Ecommerce businesses often have just a single fulfillment center located near their headquarters. This becomes problematic if you are using a Boston fulfillment center but a lot of your customers live a far distance from there (e.g., on the West Coast). Shipping to customers in California, for instance, will be costly because you’re shipping to the highest shipping zones, and transit times will be long.
ShipBob uses a model called distributed inventory to solve this problem. Partner with ShipBob and you gain access to our network of fulfillment centers strategically located across the US, including one in the Northeast. Store your products according to where your customers are, instead of always shipping long distances from a Boston fulfillment center.
As a result, your shipping costs go down and you can offer affordable 2-day shipping to all of your customers. Read on to find out exactly how ShipBob can do this for your ecommerce business.
What do ecommerce sellers have to say?
Hear from an ecommerce merchant using ShipBob’s fulfillment services on how to choose a fulfillment center based on your customers’ geography, not necessarily yours.
“Using my order history, I can understand which ShipBob warehouse I should use next and leverage their locations all over the US as my company continues to expand. The numbers pull through easily and keep me informed.”
Tracey Wallace, Founder of Doris Sleep
ShipBob’s Boston fulfillment services
ShipBob has helped thousands of businesses fulfill millions of orders to customers all over the world. We’ve helped large businesses maintain growth and small businesses grow faster. Here’s how ecommerce fulfillment with ShipBob works:
- Connect your store to ShipBob’s technology via pre-existing integrations.
- Ship your products to our fulfillment centers based on where your customers are located.
- ShipBob receives notification when an order is placed at your store and the order is forwarded to the optimal fulfillment center. Then, the order is picked, packed, and shipped.
End-to-end order management
Follow each step of the fulfillment process from your ShipBob dashboard. Control inventory and see when orders are placed in real-time, monitor outstanding orders, let customers automatically track their orders, and find exactly what you need.
Detailed inventory oversight
Ecommerce businesses need to know exactly how much product they have at each fulfillment center to ensure there’s always enough product to fulfill orders. ShipBob’s technology lets you manage your inventory virtually, calculate safety stock, and set reorder points, so you’ll be instantly notified when you need more product.
[More on inventory management]
Actionable analytics
ShipBob generates insightful reports that can inform and improve your business strategy. Track and forecast inventory with streamlined inventory reporting. Gain insights into what your customers are buying, how much inventory you’ll need to keep up, and other distribution metrics that help you understand how to optimize your supply chain to be more efficient.
[More on on ShipBob’s analytics]
What makes ShipBob the best Boston ecommerce fulfillment option
Where other third-party logistics (3PLs) providers use outdated, clunky technology, ShipBob uses proprietary software that streamlines every aspect of order fulfillment and integrates with your existing ecommerce platform and/or marketplace channels. Our goal isn’t just to handle shipping for you, but to make a critical difference in growing your business.
Your customers get 2-day shipping
The ability to offer affordable 2-day shipping can make or break an ecommerce business in this day and age. The reduced inventory carrying costs and faster transit times that you get through ShipBob means you can offer 2-day shipping via ground to shorter distances without having to use costly expedited air shipping.
Health and wellness brand Synchro partnered with ShipBob and was able to offer guaranteed 2-day ground shipping to 80% of their entire customer base. This not only reduces cart abandonment, but also increase conversions on site. ShipBob’s Shopify integration enables the seamless fulfillment of 3,000 orders each month.
You save time and manpower
Packing boxes and shipping packages is hardly the most fruitful way to spend your time. When food storage brand Food Huggers went viral, they needed to focus on aspects other than fulfillment. They were able to rely on ShipBob as a trusted fulfillment partner to meet the 798% increase in order volume and fulfill 97.3% of the orders on time, allowing them to achieve 497% growth in sales month over month.
Average order value goes up
Overly-expensive or slow shipping options deter customers from purchasing. When customers can get their products faster at an affordable rate by spending a little more money, they’ll likely add items to their cart. Don’t take our word for it: sunglasses brand Rainbow OPTX partnered with ShipBob and their average order value (AOV) went up 24%.
Integrate ShipBob with your stack
ShipBob’s partner ecosystem can rapidly expand your capabilities in anything from financing and taxes to packaging and marketing. Here’s a selection of our partnerships.
Ecommerce stores:
- Squarespace
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- eBay
- Amazon
- And more!
Shipping carriers:
Branded packaging vendors:
Is your Boston-based ecommerce business ready to outsource order fulfillment?
Ecommerce businesses are usually most passionate about their products, but not so much about the ins and outs of shipping and fulfillment logistics. The logistical challenges of getting packages to your customers’ doors quickly and affordably can be overwhelming for many ecommerce businesses.
That’s where a 3PL comes in. If any of the following sound familiar, then outsourcing fulfillment to a 3PL can help your business take the next step:
- You want more efficient warehousing and inventory management systems.
- You want to improve average order value and convert more sales.
- You want to expand your business’ shipping reach but lack the infrastructure or resources.
- You are using a single Boston fulfillment warehouse and want to ship faster and cheaper to customers across the country.
Ready to get started with ShipBob? Fill out the form below to speak with a fulfillment expert.
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