Most companies start by shipping themselves. That makes sense: it's cheap, you stay in control and you get to know your customers. But there comes a point where logistics takes more time than it's worth. These signs show that point is coming.
1. You or your team are taping boxes
If the founder or the sales team packs orders every afternoon, that time isn't going into selling, product development or customer contact. Work out how many hours a week go into logistics, and what those hours would deliver elsewhere.
2. You've run out of space
The garage is full, the office is stacked with boxes and every new delivery is a puzzle. Renting extra space solves it temporarily, but also brings rent, insurance and fit-out costs.
3. You can't handle peaks
Black Friday, the holidays or a successful campaign: suddenly you have three times as many orders. Doing it yourself, you then have to find people, train them and scale back down after the peak. A fulfilment partner absorbs peaks with a team that's already up and running.
4. Mistakes are starting to add up
Wrong products, forgotten orders, parcels leaving late. At low volumes you barely notice, but as you grow, the complaints, returns and bad reviews pile up.
5. A retailer comes on board
Supplying a retailer is a different trade from shipping parcels. You need GS1 labels, SSCC codes, EDI despatch advice and time slots. For many SMEs this is the moment to outsource their logistics. We wrote a separate article about it: supplying supermarkets and retailers.
6. Your shipping costs are too high
As a small shipper you often pay carriers' standard rates. A fulfilment partner ships larger volumes and therefore usually has better rates and more choice of carriers.
7. You want to sell internationally
New countries mean new carriers, different shipping options and sometimes different packaging requirements. A partner that already ships across Europe makes that step a lot smaller.
What to look for when choosing
- Does the partner fit your orders? A partner for parcels isn't automatically good at pallets or spare parts.
- Who is your contact? A dedicated contact person or a ticketing system?
- How transparent is the price? Ask for a calculation based on your own volumes, including surcharges. Also read what fulfilment costs.
- How flexible is the contract? Can you cancel monthly, and do you get your stock and data back?
- Which integrations are there? With your webshop, marketplaces and ERP.
Recognise several of these signs? Tell us what you ship and to whom, and we'll look together at whether outsourcing makes sense for you.