There is no need here to describe about the growth of e-commerce as you already witnessed the upsurge of it over the last decade. As e-commerce continues its exponential growth, the need for flexible and effective logistic and warehousing also keep up in pace with it. Manufacturers and the marketers are on constant look out for an efficient distribution network as a key operational entity to fulfil the supply chain needs.

Lately, majority of the manufacturers and wholesalers are simply outsourcing their warehousing and fulfillment needs to reliable service providers in this sector. As business owners, they are trying to assign this important operational function to experts in the competitive realm of warehousing. With the developments happening in this arena, you can take it this way that modern technological warehousing is going to be the future of e‑Commerce.

Third party (3PL) providers

Warehousing and fulfillment services which provides the most efficient warehousing inventory management and fulfillment of orders for manufacturers and bulk resellers are termed as 3PL providers. Unlike the conventional trading practices, the major advantage e-commerce offers to the consumers is their power to compare different products easily and instantly with the help of technology, which puts a high price pressure at retailer prices as never before. In this tight situation, the key to maintain a good profit margin and market demand depend fully on the efficiency of supply chain, where 3PL’s play a vital role.

With the modern warehousing methods, you need not be restricted to a single customer. There are multiple seasonal curves in terms of the inventory requirement of various clients. The fluctuating inventory levels among a fair group of reliable e-commerce clients will offer aggregate utilization of space requirements and enhance the returns without idle time in warehousing business for the smart service providers.

In view of the manufacturers and distributors, making use of a flexible warehousing service provider will allow ramping up the inventory when needed, and they also need not bear the square footage kind of requirements during off-peak seasons. Offering best benefits to both the sides, this is a successful warehousing model adopted by many.

Drop ship fulfillment in e-commerce

For majority of the manufacturers and dealers, it is tricky job to select 3PL and logistic partners to perfectly meet the direct-to-consumer order fulfillment needs. In this case, the partner should be a ‘multi-service under one roof’ to take care of warehousing, picking, packing and delivering items to end consumers in order fulfillment. From a warehousing service provider’s point of view, three keys to success in this regard are;

• Accuracy
• Efficiency and
• Speed

Technology

Technology is the last word in effective warehousing and fulfillment now. While supporting the most IT-intensive service like e-commerce, no wonder that technology plays a vital role in effective fulfillment of the commercial services too. Inventory administration, picking, packing, to delivery everything is now done with the help of logistics and warehouse automation.

There are various Supply Chain Management Systems (SCMS) available now in terms of effective logistics and warehouse automation for enhanced efficiency and error-free operations. Technology also ensures huge cost saving by decreasing man hours as well as by eradicating human errors.