Looking for needles in haystacks?

With the world becoming more connected, and supply and demand channels continuously developing, it’s important to stay on top of your distribution and challenge what is out there. When deciding to scale your business, building a resilient distribution framework can be challenging and costly. Through partnering with logistics providers that provide a unified solution, you’ll be able to harness a global network that keeps costs and complexity down. We’ve rounded up a few key components to consider when choosing a logistics partner.

Flexibility

By partnering with global platforms offering state-of-the-art services and warehousing available in countries across the world, e-tailers are able to flexibly place their goods closer to their customers. Doing so, allows them to deal with last-minute requests, offer same-day shipping, and access sustainable shipping solutions.

Supplier Flows

Logistics partners that have a presence close to supplier and manufacturing locations, such as China, can manage and integrate these flows to support an agile upstream supply chain that responds quickly to changes in demand.

Consolidation

In many cases, it is possible to consolidate transportation between vendors with the savings ultimately being passed on to the consumer. A global logistics provider will be able to easily streamline your supply chain.

Transparency

Offering full visibility and control to action orders when they enter the system is a must. A fully-transparent system allows users to see important information such as detailed invoices, performance analytics, order management, full tracking capabilities and seamless integrations with your shopping carts. This visibility ensures increased transparency between all stakeholders in a supply chain.

Receiving

Seasonal variations in e-commerce put pressure on inventory management. A system that notifies you when to restock at various locations will always ensure your customers’ needs are met.

Inventory Accuracy

Customer service levels and your finances are directly impacted by accuracy levels. Responsive systems enable you to control your inventory.

Packaging Options

Whether it is repackaging, bundling or going plastic-free, it is important to determine your product needs and communicate this with your logistics provider. Packaging can be simply functional to ensure your goods reach the customer in one piece, or it can be branded with your logo and colors and even environmentally-conscious.

Value-Added Services

Refurbishment, repacking, labelling, serial number scanning, batch tracking, adding inserts (such as flyers), relabelling and kitting (combining items to create a new item) should be part of a modern logistics provider’s services.

Customs & Duties Processing

Navigating customs and taxes regulations for multiple target countries can be perplexing, a modern logistics partner should also be a specialist in freight customs clearance. Operations such as Direct Injection allow goods to be customs-cleared en route. Bonded Warehouses can keep your goods customs free in-country until delivery.

Returns

E-tailers have the flexibility to define their own strategies by partnering with global logistics providers that support worldwide returns. They can decide if they want their customers to arrange shipping back to a local 3PL, cutting out international shipping rates.

Businesses across the world are taking their products global. We at Borderless360 are on a mission to provide shipping and fulfillment solutions that help ecommerce brands scale into global markets without the headaches, heartaches and hassles. Why not reach out to us today?