Starting a business is an exciting adventure for many entrepreneurs, but with vast and continuous growth comes much bigger challenges. When a business starts to gain more traction and sales, new factors come into play and certain parts of your operations need to be re-evaluated. Sometimes, it may not be obvious but the signs are always there. Try asking yourself:
Have I been experiencing a massive increase in orders?
Are hiccups and errors in logistics and fulfillment becoming more frequent?
Is my inventory starting to become more disorganized?
Talking to business owners of small and medium-sized enterprises, I asked them about the common situations they found themselves in that made them realize it was time to look for a fulfillment and logistics partner to maintain and continue growing their business.
Your room is doubling as a warehouse
You are starting to lose the distinction between your personal space and your business space. Products are in the way of your belongings no matter how much you keep trying to reorganize things.
Your inventory isn’t adding up
You are beginning to lose track of your products as your “warehouse” is also your living space. Have you experienced having to rush orders from your supplier because of insufficient stock on hand? How about having to tell a customer that their chosen item is actually unavailable? It is essential that you keep tabs on your products, stock, and ensure your inventory is replenished and meets the demands.
You are seeing an increase in customer complaints
An upsurge in orders means a rise in the number of customers. You are starting to receive different kinds of requests for various orders and it may be difficult to keep up at times. Customers are starting to complain about delays in shipment and delivery or the wrong item being delivered.
You start to worry because customers usually lose interest in a company with just one bad experience. While it’s important to manage these complaints, concerns, and feedback with thoughtful customer service, you also want to avoid receiving them in the first place.
You are spending too much on shipping and delivery
When you limit your warehouse to your own home, you also limit where you can ship to. Farther locations incur more expensive fees and while you want to reach as many customers as possible, it’s just impossible to avoid spending more on shipping. More and more customers expect free delivery and faster shipping leading to rising competition. Customers tend to lose interest fast when they see the high shipping costs but with your stock stored in only one place. Your shipping budget is starting to get bigger and some customers lose interest because of the high shipping costs from your address.
If you’ve reached this point, you need help! You need a partner to help you keep up with your expanding business.
LOCAD is a logistics, warehousing, and fulfillment company that aims to empower small businesses by providing an easy and affordable way to manage your products from picking, packing, and shipping your orders to planning the future of your business. They also provide safe and efficient fulfillment centers to organize your stock, manage your inventory, and ship these for as low as P30 per item! And no, that’s not the best part, you are also able to easily keep track of your products all in the palm of your hand on the LOCAD platform.
