6 Things to Consider When Choosing a Fulfillment Centre Partner
Worried about finding a new fulfillment centre? Don’t be. These 6 factors will put you on the path to selecting the best one for your business.
When spiritual leader Dada Vaswani said that “true success lies in freedom and fulfillment” he probably wasn’t talking about a fulfillment centre. Yet UAE ecommerce businesses that can pick the best fulfillment services out there may find that their own path to success becomes much clearer.
Retail fulfillment is an integral part of a successful ecommerce delivery industry, especially in today’s consumer-focused market. So much so that a projected B2C ecommerce growth figure of 11.2% per year until 2027 in the UAE has prompted market leaders to invest heavily in giant fulfillment centres to give them a competitive edge.
Take the case of Amazon, which in November 2022 had just opened the largest of its kind in the country when competitor Noon marketplace followed up with an even bigger 252,000-square-metre behemoth in Dubai. In short, fulfillment is big business.
This is all well and good, but how is a business like yours supposed to compete with such investment? Especially with so many additional factors to consider, including:
Finding a well-located fulfillment provider that can meet SLA targets and customer experience expectations
Making sure the fulfillment company has the technology and scalability to handle increased order volumes
Deciding whether to outsource or build in-house retail fulfillment and integrating either of them into your own ecommerce platform and inventory management.
It may seem an impossible task, even beyond the powers of a spiritual guru like Mr. Vaswani.
However, UAE online retailers are finding ways to not only track down top-quality fulfillment services but to turn them into a key competitive advantage, too.
What’s more, such an advantage is likely to have a big impact on a UAE ecommerce industry that’s much more fragmented than in the likes of China and the United States.
The UAE’s fragmented ecommerce market
Source: Bain and Company
Small businesses that can stand out from their rivals have the potential to grab a much larger market share. From automation to a service with a smile, this guide aims to show you exactly what you need on your path to superb retail fulfillment.
Want to upgrade your own fulfillment services at a low cost? swftbox’s five-minute registration is one small step toward the giant leap of high-speed deliveries and greater customer satisfaction.
The 6 things to consider when choosing a fulfillment centre
Running an ecommerce business is tough, so the idea of running complete fulfillment centre due diligence may seem out of the question. Where exactly are you going to fit that into an already hectic schedule? The good news is that you can break down this task into six straightforward checkpoints that cover everything you need for an effective fulfillment process.
Let’s get started.
Is the fulfillment centre well-located
The modern delivery industry is built on speed. Noon chose a strategic central location for their Dubai fulfillment site that serves as a launchpad for speedy and cheap deliveries. Yet while we don’t all have Noon’s extraordinary budget that can afford prime real estate, we can get clever.
Choosing a site close to the bulk of your regular customers helps reduce shipping costs and ensure fast delivery times. Finding a centre nestled next to a major transport link (like a highway) can also give your couriers a head start by avoiding congested inner-city secondary roads. Often, a warehouse located on the outskirts of the city is a more sensible choice than a more central competitor. They’re more likely to be paying cheaper overheads, which translates to cost savings that you can pass on to your customers.
Taking these factors into account will lead you to a warehouse located according to your business’s needs rather than the wider community.
2. Can it handle returns?
Of the many trends affecting the UAE ecommerce market right now, the growing importance of an ecommerce returns courier is high on the list. A fulfillment partner that can handle returns is a huge plus. Streamlined returns help to preserve the value of delicate unwanted goods by transporting them back to the warehouse as quickly as possible. It also scores highly with UAE customers, a growing number of which now expect to be able to return goods easily, according to research by ecommerce experts Bain & Company.
A fulfillment centre that has clear policies and procedures for return order processing will help make dealing with this vital business feature much easier. It will help reduce the time and cost of handling returns and ultimately lead to much higher customer satisfaction.
3. Does it fit into your budget?
The golden question. Fulfillment costs can easily eat into your bottom line if left unchecked, yet you also don’t want to cut corners if it means a sub-standard delivery service. When checking out a new provider, it’s good to have the following fees in mind, and they should be readily available upon request:
Onboarding fees: the cost of integrating their system with yours
Storage fees: a charge that includes warehouse space, overheads, and labour power
Processing fees: the cost of handling your incoming stock replenishments
A minimum fee: this may not be apparent, even with transparent providers, but most order fulfillment services will insist on this if you sign up and don’t use their services enough.
A fulfillment centre that has a clear and competitive pricing structure (with no hidden fees or charges) is the only sensible choice here. Being able to plan your costs and avoid unexpected expenses is crucial if you’re on a tight margin.
4. Are its facilities up-to-date?
In an interview with Arabianbusiness.com, Mohamed Alabbar, founder of Noon, spoke of it being their “duty to innovate, invent, and provide the optimal infrastructure for a digital-first future” in the UAE. He mentioned how the new centre would advance the region’s e-commerce infrastructure by introducing new automation technologies. While it’s very easy for the head of one of the industry's biggest players to talk like this, he is right.
Every fulfillment centre in the region, whether the size of Noon or a more humble enterprise will need to have digital tools at the heart of its operations. These will range from warehouse robotics that automatically update stock levels to automated temperature control sensors that keep sensitive items fresh. The whole process will be linked via Internet of Things (IoT) devices that provide transparency all through the supply chain right up to the moment the package lands on the recipient’s doorstep.
A fulfillment service that can provide this technology will give you a formidable headstart over less tech-savvy rivals.
5. Can it back you up with excellent customer service?
Great customer service isn’t just the responsibility of a smiling courier driver or pleasant phone exchanges, but also the people behind the scenes. A fulfillment centre should ensure that its service is responsive and helpful right through the supply chain, with efficient warehousing staff backed up by clear communication channels for order updates. A little bit of digging can tell you a lot about a fulfillment centre’s ability to do this. Search online for glowing reviews. Ask them if they can share any testimonials if you don’t see them on their website. The way they respond to your own requests can also give you useful insight.
Top service from them feeds into higher customer satisfaction. And what does that mean? A better reputation for your business.
6. Can you easily integrate it into your system operations?
Whether outsourcing these services or opting for an in-house system, you’re going to need to know how to integrate the new fulfillment services into your business’s operations. The high cost of doing this is why methods like dropshipping have become so popular. Small ecommerce companies don’t need to manage their inventory this way, they just forward the order directly to the supplier without worrying about shipping or fulfillment costs.
Small businesses that use platforms like Shopify will already know how this works, yet there are more sophisticated solutions out there that provide a more rounded approach. These digital logistics services go miles further than dropshipping by hooking you up to an existing high-speed, high-tech fulfillment network in just minutes.
In just a few clicks, you can integrate your store, rev up your customer order processing, and even have access to multiple ecommerce fulfillment centres.
Why swftbox’s in-house fulfillment ticks (and packs) all the boxes
Outsourcing your own fulfillment service to a third-party logistics (3PL) provider may seem like a weight off your shoulders, but many retailers are finding that they feel a loss of control in doing so, with inventory and shipping processes kept at arm’s length.
This extra step can also make it difficult to address issues in real time, not to mention additional onboarding and admin expenses that can pile up quickly. Yet advances in logistics technology are making these issues a thing of the past, and swftbox is at the forefront of a wave of new ecommerce delivery solutions that provide you with an integrated fulfillment centre at your fingertips.
With swftbox’s easy integration into your existing systems, the location of your warehouses ceases to be an issue. Instead, they come to you.
Integrate your storefront to a host of ecommerce platforms (including Shopify and WooCommerce), POS systems, and warehouse management systems.
You get instant access to a strong network of swftbox fulfillment centres from your very first order. These are strategically located and our system will automatically pick out the best one for your delivery, bringing you multiple instant benefits.
First, you’ll see a dramatic cost saving because you’ll get the best-placed centre. A shorter distance means less distance to travel and a lower chance of delays, keeping expenses to a minimum. These are in addition to the onboarding and admin costs you’ll save from not outsourcing in the first place.
Second, having this choice of fulfillment centres makes our bullet delivery service possible. Raising same-day delivery up a notch, we can get packages to your customers in 2 to 4 hours directly from the closest warehouse. Drivers can wait right up to the day’s cut-off point and still get your deliveries dropped off on time. The same applies to the reverse process, too, with an in-built returns courier able to get unwanted products back to the warehouse as quickly as possible.
Third, shorter delivery times means your customer will get their items in the best condition possible. Your products will benefit from state-of-the-art warehouse technology which uses automated stock inventory (including SKUs) that keeps supplies up-to-date and temperature sensors to keep them in optimal conditions.
When they leave or return to the warehouse, AI technology will build the smartest route for your drivers via an in-built machine-learning algorithm. Apart from your own access to full account management, you’ll also see how our tech improves your customer’s experience.
The swftbox app will give them access to a transparent supply chain via real-time GPS updates, automated SMS messages, and an in-built live chat feature that keeps them in touch with our team of professionals. Your customers will get a full overview from the moment they choose from one of our convenient time slots, which they can update at any point.
Other customer perks, such as contactless payments ‒ subject to a 78% surge in demand in the UAE following the pandemic ‒ and cash on delivery are much easier to carry out, thanks to inbuilt payment mechanisms. The result of all this? More successful deliveries, fewer customer complaints, and an enhanced reputation for your business. All at the fraction of the cost of a 3PL provider.
Ready to access your very own network of ecommerce fulfillment centres? Sign up to swftbox in just five minutes to scale up your delivery process, boost customer satisfaction and save money.
