The demands of ecommerce are always evolving; your order fulfillment operations must do the same or risk falling behind. If you’re an ecommerce brand, being outmatched by competitors is the last thing you want, which is why the most successful brands across verticals bring in reliable 3PL partners to carry out order fulfillment. The problem is, that over the years misconceptions have sprung up about the outsourcing process. 

Believing these myths may hinder your business growth, so we’re here to debunk them, clear up any doubts, and give you an accurate picture of what outsourcing order fulfillment to an established 3PL looks like. Let’s jump in!

Myth #1 Outsourcing is Only for Big Companies

Think you need Nike or Coca-Cola levels of success to outsource? Nope! If you’re experiencing the growing pains of a successful business, you’re most likely ready to take the next step. Don’t limit your company’s potential by comparing it to hugely established brands out there, whether they’re your competition or not. Instead, focus on your business’s long-term goals so you can objectively determine whether it’s time to call for reinforcements. Outsourcing isn’t for any specific size of company. Outsourcing order fulfillment comes down to three primary factors: 

1. Space—Have you run out of the space and labor needed to effectively fulfill your own orders?
2. Priorities—Do you need more time to focus on other, higher-priority tasks related to running your business?
3. Growth—Do you plan to grow and scale your business month over month and year over year?

If you answered yes to even one of these questions then it’s time to investigate an order fulfillment partner. At ShipMonk, we proudly serve brands of all sizes across all verticals who just want to continue evolving.  

Myth #2 Customers Will Know It’s Outsourced

Worry not! Fulfillment centers understand why this is a big concern for potential clients, which is why they’re attentive to your specific instructions for packaging and shipping orders. For example, you can request to have your business name on the shipping label or use custom packaging to visually communicate a more branded experience. That way, your customers will give little to no thought to where their orders were shipped from, especially if orders are delivered fast and accurately. As long as those two things are handled well, no one will care where orders came from. 

Myth #3 Fulfillment is Too Complicated to Hand Over

If you’re running your own business, chances are you consider it your baby. You probably fear handing off all your hard work over to strangers because they might make the wrong move and undo years of effort. This is an understandable concern; you don’t want the thing you’ve built to have anything less than the best people taking care of it. Luckily, the fear behind this myth doesn’t apply if you pick the right 3PL partner. 

Order fulfillment companies want your business to succeed because the more their clients succeed, the more they succeed. Therefore, it’s in their best interest to keep your business running in tip-top shape. Past that, 3PLs like ShipMonk are actually always developing new offerings, service areas, technologies, and more  to make your business run better. We conquer the complicated and turn it into a user-friendly, streamlined operation you can be proud of and feel safe with. All in all, wIth the right 3PL, there’s nothing to worry about.

Myth #4 The 3PL Will Take Over My Business

Plain and simple: good 3PLs don’t meddle. We have great offerings you can take advantage of from newly developed technology, to a variety of locations, to integrations. However, we let you make the call about what to opt-in for. 3PLs cannot make executive decisions on behalf of your business. Since fulfillment centers are service providers, their primary purpose is to help you by following all of your instructions—making sure things are running smoothly within the parameters you’ve set. 

Myth #5 Committing to a 3PL Will Restrict Opportunities for Growth

This couldn’t be more opposite from the truth. Partnering with a fulfillment company is a way to expand your business, not restrict it. By joining forces with a 3PL partner with advanced order fulfillment centers, you’ll have access to additional storage space, strategically located fulfillment locations, a variety of easy-to-use service options, opportunities for streamlining your operation, post-purchase experience options, reduced shipping costs, efficient shipping speeds, international expansion outlets, and so much more! The right 3PL on your side is the secret to staying competitive in the ecommerce industry and scaling successfully for years to come.

Myth #6 Outsourcing Fulfillment is Too Expensive

What if we told you that fulfillment can save you money? In-house fulfillment is typically the easiest and swiftest way to get your ecommerce business started. But, as your business needs change, you’ll find that sticking to what’s tried-and-true can quickly rack up the price tag of your whole operation.

To start with, 3PL discounts on shipping rates can make a huge difference in your margins. Our state-of-the-art fulfillment centers also combine the right technology (like our amazing Locus robots) with the right professionally trained people to make picking, packing, and sending out your orders as efficient as possible, which saves you labor expenses. Furthermore, fulfillment centers offer you something invaluable: your time and peace of mind.  

Whether you’re the founder of your business or work for an ecommerce company, your time literally is money when it could be allocated to important matters of strategy, product development, advertising, and more. When you don’t have to worry about receiving inventory, managing fulfillment employees, shipping orders, handling returns, etc. you can go on to spend that valuable time on big-picture elements. 

Taking all that into account, you’ll save so much by outsourcing to an order fulfillment center it’s not even funny. Working with a 3PL does cost money, but it’s an investment in all of the above savings. ShipMonk’s order fulfillment specialists are always happy to talk with potential clients and provide a custom quote for exactly what that looks like.

Follow the Facts

Bigfoot, the Boogeyman, the Lochness Monster—who’s to say whether these myths hold water. We’re certainly not going to comment. As the industry’s leading order fulfillment providers, however, we are always ready to not just comment, but correct myths regarding what it’s like to outsource to a reliable 3PL partner. The fact is, outsourcing your order fulfillment to a time-tested, technology-driven 3PL like ShipMonk is a surefire way to give your ecommerce brand its best shot at success. We hope we’ve helped you see through the haze and the hearsay to understand why. 

If you have any unanswered questions though, or would just like to get started with us right away, contact our team of experienced experts. We’d be more than happy to help you!