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In today’s world, ecommerce has proved to be a blessing for fulfilling all the shopping needs of customers. Have you also thought of creating an online store for ensuring the growth of your business?

If yes, then there are things you should know before you roll up your sleeves and get your work started. The process of receiving an order online and delivering the product to the customer might look easy at the exterior but it requires the involvement of several resources along with continuous efforts.

Just as you have made up your mind of taking your business online, you should have everything pre-planned right from choosing a platform for your online store till managing the logistics.

Do you wish to go for a third party logistics provider or an in-house logistics setup?

Just because you can currently handle your order fulfilment in-house does not mean that it is the smartest long-term solution!

For your convenience, we have brought a set of questions which you should ask before you take a final decision about your logistics.

How many products will you be able to ship in a day?

You are the boss of your business and no one could be more aware of your future goals. If you choose to manage the order fulfilment process in-house then it is necessary to first come up with a proper analysis of your end-to-end order fulfilment process. You may receive 20 orders a day which can be manageable during the initial stages. However, as your business grows, the number of orders may rise from 20 to 200 or 20000. If you think of this situation in near future then we suggest you to better go for a logistics platform provider. This would keep your shipment process streamlined and hassle-free with the help of automated shipping solutions and features like bulk order uploading.

What if you want to deliver to international locations?

Just like the other ecommerce entrepreneurs, you would have also wished to expand your business throughout the globe. Everything that turns out to be big was started small at some point in time. You would have also started by delivering at a domestic level. With time as your business progressed, you wished to target the international customers as well. Managing international shipments with in-house logistics can be hectic and costly. If you wish to ignore the pain of learning all the Do’s and Don'ts along with the required custom documentation and management, we suggest you to go for outsourced logistics. Not only do the third-party logistics providers offer better international shipping rates but they’re also experienced with export and the customs documentation filing that goes with it. Thus your time, efforts and money are saved with a single wise decision.

How will you take care of the entire records of shipments?

As a small business, it would be easy for you to grab a product from your warehouse, pack it, paste a label, generate an invoice and ship instantly. But as your business grows bigger, you may have several products in your warehouse and multiple orders to be shipped. Generating invoices, SKU, manifests and maintaining the entire records for these many orders can be a hectic and time-consuming task altogether. You should go for a platform that is capable enough to meet your logistics needs and maintain the entire process without any errors such that the right product is sent to the right customer at the right time.

How many resources will you allocate?

If you ever find yourself surfing the internet about managing work with a small team then you should understand that it’s time to go for a better plan. You may have a team of 50 people from which you have a logistics team of around 15 people. Growing a profitable business requires a lot of work and every resource is valuable. So why waste resources on creating an in-house logistics department when you can simply outsource the entire operation altogether? Plus an increased number of orders can be a burden on the logistics team of limited members when things are handled manually.

How much budget have you allotted for the in-house logistics system?

Shipping is extraordinarily expensive for small businesses that don’t have the leverage to negotiate better rates. What if the funds that you have managed are not enough as your business and orders go on increasing? You may probably be paying extra costs for your orders. With the increased number of orders, if the profit is not proportional then shipping multiple products in-house can just be a painful task. It is better to go for an affordable third-party logistics provider, get integrated with multiple courier partners and ship easily.

Now that you are well aware of all the questions and answers you need to ask before taking a call on logistics management, you can make a wise decision easily. Choosing a logistics platform provider over an in-house logistics system is always recommended by several ecommerce experts.

So now is the time to pick the most suitable logistics solution for your upcoming business.

Well, we have a suggestion for you.

Why not go for a solution that is completely automated, requires minimal manual intervention, provides integration with the top courier companies and many more?

Why not go for ShipKaro- the leading logistics platform provider in India which is happy to help you will all your shipping issues.

ShipKaro can make your ecommerce shipping experience smooth and hassle-free. Sign up for free and start exploring instantly.