Product Deliveries: Should You Outsource Or Do It Yourself?
Product delivery is a big factor for any ecommerce company. You need to get products to customers in a timely fashion, making sure they don’t get damaged along the way. If you can’t offer a good delivery service, you won’t get far, especially as you’re competing with things like Amazon Prime one hour delivery. Obviously, you won’t be able to match that service with your resources which is fine, but you need to make sure that your delivery service is good, otherwise, customers won’t bother with you. That raises a big question; should you outsource your deliveries or build your own in-house delivery service? There are pros and cons on both sides so to help you decide, this article will outline some of the benefits of both.
In-House
The major benefit of creating your own in-house delivery service is the level of control you’ll have over the whole operation. You know better than anybody else how best to package your products so they aren’t damaged. When you outsource, they’ll likely be using standard packaging that might not necessarily fit your products perfectly so the risk of goods arriving damaged which causes a lot of problems with customers.
You’ll also be in full control of the routes and which deliveries are prioritized. That means if you’ve got a customer who is waiting on a replacement, for example, you can put them at the top of the list and keep them happy. Being able to have control over all of the packaging and delivery means you can offer the exact service that you want to.
However, there are some downsides to handling deliveries yourself, the main one being the cost. You’ll have to find a location where you can pack and ship all of the goods from. Then you’ll need a fleet of trucks and drivers which all costs a lot of money. You’ll probably save money in the long run but you need a big initial investment to get it going.
There are also the legal implications to consider. If any of your drivers are in an accident, you’ll have to deal with that. Read over these common semi truck accident questions to see exactly what that might mean for your company and what legal trouble it could cause you.
Outsourcing
One of the main reasons that people prefer to outsource is that it’s simply easier and cheaper upfront. That company will already have the infrastructure in place and they’ll be ready to start delivering right away. It’ll be a lot cheaper as well because you don’t need to pay to set up a depot and hire drivers etc. They’ll have a lot more experience than you as well so they’ll be better equipped to deal with any problems.
On the other hand, it’s worth remembering that your company isn’t their priority. They’ll be delivering for loads of different companies and there’s no reason why you should take precedence over them. That means any problems or redeliveries won’t be dealt with as swiftly as they would if you were handling things yourself.
Overall, it’s better to deal with deliveries in-house but that requires a lot of initial investment and if you just can’t afford that, you’ll have to outsource. Often, it’s best to outsource initially while you set up the infrastructure needed to start making your own deliveries.