TLV Partners is an established Tel Aviv-based, VC firm dedicated to investing in game-changing, early-stage companies led by impressive Israeli founders across the globe. We asked their principal investor Yonatan Mandelbaum how brands can improve their fulfillment and delivery workflows.
3 tips for improving fulfillment & delivery workflows:
1. Maintain Multiple, Varied Fulfillment Centers
Fulfillment has evidently been a high-reward yet long-overlooked stage of the user journey. With that, Yonatan lists three ways brands can optimize this step of their funnel.
Starting with where your fulfillment ops occur, Yonatan affirms his number-one tip is having multiple, unique fulfillment centers. This range could include:
- A privately owned and managed warehouse, or even storing some inventory at home
- Separate warehouses for online vs. physical store ops
- Partnering with 3PL providers
After the initial multi-part setup, you wind up with far greater flexibility as a merchant.
You’ve essentially set yourself up so that, regardless of when an order comes in, you absolutely have the means to deliver it from somewhere in your system to that user in a timely manner.
This far beats the alternative, Yonatan cautions, which is too many brands continuing to put all their eggs in one fulfillment basket, whether that’s one 3PL or one large, independent location.
As soon as any larger issues crop up, that single warehouse becomes a single point of failure.
2. Strengthen Customer-Facing Communication
Returning to the end-all, be-all of the brand-buyer relationship, Yonatan emphasizes improving the transparency and frequency of your post-purchase customer communications.
After all, even if a delivery shows up late, aligning the buyer’s expectations through tracking and frequent live updates will more than likely mitigate the end disappointment or frustration.
In the end, it’s far safer to over-communicate (without spamming the buyer) than to leave them feeling insecure about the status of the products they’ve shelled out their money for.
3. Bring in a Professional
For both first-time founders and eCom veterans, Yonatan recommends speaking to a logistics expert in your setup process.
If you don’t have the budget to bring them on full-time, you can simply spend a few hours walking them through your business and have them point out savings opportunities.
Even a detail as small as having the right box sizes for your varied SKUs will make an impact.
“I’ve heard of merchants wasting $50,000 annually by using the wrong box size.
Logistics experts and warehouse managers pick up those nuances in a second.”
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