Unlike traditional retail, ecommerce businesses aren’t restricted to local or regional customers. But launching into new markets and navigating the complexities of international fulfilment can be a challenge. 

Additional costs, such as customs and import duties, make international shipping significantly more expensive than domestic, which also puts you at a disadvantage compared to domestic brands. Without the expertise and experience needed to launch into new markets, it can cause a lot of headaches for you and your team. 

Fortunately, many of these challenges can be minimised with the help of an experienced third-party logistics (3PL) company. A tech-enabled 3PL with an international distribution footprint can help you reduce shipping costs and transit times, so you can attract an international customer base. 

ShipBob is an international 3PL. With our global fulfilment network powered by our proprietary technology, you can split inventory across fulfilment centres. For instance, if you ship orders all over Europe, including Berlin, you can store inventory in our Poland fulfilment centre on the border of Poland and Germany. That way, you save on costs while reducing last-mile delivery times.

“As we’ve grown internationally and in our general order volume, we’ve seen satisfaction go up. ShipBob was a key player and significant partner in helping manage what became unmanageable when we were shipping orders out ourselves.”

Matt Dryfhout, Founder & CEO of BAKblade

Berlin 3PL Services

ShipBob has a fulfilment centre location in Poland near the border between Germany and Poland, which helps to reduce the costs of shipping orders to Berlin-based customers and across Europe. ShipBob’s team works alongside you to make sure inventory shipped to our international location is done right. Once you sync your store with our technology and send us your inventory, orders placed on your store will be sent to ShipBob to be picked, packed, and shipped. Read on on to learn more about our ecommerce fulfilment capabilities.

Simplified international shipping

ShipBob has helped hundreds of ecommerce businesses ship thousands of international packages to every continent. We partner with major mail carriers, and our software automatically searches for the most affordable and fastest route for each package. Our team of experts also work with you to navigate the ins and outs of international fulfilment and shipping, including customs, import duties, and having the proper documentation to fulfil and ship orders outside of the US, and vice versa. 

Built-in order and inventory management

ShipBob’s platform comes with built-in order and inventory management software that allows you to closely track inventory levels at each location, view order status in real-time, identify slow-moving inventory, set reorder points to avoid stockouts, and much more. You can also manage subscriptions, make changes to your orders post-purchase, map your store’s shipping options to ShipBob, and automatically share tracking information with your customers. 

Distributed inventory

If you want to ship orders to Berlin-based customers but you operate outside of Germany, you can bulk ship your inventory to ShipBob’s Poland fulfilment centre, and we’ll ship to Berlin from there. If you also have US-based customers, we have a robust network of fulfilment centres nationwide. The more shipping zones a package must travel through to reach its destination, the more expensive it will be to ship. Distributing inventory is a great way to expand your customer reach while keeping shipping costs low. 

Why ShipBob is the best 3PL for US & European fulfilment

Scaling an ecommerce company can be a challenging endeavor — especially if you’re trying to expand internationally. ShipBob can help you get started with international fulfilment, so you can focus on more important tasks like product development, marketing, and customer service. 

Expand your customer reach

Sunglasses company Ombraz started with ShipBob in two ShipBob fulfilment centres (in the US and Canada), and they ship to 55 countries on 7 continents. We handle the details of ecommerce fulfilment, so they can focus on expanding their international customer base.

“We are all about the entire customer experience, so international shipping is very important to us. We ship to 55 different countries and all 50 states. When I found out ShipBob was expanding into both Canada and Europe, I knew we wanted to expand our physical footprint with them.”

Nikolai Paloni, Co-Founder of Ombraz Sunglasses

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Lower shipping costs

Canada-based luxury bath brand Bathorium needed a 3PL with a strong US presence, so they partnered with ShipBob. They were able to reduce shipping costs, expedite transit times, and increase conversions.

“Our greatest barrier was how expensive it was to ship from Canada, costing about 50% of our average order value. We spent anywhere from $18 to $25 for a one-pound shipment, and it would take a minimum of 7-10 business days to reach the destination. Since working with ShipBob, we’ve seen a 70% reduction in shipping costs.”

Greg MacDonald, CEO & founder of Bathorium

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Higher conversion rates

High shipping costs are one of the biggest causes of cart abandonment. One of the easiest ways to improve your conversion rates is to offer lower shipping rates. Bathorium, a Canadian-based luxury bath brand, was able to break into the US-market by offering affordable shipping. 

“We partnered with ShipBob to scale up operations in the United States. We’ve seen a reduction of 70% on shipping costs in the US, which helps keep conversions high.”

Greg MacDonald, CEO & Founder of Bathorium

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Are you ready to outsource order fulfilment with a 3PL?

Outsourcing fulfilment is a big decision and there is no ‘right’ time to partner with a 3PL. However, if you do it too soon, you’ll end up spending too much on fulfilment costs due to low order volume. But too late, and you’ll end up missing out on opportunities for growth. Here are some of the most common scenarios that a 3PL can help with:

• Paying too much for shipping. 
• Disorganised warehouses or inventory that results in stockouts or deadstock.
• Too many errors with fulfilment (Note: If this is happening with your current 3PL, consider switching 3PLs sooner than later). 
• Wanting to expand into new international markets but not having the expertise or resources to do so.
• Too much time and energy spent on fulfilment.

Ready to get started with an international 3PL? Fill out the form below to request a quote from ShipBob. We will be in touch to discuss custom pricing and how ShipBob works.

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