30 Day Free Trial For MCF/FBA Shipping! Use Code 30_days
Still Have a Question?
We're here to help!
Monday-Friday 9AM to 6PM Eastern US time
Time to read: 5 minutes
Do you find it difficult to decide between in-house and outsourced fulfillment? Perhaps you are considering Amazon’s FBA? After all, each of these options has its pros and cons. In this article, we will focus on the advantages of 3PL. What are they? Read on to learn the answer!
Outsourced fulfillment, also known as third-party fulfillment (3PL), is a popular option among Amazon and Shopify sellers, and it is so for a reason. This solution has a plethora of advantages when compared to in-house fulfillment, so it shouldn’t be surprising that it’s frequently chosen by e-commerce owners. What are the benefits of 3PL? You’ll find the most important ones summarized below.
Outsourced fulfillment will almost always be more reliable and faster than in-house fulfillment, at least at the start. This is because companies offering it are experts in logistics—they have already optimized their procedures.
If you choose in-house fulfillment instead, you will need time to learn and design the whole process. This time, however, might cost you a drop in customer satisfaction or an increase in operational costs.
When working with an outsourced fulfillment provider, you get to choose the carriers and negotiate the prices. On the one hand, this means that the prices are dynamic—you need to adjust them efficiently in your store to avoid imposing hidden delivery costs on the customers. On the other hand, this means that you get to select the best offer every time, which can help you reduce the shipping costs for your customers and gain an advantage over your competitors.
Third-party fulfillment providers often offer additional services. These may include:
This level of customization would be much harder to achieve if you were to fulfill your orders in-house.
An outsourced fulfillment provider has all the technology and equipment they need for your orders. On the other hand, if you were to fulfill orders in-house, you would need to invest in all of that on your own. In the end, this means that you can work with 3PL without having to pour a lot of financial resources into it—you pay just for the completed orders.
Scalability is perhaps the most crucial of the benefits of outsourced fulfillment services. If your business experiences a sales peak (or a drop), you simply get…fewer orders fulfilled. On the other hand, if you do this in-house, you might lack the manpower, technology, or experience to manage higher demand, and it takes time to acquire or all that—you cannot react dynamically to the changes in the market.
Warehouses, fulfillment centers, and many more—you need proper infrastructure to run your fulfillment operations. With outsourced services, you don’t have to worry about that—it all comes in a bundle!
FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) is a type of outsourced fulfillment conducted by Amazon to Amazon sellers. It’s seamlessly integrated. It’s not as customizable as other 3PLs, but it’s simple, with a clear pricing structure and good customer support. Should you use it?
In our opinion, yes. It’s easily integrated with other services, and using it gives you access to Amazon Prime shoppers, as they might be tempted to purchase your products purely because they are members of this program. Even Shopify sellers can benefit from it—you just need the right tools.
For instance, with our Amazon MCF app, you can easily sync your Shopify store and Amazon store into a single database. Thanks to this, you can have your Shopify orders fulfilled as part of FBA, eliminating the need for other providers.
All you have to do is have a Professional Amazon Seller account and stock your products in their warehouses—you don’t have to be actively selling your products in this channel. Plus, you know what to expect from Amazon, while with other suppliers, you might be uncertain of their quality and reliability. Thus, we highly recommend this outsourced fulfillment service.
Is outsourced fulfillment always the best option, or are there benefits to resigning from such services and fulfilling orders on your own? Well, if your budget allows for a high initial investment and you have excellent experts at hand, you might consider in-house fulfillment. Yet, in most cases, you will benefit more from outsourced fulfillment—especially if you sell your products cross-border, where investing in facilities in each target country would simply be too expensive. In the end, you should juxtapose the pros and cons of both options and decide which one is better specifically for your business.
You may also read: Selling FBA Products and Manually Fulfilled Products on Shopify
About the author
We're here to help!
Monday-Friday 9AM to 6PM Eastern US time
Call us
Email Us anytime
Live Chat in real-time 
Schedule a Video Call
READ
