5 Ways Outsourcing Your Order Fulfillment Creates a Competitive Holiday Advantage

While you’re busy trying to stay afloat handling your shipping and returns in-house, do you ever stop and wonder how the “other guys” manage to have time to promote their products at events, engage their customers on social media, AND continue to constantly release new, innovative products?The answer to your curiosity may be quite simple--your  competition has a competitive advantage over you. To even the playing field and get ahead of others in the industry, you may want to consider taking order fulfillment and shipping off your plate and placing it into the hands of trusted experts in the industry.There’s a lot that you can be doing with the valuable time that you normally spend shipping orders. Outsourcing fulfillment services to a company who specializes in it, like Rakuten Super Logistics, allows you to spend your valuable time focusing on more important aspects of your business that can help it grow and improve.Here are 5 ways that you can be using your time to give you a leg up in your industry this holiday season:

‍1. Innovate, design, and perfect new products

‍Wouldn’t it be nice to release new and exciting products this holiday season? When you aren’t spending your time drowning in packing peanuts and boxes, you’ll have more time to focus on what’s inside the box--your products. You can focus on creating, designing, and perfecting new products to keep your customers interested and coming back with the time that you save by outsourcing order fulfillment.

‍2. Stay on top of marketing and promotions for important eCommerce dates

‍During the busy holiday season, it too often seems like important holiday dates such as Cyber Monday and Free Shipping Day come and go too fast to plan for. If you're outsourcing fulfillment services and not trying to juggle holiday shipping prep, marketing, order fulfillment, and returns all at the same time, you can actually worry less about picking and packing and spend some time developing and tending to a successful marketing plan for those high sales days. Make sure to check your holiday shipping calendar to stay on top of any important upcoming dates.

‍3. Connect with your prospects and customers

‍Social media has turned into much more than a way to stay connected with your friends--it has become a platform for businesses everywhere to share their story with the world. A recent survey by Forbes revealed that 78% of respondents said that companies’ social media posts impact their purchase decisions. The opportunities for social media marketing range from Facebook ads, to trending hashtags, to sponsored posts, and the list goes on and on.The problem is finding the time to devote to creating something that will build relationships with your future and current customers. A well planned and executed social media marketing campaign and promotions during the holiday season can directly influence your customers’ buying decisions. Outsourcing a time consuming activity like order fulfillment allows you to focus on building these important relationships that will lead to boosting your bottom line.

‍4. Do some housekeeping

‍When a workspace is unorganized, it can negatively affect your business, not to mention your mental clarity; but who has time to even think about cleaning when sending orders out the door and processing returns in time for big holiday deadlines is your main concern? Outsourcing fulfillment services allows you to take a step back and evaluate your workspace; that means you’ll have time to clean off that ‘catch-all’ desk that you haven’t seen the surface of for years or other neglected areas in the office.

‍5. Take a breather‍

It has been proven that taking time off from work is beneficial to both your health and productivity, but, as you probably already know, running your own business often requires working long days, weekends and even skipping a much needed vacation. We met many of our customers in this state--those who were worn out, over-worked, and those whom the word ‘vacation’ was foreign to. One of our customers, Voda Swim, was just that. After they outsourced order fulfillment to Rakuten Super Logistics, they took their first vacation in FIVE years.Want to be singing “Mele Kalikimaka” on a beach in Hawaii this holiday or even just take a few days off to visit your family? Start outsourcing fulfillment services with Rakuten Super Logistics today and find out what you can do with the time you save not shipping!

‍If you want to optimize your time by outsourcing logistics to focus on other areas of your business, Rakuten Super Logistics can get you up and running in just a few days.

‍Rakuten Super Logistics guarantees fast and accurate shipping, which makes both you and your customers happy. We make partnering easy. So go ahead, start planning how your company will get ahead with all that valuable free time you’ll be gaining. Whether it be planning a Black Friday social media campaign or taking a trip to the beach, it’s amazing what a partnership with Rakuten Super Logistics can do for you and your business.Contact us today to learn more about how partnering with Rakuten Super Logistics for fast and accurate order fulfillment protects your online reputation and saves you time and money.