For any business, scaling up represents an exciting period that can come with growing pains.As you expand your business and order volumes grow, managing your supply chain and keeping up with order fulfillment requires additional time, expertise, and resources. Given that demand, it is critical that brands work with reliabl e 3PLs (third-party logistics providers).

Partnering with a trusted 3PL like Ruby Has Fulfillment (a ShipMonk company) will allow you to utilize the top 4 assets necessary for scaling a supply chain. According to Vice President of Global Partnerships at Ruby Has, Matthew Carpentieri, there are 4 key scaling factors that a 3PL brings to the table:

1. Better Shipping Rates
2. Decreased Shipping Time
3. Real-Time Transparency
4. Strategic Partnerships Network

1.) Better Shipping Rates

Volume equals discounts. 3PL companies leverage the volume of orders they handle to negotiate better carrier rates, pickup times, and dimensional factors. As a solo brand, you may not have the bargaining power you need to receive these discounted rates. Standing together with the power of many other brands under your 3PL’s belt, however, can make your voice much louder. Brands that partner with a 3PL provider are in a position to be more profitable per order as a result.

2.) Decreased Shipping Time

Today, every brand has to compete with Amazon Prime’s speedy shipping, which means it is essential you get packages out to customers just as quickly, or even faster. That being said, it may be difficult to justify the expense of building a national footprint of warehouses to house your products. Utilizing a fulfillment company that already has a national footprint (even an international footprint) enables you to reach your consumer in a more timely manner while still being cost-effective.

3.) Real-Time Transparency

Inventory management in real time enables brands to accurately replenish inventory while providing customers real-time order status updates. Tier 1 WMS data is much more granular when activity is tracked through points of scan (as is the case with a paperless warehouse) than it would be if processed through batched shipping. This in turn provides greater transparency on an order level.

4.) Strategic Partnerships Network

3PLs often come with a built-in partnership ecosystem offering integrated solutions that would otherwise be inaccessible. Tapping into these partnerships gives you access to solutions, tools, and offers that are tailor-made for your business. Offers may include payment and BNPL solutions such as Quadpay, systems integrators, marketing agencies, ERP systems, MarTech solutions, tax services, and so much more. Harnessing a pre-built network makes it easier to vet and select the right solutions for your growing brand.

Time to Thrive

As you grow, identifying the biggest opportunities to streamline your business is step one to scaling successfully. Picking the right partners is step two.

Fulfillment and logistics can easily be one of the highest-priced and most time-consuming line items for any business. This is where third-party logistics can save you. As long as that third-party is a fully-established, fully-integrated partner that’s made a name for itself in the industry like Ruby Has Fulfillment (a ShipMonk company).

To set your brand up for the most success possible fill out our quote request form and work with one of our specialists to determine how Ruby Has can help you!