A third of home improvement shoppers purchased their products online in 2023. Thus, generalist retailers like Amazon are muscling into this thriving space, owning 25% of the market share, second only to Home Depot and above Lowes.
Whether you’re a generalist online retailer or a home design pro, partnering with a third-party logistic (3PL) provider will increase your chances of successfully transitioning renovations into the ecommerce space—below, we’ll detail how:
The Collaboration Between Online Retailers and 3PLs
While details vary depending on the companies and products involved, here’s how working with a 3PL streamlines the process that’ll get your home design items from warehouse to home:
– Once your inventory arrives at a 3PL warehouse, the 3PL team receives the products and organizes the SKUs.
– If the 3PL’s software integrates with your online store, they’ll automatically receive orders whenever someone purchases on your ecommerce site. They’ll also perform this work manually if necessary.
– The warehouse team gathers orders, working from a picking list.
– Items, receipts, and order details get packed into boxes.
– The 3PL either uses one of its shipping carrier partner’s labels or prints labels themselves.
– The 3PL’s distribution center holds the packaged product until a shipping carrier collects and delivers it to the customer.
– Generally, this process entails tracking information from the 3PL system that syncs with your order management and marketplace technology.
How Do 3PLs Facilitate Ecommerce Home Design Logistical Processes?
Market research shows 9 out of 10 Fortune 500 companies use 3PLs.
These big businesses value paying someone else for the storage space. They grasp how financing their own storage warehouse means they’re on the hook for maintenance, staff, and much more overhead.
You don’t need to be a Fortune 500 company to experience the benefits of 3PL warehouse storage. This notion rings especially true when you partner with a team committed to doing more than merely holding onto your products.
Case in point: The best 3PLs provide optimal security—crucial for at-risk, big-ticket home design products.
A 3PL best suited to your home design products will have tech that integrates seamlessly with your Order Management System (OMS) and marketplace (e.g., Amazon, Shopify, or eBay), ensuring the most seamless fulfillment process. These capabilities vastly improve inventory management.
Other benefits of a 3PL’s fulfillment services include packaging/materials, discounted shipping rates, unlimited sales channel integrations, on-site pickup and customer support, and more.
Moreover, a 3PL will be there every step of the way during last-mile delivery, promptly and professionally getting your products from their distribution center and into the hands of eager homeowners.
How Do 3PLs Enhance the Customer Experience?
On average, homeowners spend between $20,000 and $100,000 to remodel or upgrade their homes. Even if your products comprise a small percentage of those costs, they’re part of a significant investment your customer has made, and they deserve service reflective of those lofty stakes.
A 3PL embraces this challenge by providing faster delivery times. Their fulfillment centers are always strategically located to tap into various markets ASAP at the lowest possible cost.
Furthermore, 3PLs have advanced, cutting-edge tech, streamlined processes, and advanced workflows to eliminate bloat in their operations. They limit paperwork and get products on the move near-instantaneously once ordered.
Moreover, 3PLs have cutting-edge software to provide accurate order tracking. This feature is crucial since 80% of shoppers—including home design customers—expect to monitor their deliveries in real time.
In the instance of returns, the top 3PLs are more than up to the challenge. For example, here’s how our returns solution works at Snapl:
– Our warehouse receives the return.
– We sort it, examine it, and separate it based on condition.
– We log the return information into our WMS for analysis and tracking.
– You’ll receive an email once we’ve completed processing.
– You’ll email us with the next steps.
How Do 3PLs Solve the Logistical Issues Caused by Larger Home Design Products?
Bigger, bulkier items like beds, couches, fridges, and massive televisions present several logistical challenges for ecommerce businesses, such as:
– Delivery orders might originate from a manufacturer’s warehouse, even further away from the consumer.
– The on-site delivery experience can be hectic. Getting larger, bulkier products into homes can prove nightmarish for some.
– Larger items swallow up significant storage space.
3PLs catering to home design products will solve many issues with durable and robust specialized packaging, handling instructions (for improved on-site delivery), and delivery options suited to the items in question. Their streamlined technology and processes will find every angle and avenue to reduce these headaches.
Furthermore, 3PLs suited to home decor items have the storage space to hold onto a surplus of bulkier products. By partnering with one, you won’t need to keep all your couches, beds, fridges, etc., with the manufacturer.
Snapl, for instance, has a 35,000-square-foot warehouse, perfect for our home design-based clients with a strong presence in New Jersey and connected markets.
3PLs Protect the Environment with Sustainable Practices
Did you know sofas generate 90kg of carbon dioxide? Furthermore, the average home furniture piece generates greenhouse gasses equal to 5.3 burning gallons of petrol.
Home design products can harm the environment, and offsetting that damage is crucial.
Many 3PLs do everything they can to mitigate the environmental impact of their work, including offering various eco-friendly packaging options for home design products.
Also, 3PLs use fuel-efficient automobiles and technology to optimize routes and scheduling to offset carbon emissions. They also practice load optimization, ensuring maximized cargo space and yielding the minimum number of trips.
Projections For Home Design Delivery
Already, 25% of surveyed customers shopped online for furniture on an ecommerce platform. 31% of surveyed customers said free delivery convinced them to purchase furniture online.
The already substantial number of ecommerce furniture shoppers will grow—quickly—if adjacent businesses tap into their target customers’ desires for free delivery.
The most exciting indicators for ecommerce home design’s future are advancements in contactless and automated delivery (e.g., self-driving vehicles and drones). For example, drones can avoid road congestion, delivering smaller items to customer’s doorsteps unimpeded.
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