What eCommerce Services Can a Small Businesses Outsource?
The need for outsourcing your eCommerce services grows as your business starts to prosper and you realize that you cannot manage everything simultaneously. Read on to learn about some of the top eCommerce outsourcing benefits.
The Key eCommerce Outsourcing Benefits
There are many advantages when eCommerce services are outsourced. In no order of importance, we have listed key outsourcing benefits:-
Limited investment required
When the eCommerce services are outsourced, the business owner saves money. The business owner does not have to invest in setting up the infrastructure to run the eCommerce business. Research study has proven that when eCommerce services like inventory management, warehousing technology implementation, fulfillment, business infrastructure, and customer support are outsourced to a reliable outsourcing partner, the business owner will save about 85 percent on upfront costs.
Furthermore, suppose an in-house team is established to manage the eCommerce activities. In that case, the business owner will have to invest in setting up a team, train the team, provide a monthly salary and incur other costs. Besides this, the eCommerce business owner will also have to incur costs to ensure that the setup is up and running. However, when the eCommerce activities of the business are outsourced, a sizable investment is saved on platform implementation, web development, systems integration, and logistics. A small investment is required when the services are outsourced to a reliable partner or a service provider. The cost factor is one of the primary reasons why many eCommerce business owners are outsourcing services.
Access to the best talent and infrastructure
eCommerce service providers are experienced in providing services. They are armed with a skilled workforce and are equipped with the latest technology to provide eCommerce services. When you outsource the eCommerce services of your business, you can be assured that you have access to the best talent and infrastructure. It can help you reach out to markets that you wish to target. An eCommerce service provider will provide business owners software development, web designing, operation services, and other IT-related solutions to help achieve business goals. The outsourcing companies are well aware of the trends and can optimize them according to your target market requirements. They can achieve it by using the best and latest technology available worldwide. This can especially help the medium and small-sized Ecommerce businesses, which usually lack access to the best technologies that most successful Ecommerce businesses are using.
Increase business production
As a single eCommerce business venture, you are unlikely to accomplish the economies of scale that eCommerce service providers offer. It is owing to the sheer volume of business that the latter conduct with technology partners, carriers, shippers, and packaging suppliers. You will not have access to the best rates in different aspects by doing everything yourself. These include web servers, payment processing, tax solutions, web developers, warehousing, and shipping.
Furthermore, it is also highly improbable to see economies of expertise. Your core competencies are most likely not to include product fulfillment, eCommerce conversion, managing subscriptions, global localization, and other complex details of global eCommerce services.
It means that you will not be very efficient at managing orders, maintaining your supply chain, and swiftly fixing problems as they surface. Thus, a feasible solution is to outsource the eCommerce activity of your business. It is proven that business owners, especially the small and the medium ones, have recorded increased business productivity. It is one of the reasons why business owners are considering outsourcing the eCommerce services of their business.
Focus on core activities and business expansion
When the eCommerce services of the business are outsourced, it gives the business owner enough time to manage the core activities of the business. A section of business owners states that outsourcing the eCommerce activities of their business helps, especially when expanding the business.
A word of caution to business owners who are considering outsourcing the eCommerce services of their business is to not be in a hurry of any kind to commit to services provided by an outsourcing service provider. Also, before you sign up for eCommerce outsourcing services, you must research the service provider. And you must make sure that you are partnering with a reliable service provider. You can take a closer look at services provided by Vserve solution. Vserve is a one-stop solution provider for all your eCommerce service needs.
In the next section of our blog, we have highlighted what services small eCommerce business owners outsource?
As a small business owner, you should know how to extract yourself from the day-to-day business operations. It is possible by outsourcing your business’s services. Read on to learn about what eCommerce business services you can outsource.
Customer Service
Outsourcing customer service is the first step every small business should take. Moreover, it is common knowledge that customer service is critical for the success of a small business. Responding to emails, managing calls, and processing refunds are just some of the few tasks a customer service representative takes care of. These tasks are not too complex. However, although the tasks may not be too complicated, the sheer volume of work that needs to be completed can pose quite a challenge. It is especially true if you are an owner of a small-scale business and have more important things to take care of that relate to your business.
Outsourcing customer service-related tasks to an eCommerce services provider would be wise as you would be freeing yourself up. The customer service-related tasks can be taken care of by professionals whose focus would solely be on customer service.
Order Management
Order management is another crucial task vital to the success of small businesses offering an array of eCommerce services. From managing orders daily to ensuring that every order is processed on time, the work involved can be tiresome and time-consuming. Order management may also include other tasks such as inventory checks daily and report generation. So, with the proper guidance, all of these tasks are easily achievable. However, you need someone dedicated to these tasks which can invest adequate time to accomplish everything accurately. Unfortunately, if you are a small online business owner, you do not have that luxury. It is why seeking eCommerce outsourcing services for order management tasks is the best course of action for you to take.
Product Sourcing
eCommerce services include product sourcing, which is important for any eCommerce business. The task involves a lot of research and communication with multiple suppliers (both local and international). Research and communication take a lot of time and human involvement. Therefore, it is best to outsource this task to an eCommerce service provider.
Your time as a small-sized business owner is just too precious to be squandered on tasks that can outsource easily. Those tasks can be taken over by eCommerce outsourcing companies that have more expertise in product sourcing and other similar eCommerce services. Outsourcing your product sourcing tasks will free up your schedule. As a result, you can rest assured knowing that you have engaged the services of professionals who excel in product sourcing and can do all the research and negotiation on your behalf.
If outsourcing the services of your eCommerce business is on your mind, you can consider partnering with Vserve eBusiness solution.
