Fulfillment Center Outsourcing: Choosing CX Over Price For 2018

When it comes to fulfillment center outsourcing, you will have to decide if customer experience is more important to you than price.

Fulfillment Center

Your CFO wants to “run a tighter ship” in 2018. She expects you to streamline fulfillment center operations. Cut costs. Do more with less. You know the drill. And you understand her concerns. But you also know that sacrificing customer experience brings a price your company cannot afford.

Meanwhile, your competition is gearing up for another great year in 2018. Are you going to allow them to steal business from you, by focusing solely on low-priced fulfillment? Or are you going to prove to your customers – again – that their entire buying experience with you is non-negotiable?

You can please your customers and your CFO, too

If your only concern is lowest price, you’ll get what you pay for. Your fulfillment center will probably do a decent job most of the time. But don’t expect them to scramble at the last minute to meet suddenly-high volume. Certainly not without suddenly-higher costs. And don’t expect your customers to be thrilled if their ordering and package delivery service doesn’t live up to your brand’s reputation.

If things slip too badly, your competition is going to look a lot better.

The costs associated with mediocre/poor fulfillment center services can be almost too awful to contemplate. But contemplate them you must:

• Delayed deliveries irritate customers
• Incorrect orders, incomplete orders, and damaged goods all irritate customers
• Returns cost your company in dollars and reputation
• When customers have had enough, they go elsewhere

Choosing value is a better investment.

Instead of toting the costs of cheapest-possible fulfillment, you could choose a fulfillment center that offers fair, value-driven pricing. Then you could be delivering exceptional customer experiences. With the right partner, you can:

• Increase average spend per sale
• Increase repeat sales (more customers buying more often)
• Increase Customer Lifetime Value
• Attract new customers, thanks to increased brand awareness and loyal customer-advocates

These things transform fulfillment from an operations expense to a revenue-producer. Your CFO will swoon.

New year, new opportunity

No matter how great your products and fulfillment process have been this year, 2018 turns a new page. Past performance strengthens your brand, but it’s just history. To retain customers and grow your business, you need to continuously improve customer experience. That’s our world now.

And if your fulfillment center failed to wow your customers this year, take heart. You can resolve to choose customer experience over mere price in 2018.