sales, Black Friday and the Christmas period, online sales experience many peaks, which can put pressure on retailers when they're managing their own logistics.

It's hard to keep up with an abnormally high flow of orders while maintaining the same quality of customer experience. By outsourcing your logistics to a flexible partner, you can choose to be accompanied during these busy times, to make sure you don't lose any business opportunities.

Removing buying disincentives

35% of online consumers cancel their purchase if the delivery times quoted are too long. Your logistics must not only be efficient, they must also be faster than average.

Delivery times and costs can thus become real differentiating factors, so it's important to take care of them.

Improve the customer experience

For 85% of online shoppers, it only takes one bad delivery experience to dissuade them from ordering from a vendor again. Don't risk losing your hard-earned customers because of logistical errors.

By outsourcing your logistics, you ensure that you deliver the right experience, and you entrust the management of your customers' delivery issues to your service provider.

How to outsource e-commerce logistics easily?

Obviously, there's no question of entrusting your logistics to just anyone! It's important to do your research carefully. Here's our advice to guide you.

Define your needs

First of all, read your logistics requirements.

What aspects of your logistics do you want to outsource? What is your average order volume? Which markets do you deliver to? Is international business important to you? What are your current logistics costs?

Compare service providers

It's important to evaluate your logistics provider on several criteria. These may include :

• Delivery times: Make sure the provider can meet the delivery times you promise your customers. For example, with Rakuten Fulfillment Network, 99.8% of orders placed before 2pm are delivered within 24 hours.
• Storage capacity: Evaluate the provider's storage capacity in relation to your current and future needs. Make sure they can handle your growing inventory.
• After-sales service: Does the service provider offer an after-sales service to deal with any logistics problems encountered by your customers? Such a service can free you from a time-consuming aspect of logistics.
• Flexibility: Look for services capable of adapting to your changing needs. They need to be able to handle peaks in demand during busy periods.
• Integration with your e-commerce platform: Make sure the service provider can easily integrate with your online sales system and/or your various marketplaces for smooth communication of orders.
• Costs and pricing structure: Compare the rates and charges of different logistics providers. Make sure you understand the pricing structure, including hidden costs (if any), such as inactive storage charges or return fees. For example, with Rakuten Fulfillment Network you benefit from a simple pricing structure with no hidden costs.

Keep track of your logistics

Once you've selected your service provider and started working together, you can set up routines to monitor your inventory, order and delivery performance, and see the impact your service provider is having on your performance and efficiency.

Why choose Rakuten Fulfillment Network to outsource your e-commerce logistics?

Calling on a major e-commerce player like Rakuten to help you manage your e-logistics means :

• Save time. By delegating the management of your logistics, you can refocus on what's most important: growing your business.
• Rely on e-commerce experts. With Rakuten Fulfillment Network, Rakuten is the first player in Europe to federate an international network of fulfillment experts whose know-how is recognized by their peers.
• Reduce the delivery time of your orders. With Rakuten, every order you place is processed immediately. Shipping is fast, delivery express.
• Save on storage and shipping costs. Our prices are clear and there are no unpleasant surprises. Our partners' prices are also negotiated to reduce your costs as much as possible.
• Increase your inventory. Outsourcing your e-commerce logistics means delegating stock management to a third-party company, enabling you to rapidly increase the volume of your references.
• Boost your sales volume. In line with the previous argument, increasing your inventory will have an impact on your sales volume over the months.
• Control your digital growth. Number of products, stocks, prices... With just a few clicks, make the necessary updates to increase your yield.
• Multiply your acquisition channels. Opting for the Rakuten Fulfillment Network means being able to sell from your own merchant site, your store created on Rakuten and all the other marketplaces that interest you.
• Rely on e-commerce experts. When you call on Rakuten to manage your e-commerce logistics, you're surrounded by dedicated experts, such as an account manager who can provide you with ongoing support, advice and assistance.