The truth is not all companies are created equal. It’s the same with 3pl fulfilment services. When you analyse a company, break it down into parts, and decide how it compares to other companies, only then can you make an intelligent and informed decision. PaakPOD makes managing your inventory and delivering your products easy, driving better reviews from more satisfied customers.
Running your own eCommerce business is exciting – especially when you start turning a profit! However, you must be prepared when sales start to skyrocket and the demand for your products increases. Launching a beautiful online store and creating branded products that your customers absolutely love is only the beginning.
In this article, you will learn how PaakPOD is innovating 3pl fulfilment with our tech-first approach. Unlike the old-school methodology, we’ve built our system from the ground up to be just as nimble and dynamic as your eCommerce store. We want to walk you through the great benefits we can offer your online business and why you should consider partnering with PaakPOD fulfilment services.
3PL
PaakPOD is the UK’s most accurate third-party logistics provider that supports eCommerce business with order fulfilment. From sale to final mile delivery PaakPOD is at the forefront of technology and warehouse logistics innovation. An award-winning service that has been publicly recognised by the logistical operations industry time and again. We partner with some of the most exciting brands in the eCommerce space, and we want to bring that same success to you.
We will pick and pack your products, manage your product inventory, and ship them directly to your customers. As a tech-first 3pl, we process faster with more organisation than you could ever hope to achieve self-fulfilling. You want your business to be a success. We want your business to be a success, which is why we work diligently with our partners to execute all their needs and requests. We listen to our partners and then deliver upgraded features that help sellers reach growth targets.
TECH FORWARD APPROACH
Where the old-school approach of logistics has failed in the past, emerging technology combined with smart processes has revolutionized the logistics industry. Being at the vanguard of technology is crucial for b2b and b2c in the 21st century. Prioritizing the entire journey of product fulfilment can often be overlooked by business owners. Focusing on sales but lacking in fast delivery can negatively impact the customer experience.
Tech lead fulfilment speeds up delivery practices for your business to deliver products faster and smarter. Slow service and disgruntled customers are your business’s last needs when trying to scale operations.
By pointing out some of the typical vulnerabilities in supply chain management, PaakPOD was able to evolve the entire process with data-driven solutions. Our dynamic built-in tools allow our digital systems to easily align inventory tracking into our warehouse operations. From product absorption to final mile delivery, our fulfilment operations can be tracked from a desktop or mobile device.
Using smarter software, we have implemented time-saving practices during our pick and pack processes that help reduce typical warehouse errors such as missing items and slow dispatch speeds. Because of these safeguards, we have maintained a 99.9% pick accuracy rate since our inception. This is the type of focus, core competency, and careful attention to detail sellers need to partner with to delight customers from the store to door.
Our 3pl mobile solutions, combined with smart business practices like state-of-the-art scanners and using QR codes instead of bar codes, deliver more information to our network rapidly. Having the unique ability to deliver quick status updates with inventory offers our clients complete transparency throughout the supply network at all times. Rest assured that your service expectations will be met, and your customer’s satisfaction will be evident by all your new delivery-focused reviews. From warehouse to seller, benefits like this improve efficiency and sales.
By embracing technological solutions, you reduce human error and implement time-saving practices. When dealing with large volumes of inventory, automation also makes it much easier to manage day-to-day operations, reducing costly mistakes.
“43% OF SMALL BUSINESSES EITHER DON’T TRACK INVENTORY OR USE A MANUAL METHOD”
Two-way stock sync, for example, allows our systems to communicate with your seller’s dashboard so that you have an overview of what’s happening with all products from sale to delivery. When items are sold online, your website is updated from our warehouse side to reflect the correct amount left, ensuring zero errors. This is important because 34% of businesses ship late because products that are not actually in stock are sold. With live inventory across multiple channels, PaakPOD sellers can ensure order success, serving their customers wherever they decide to engage.
Accurate monitoring of live information provides sellers with actionable information to help manage their business. With our data-driven approach, PaakPOD helps sellers develop and deploy customer-focused operations.
SOFTWARE WITH A SERVICE (SWAS)
Unlike other 3PLs, we not only offer logistical services such as pick-pack-ship, but we also control all our systems and tech in-house. We don’t outsource our software. We design it. This approach allows PaakPOD to implement updates and deploy new features with unmatched speed, as our development team has intimate knowledge of the product and how best to integrate new functionality. The highly experienced team undertakes constant aggressive QA testing, ensuring only reliable features are added to our service.
Our innovative tech team have deployed intelligent algorithms, automating the day-to-day processes of fulfilment, bringing the highest possible service level without the need for key personnel. Through our easy-to-understand dashboards, reporting on your success is straightforward, saving you time every day and every quarter.
By using our tech-first approach, we can deliver an agile, dynamic and iterative service like no other. Updates to operations are live from the next order placed – making rapid action to changing environments a breeze.
Our platform has APIs that easily integrate with your Shopify or WooCommerce store further expanding the automatic processes.
As sales are made online, you can track live updates for all your inventory. It’s easy, transparent, and automated. Inventory tracking is a critical component to shipping operations, and what’s also great with our software is that it can be monitored from anywhere.
When the power of automation is utilised, our partners have saved up to 5 hours a week. Let our powerful system do the heavy lifting for you by streamlining and simplifying your operations and network. Freeing your time to focus on those vigorous growth-focused goals.
LATE DISPATCH
Thanks to PaakPOD understanding of what motivates consumers, we negotiated industry-beating late dispatch times on our partner’s behalf. This consumer-focused innovation makes delivering a true Next-Day service possible, creating better experiences for your customer.
Dispatch is when a parcel is packaged and ready to be injected into the courier network for final-mile delivery service. All orders received before 7 pm are guaranteed same-day dispatch. This window far exceeds that of our competitors, with same-day dispatch windows that typically end at 2 pm, missing the peak sales period 5-8 pm. Yikes!
Though 7 pm is the cut-off for guaranteed dispatch, we are still picking and packing and dispatching up until 10 pm. Later pick and packing time ensures the best and quickest delivery times for your customers. This is the type of innovation you can expect when partnering with our 3pl services.
“PAY AS YOU GO” MODEL
Speaking of innovations, we offer it in tech and shipping logistics as well as our approach to customer service. We do this by understanding what businesses need to grow and expand operations. For us, this means keeping costs down for you as much as possible, so you can grow exponentially. We are creative in how we became a more cost-effective solution than our competition. We do this through:
1) No fixed monthly storage fees
Why pay for storage if you have no more inventory in the warehouse? That is not fair to you, and we consider it bad business practice for 3pl’s who still use this model. We offer competitive pricing for the time your inventory is stored, but that’s it. When your product is gone, there are no more fees. As stock levels rise with new supply and fall with effective sales campaigns so too will storage costs. Keeping our structure and your operation closely linked has allowed for up to 40% cost saving for some partners.
2) No contracts
As standard, we don’t require contract commitments from our partners, why? Simple – we believe in our platform and the power it gives sellers. We know that once onboard, the time gained and additional capital you’ve saved will validate your decision to join over and over again.
We calculate costs based on the time taken and space used. Our warehouse operations are timed down to the second, so there are no hidden fees. The PaakPOD billing system allows you to see every step of the process to plan for your future. We offer some of the most competitive and lowest rates in the industry. For full details or a quote, speak with an expert today.
MAINTAIN BRAND CONTROL WITH OUR CUSTOM PACKAGING
Branding is highly important because it is how a company is perceived by the public. It not only identifies your product but distinguishes it from other products. You want to make a memorable impression on your customers and allow them to get to know you. At PaakPOD, we understand this. This is why we have custom branded solutions at our warehouses.
Giving up your brand control to another company (like Amazon sellers do) can be a scary process. You’ve spent so much time contemplating, organising, executing, and carefully designing your personalised packaging. You may have specific types of customised boxes, a particular kind of wrapping, or packaging inserts. You want the customer to receive an exceptional “unboxing experience.” We understand this critical task. When you transition to PaakPOD, you simply give us all the details, send your boxes and inserts to us, and our workers fulfil every detail. Should you want to make any changes, any updates to this process can be updated automatically via your PaakPOD dashboard and will take effect the same day. How easy is that?
Brand control is an important marketing tool. That’s why we have dedicated time and attention to it. Our warehouse operatives will carefully complete all the necessary components of your request so that your brand thrives the way you want it to. Your brand is an extension of our brand; therefore, it is handled with the utmost care and attention.
WAREHOUSE STORAGE AND HANDLING YOUR INVENTORY
Outsourcing all your products is exciting! You’ve come to a level of success where you finally have the capability to allow someone else to do the heavy lifting for you. We make this process as simple as possible for you so you can get on with growing your brand.
When we absorb partners into the PaakPOD 3pl fulfilment network, we work with you to transfer inventory to our fulfilment centre. We will walk you step by step through a process called Product Absorption. After your store has been absorbed into our system, we simply send you the printing labels for your inbound inventory so that when the products arrive at our warehouse, they will be scanned and made ready for processing, typically within 24 hours. These are the labels that will be used to manage your inventory for its life with PaakPOD. This is known as Inbound Stock Processing (ISP) and is seamless and easy to do.
When your products arrive at the warehouse, you can rest assured that your product inventory is safe and secure. PaakPOD offers 24/7 secure storage facilities. No more boxes stacked 5 meters high in your garage or place of business. No more worrying about managing what products you do or do not have. All you have to do is sit back and let PaakPOD’s innovative tech and strategic warehouse operations do the work for you. You can follow all updates via your PaakPOD portal.
WAREHOUSE STORAGE AND HANDLING YOUR INVENTORY
Picking and packing are important procedures that a 3pl like PaakPOD has created into a flawless process for accuracy and efficiency. When it comes to order fulfilment, it’s crucial that the products are chosen correctly and dispatched not long after the customer places the order online. This process is one of the biggest downfalls for many online business owners who fail to get their products delivered rapidly. Failing to get customers packages to them quickly will affect your bottom line. Slow service leads to cancelled orders, affecting repeat business. You’ve done all the hard work building a journey and converting content, images, copy, and using ads to grab their attention. Then, after all that capital and time investment, a poor fulfilment partner can still make you lose customers for life. With Lifetime Value (LTV) being a key metric for growth and investment, partnering with the right fulfilment partner is unavoidable and a critical element to your business.
Ecommerce warehousing saw an explosive boom in online orders during Covid with an 18% growth rate in the UK, and most experts project that it won’t slow down even after the pandemic is over. In a highly congested online marketplace, dispatch speed is your competitive advantage.
“70% OF CUSTOMERS CHOOSE TO PURCHASE GOODS BASED ON DELIVERY OPTIONS”
PaakPOD’s turnaround time for orders is 27 minutes on average, with a 99.9% pick accuracy rate. The entire process is updated through our online portal so that you know what is happening with your products. You will see notifications that read “your parcel has been dispatched” alongside tracking information all from your portal.
PRODUCT BUNDLING 3PL SERVICES
Growing your business, regardless of size, can be costly. Our system allows you to scale the way you want, giving you the confidence that we can support you no matter how you grow. Offering carefully curated product selections from your online store is simple to handle with our intuitive software.
You can increase AOV (average order value), clear slow-moving stock and gain efficiencies in shipping through multi-item fulfilment. Combine your hottest sellers with those less frequent sellers at a discounted rate and reap the rewards of more profitable fulfilment.
Creating and editing different bundles for your products is managed from your PaakPOD dashboard. Group two or more items together into a bundle, and they will automatically be shipped together. You will see all physical products that were shipped together with each order you receive.
EXPANDING YOUR BUSINESS OPERATIONS
We are growth-focused. We know the limitations of inferior systems when business is thriving. Businesses need rapid solutions for scalability that alleviate the stresses of packaging and sending parcels. If sales are skyrocketing, this will only be good if companies can keep up with demand. Otherwise, the long tail curve will slope downwards due to cancellations or refunds. The long-term impact to brand will out way the short-term cost savings of self-fulfilment. Without the aid of technology in fulfilment, the time invested to process orders will grow exponentially until service falls through the floor.
Outsourcing your fulfilment to a company with quick turnaround times like PaakPOD can get you up and running within a few days. The onboarding process is simple with us. Book a free consultation.
ECO-FRIENDLY PACKAGING
Not everyone is as aware of eco-friendly packaging as we are. As a value-driven company, we believe in responsible sustainability, a factor that is not only more cost-effective, safer, but more popular as well.
Also known as “green fulfilment,” eco-friendly packaging is included 100% across the board with PaakPOD. Did you know that more than 80% of customers feel that it is important for companies to design environmentally conscious products? This conclusion is according to a survey that included over 6,000 consumers in 11 different countries. Three-quarters of those participants said they are currently buying more environmentally friendly products than they were five years ago. Eighty-one percent said they expect to buy more over the next five years.
Being socially responsible is not only good for business but good for the environment. That’s why we use only green fulfilment practices such as recyclable materials and refrain from using plastic packaging. You can rest assured that you’re partnering with a company utilising eco-responsible solutions.
RELIABLE SHIPPING NETWORK
A shipping network is only as good as the ones who are doing the shipping, right?
As a 3pl fulfilment house, PaakPOD has partnered with the most reliable shipping companies for both domestic and international deliveries. Our trusted courier network can get packages in customers’ hands domestically within 24 – 48 hours. International delivery will range from 1 day (with UPS EU next-day air service) to a week. Same-day dispatch service is offered as a standard with shipping rates that are as low as £1.12.
As a 3pl, we proudly endorse UPS, Hermes, and Yodel.
OUR SERVICES IN FULL
WHY PARTNER WITH PaakPOD 3PL?
As shown, there are many reasons to partner with a 3pl like PaakPOD. However, to narrow it down for you, we have chosen the top 3 following reasons below to partner with PaakPOD.
1) Save time
Handling fulfilment is a large and arduous task. Packaging, adding labels, and sending can take up to more than half your time. 43% of retailers ranked inventory management as their number one day to day challenge. We automate so you can innovate.
2) Save money
Are you adding employees to help you with the fulfilment process? Do you have to pay for your own storage space? Are you paying hefty delivery fees? These are all typical costs for B2C businesses. You save money when you use our fulfilment network, our warehouse, and our workers. We can break it down for you line by line if you wish in a discovery call.
3) Grow Your Business
So, you’re saving time, and you’re saving money. Great! Where do you invest that extra time and that extra money? Well, that’s up to you, of course, but marketing would be a smart move. Your business will be better off if you can focus all your energy on growing the business rather than handling mundane day-to-day tasks. The quicker your business will be able to grow and prosper.
Got any questions? Contact us today so we can help your business to thrive. No fuss, no headaches, just stream-lined intelligent automated 3pl operations.