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Do you want to transition your small business to a more efficient ordering and shipping model? Most small businesses start out spending a lot of time on their order management but must streamline as they grow. And one big part of this streamlining process is to outsource fulfillment to professionals. How can this simple move streamline your entire operation? Here are a few key ways. 

1. Your Space Needs Are Reduced

Small businesses that sell goods are often filled with inventory in various states of production and storage. This takes a lot of physical space. So, in addition to managing the actual inventory, you must also manage all the room you need to handle it. When you get rid of this need, you can downsize your operation, overhead expense, and time investment. 

2. You Have Fewer Returns

The time you spend dealing with returns and shipping errors is wasted time in the sales world. You've already made that sale, but you must now spend more time fixing it. Professional logistics companies' processes are designed to reduce errors in the first place. And when something happens, they handle the extra work. 

3. You Can Focus on Other Improvements

If you use professionals to handle the fulfillment of orders, you can put your efforts into other needs of the business. Where could you spend your time if you didn't have to babysit inventory, packaging, and shipping? The options are endless — from bettering your bookkeeping to cultivating larger client pools — and they can lead to improvements throughout the business. 

4. Professionals Are Efficient

Third party logistics suppliers focus only on the professional, efficient handling of goods and getting them where they need to be on time. Their operation is inherently more efficient than most small sellers can be, both through better processes and working in bulk. Therefore, you aren't paying someone to spend the same amount of time as you would but rather to spend less time than you would. 

5. It Increases Integration

Because you tap into the fulfillment center's management system, you start receiving information that you may not have had access to on your own. You get detailed reports, can monitor activity and history, see statistics, and use professional software. All this gives you more power to streamline your operations. For instance, you may finally be able to see the pattern in how one of your products actually sells — information you can use to plan production in the future. 

Clearly, the move to outsourced fulfillment services can have a ripple effect that helps streamline your small operation in many ways. Want to learn more? Start by visiting a high quality fulfillment provider today.