Shipping guide
The leaves are turning that stunning orange-red color, and every coffee shop from Starbucks to your local favorite is suddenly serving pumpkin spice lattes. You know what that means - it’s fall. With fall comes the inevitable acronym: BF/CM. BF/CM obviously stands for Black Friday/Cyber Monday - which equals one of the hottest sales events of the whole year. This year, Black Friday falls on the 26th of November.
Reflecting on last year’s sales hurdle, do you feel there is room for improvement in order fulfillment and shipping? Do you want to ensure fast and cost-efficient shipping? Do you want to have a hassle-free and secure order fulfillment process this year?
Outsourcing may be your answer. Outsourcing e-commerce order fulfillment to a professional 3PL partner is your way out to smoother and more efficient shipping.
Third-party logistics, or 3PL, is essential for an efficient e-commerce supply chain. When it comes to the BF/CM madness, you’ll want to consider the benefits 3PL partners can provide.
Storage and shipping costs are usually massive when it comes to e-commerce retailers. Working with a 3PL partner eliminates or reduces so much:
3PL companies typically have relationships with carriers, which means discounted shipping prices that are relayed to customers.
In addition, one of our strengths is that we operate out of various locations, which means you can have the option to multi-warehouse and ship products from the closest facility to the customer. Customers get their products quicker, and you pay less.
Many online stores are unable to invest in walls and shelves, so avoid all that with a 3PL partner! You won’t have to tie up your capital in warehousing space and staff.
Take advantage of your 3PL partner’s pre-negotiated logistics contracts. 3PL companies can provide a vast selection of delivery companies and delivery methods for you - and your customers - to choose from.
Maybe August, September, and October are relatively slow. You’re fulfilling the average amount of orders, if not less. Then suddenly, November (or late November) hits, and suddenly you’re overwhelmed with a massive inflow of orders. Seasonal variation in demand can be severe for small and medium-sized e-commerce businesses. Hiring a workforce that can handle the holiday rush demand can be challenging, too.
By partnering with a 3PL company, you can leave that worry behind. It’s up to the 3PL partner to see that there is enough staff to pick, pack, and ship your orders in the SLA they have agreed on.
Picking, packing, and shipping are all essential parts of e-commerce, but managers should have time for more important things. Outsourcing to a 3PL partner saves crucial time that you can use to scale and grow your business.
Book a free consultancy call. Our e-commerce expert will give you insight on how to maximize your Black Friday sales, but minimize the order fulfillment hassle.
OGOship is a 3PL company specializing in e-commerce businesses. Many e-commerce businesses have a hard time coping with seasonal variations of demand. We’ll help you optimize your supply chain, speed up delivery times, and reduce costs. Follow these seven easy steps, and you will soon be focusing on the critical aspects of your business - growth.
Step 1
Contact our e-commerce specialists to get a quote that is tailored to your needs.
With our global network of warehouses, all OGOship customers get access to multiple locations for storage. Entering the global market is super easy with us.
Beyond storing your goods in various warehouse locations, you also get to sell your products in several online stores using only one inventory. One Order Management System manages everything.
We are partnered with various delivery service companies, including DHL, GLS, UPS, budbee, and DB Schenker.
Once we know how many items you'd be shipping, the size, weight, and target markets, we'll be able to provide you with price lists.
Step 2
Choosing to outsource can be a big decision on your part. Do you need help to pick, pack, and ship your products? Should you do it now? Maybe later? The choice is yours.
If you want to partner with OGOship, move on to the next step.
Step 3
Don't worry about the contracts between you and OGOship - that's the quick and easy part. However, if you are a new business or you haven't yet sorted out your paperwork after the July 2021 EU VAT changes, you'll need to get that done. There's a lot of Cross-border shipping and selling paperwork you'll need to take care of, including:
These documents, including any others you may need to fill out, take time, depending on the country where you sell your products. Please do not underestimate the time it will take to fill out all the required paperwork. So, for this part, if you want to be ready for Black Friday, there kinda is a hurry.
TIP: Our onboarding team will make sure you have covered all the necessary paperwork. And, if there is a need to consult a VAT compliance specialist, we have a partnership with Simply VAT with discounted prices. We recommend that you discuss your current VAT setup already in the meeting with our e-commerce specialist to get things progressing as soon as possible.
Step 4
There are over twenty ready-to-go integrations to the most popular e-commerce platforms that are easy to install. You need to set up your merchant profile after integrating your e-commerce platform into the myOGO order management system. Our onboarding team is here to help you.
Step 5
The next phase is to get the actual goods to the warehouse or multiple warehouses to store your goods in. If you choose multiple warehouses, you'll be able to store your goods in various locations while selling from a singular store.
Preparing your products for shipping is a critical step in the process. Basically, it decides whether the whole process will be easy or not.
TIP: The best practice for packing the products is to include one type of SKU per parcel and mark each parcel clearly with the SKU it contains: what's inside and how many items there are. By doing this, you'll make sure that the inbounding of your goods runs smoothly, and you save money on the inbounding.
Also, remember that all SKU's should, by default, have a scannable barcode, such as an EAN-code. If you currently don't have a scannable barcode on your merchandise, your first point of contact is the supplier to discuss this.
Once the items are packed and ready to go, remember to inform us via myOGO, so we can be ready for your products.
As always, our onboarding team is here to guide you through this whole process.
Step 6
When the products arrive at the warehouse, we unload and process them. Your e-commerce store's stock will be updated accordingly. At this point, we'll spend some time testing to ensure that everything works. You should run a couple test orders to yourself using different carrier options to verify that everything works properly.
TIP: We suggest you reserve at least four working days for testing.
Step 7
Testing has finished, and now it's time to start selling your products - all in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
As much as we’d like to say that it’s all just plug and play, instantaneous and ready-to-go, it hardly ever works like that.
It pays off to save some time and do things the smart way. So, if you want to sell and ship through OGOship by the next holiday season, there really is no time to waste. Get in touch.
Ready to learn more? Our experts will answer any questions you may have on how to get started, what the key features are, which warehouse locations bring your e-commerce business the maximum benefit.
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