Start Prepping Your Warehousing and Shipping Services For the Holidays: The 3 Most Important Steps

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Warehousing and Shipping Services

Before you know it, the holidays will be here. How do they seem to sneak up on us every year? The year seems to fast track during the autumn months and then the holidays are upon us…whether you’re ready or not.

This year can be different, though. With the right tools and support, you can begin to prep your warehousing and shipping service for the holidays in advance so that you’re never left in the lurch when demand is high.

Step 1: do you outsource?

This is a biggie. It’s quite easy to firmly believe that you and your small in-house team can complete the fulfillment process with ease and efficiency. But most times that’s just not the case. There will be recurring issues and, simply put, things will be much harder than they need to be.

Break through your mold and begin to research how outsourcing your warehousing and shipping services could benefit your business. It’s not impossible to find a partner that is willing to cater to your unique business needs and wants, but your standards must be high. There’s no time for settling, especially during the holiday season. We know your customers just won’t have it.

So grade your current fulfillment efforts with this quiz to see where you can improve. Then begin your search on how to choose the perfect fulfillment partner for you. We’ll give you a hint: they better be the highest-quality customer-oriented professional team of experts there ever was. If they’re not, you’re simply not living up to your potential. Trust us.

Step 2: re-vamp your warehouse services

This one goes hand in hand with outsourcing; if you can improve your warehousing and shipping services by involving a third party, you should. But whether you fulfill your logistics in-house or via outsourcing, make sure your warehouse checks all the boxes.

Without these essentials, your holiday season as a business is likely to be messy and costly. But with order accuracy and near-perfect execution, your customers are sure to be satisfied.

Here’s what you can’t live without:

• Warehousing facilities that protect your merchandise from theft and damage.
• A fulfillment partner that can provide specialized, customized services – kitting, assembly, subscription boxing, gift wrapping, and so on.
• Branding and presentation; a box that doesn’t promote your business is a wasted opportunity. On the other hand, a package that turns unboxing into an exciting event is a golden opportunity to wow your customer and build loyalty.
• A fulfillment partner that is prepared to comfortably take expected volume fluctuations in stride. They’re on their toes and ready to respond to the unexpected, too – without sacrificing customer care. The right partner is also capable of scaling upward to keep pace with you as your company grows into the future.

Step 3: re-vamp your shipping services

Just like your warehousing services, your shipping services need to be on time or ahead of schedule. Let’s face it, it’s the holiday season. If you can’t get orders into the hands of your customers on time, you’re done for.

So don’t miss out on a warehousing partner that has your back and will pay ongoing attention to the details that go into boxing and shipping orders. They will always look for efficiencies that help you avoid overpaying for dimensional weighting, for example. And they’ll pass along to you the low rates they have negotiated with carriers.

We think it might be time for you to partner up with the best. Interested? Give us a call, we’d love to chat.