Should you outsource your e-fulfilment or do it yourself?

Spoiler alert: Outsourcing your e-fulfilment often makes good business sense, whether you run a fast-growing online store or an established e-commerce company.

In the beginning, your business grew from your hobby or passion. You wanted to do everything yourself at first, because you were interested in everything. Is that still the case? Or are you hampering your own growth?

Now that your online store has grown, you probably handle your orders from your own warehouse. Soon it may also be too small. And after all, logistics isn't your core business. E-fulfilment can easily cost you more time, energy and money than it is worth.

Handling your own fulfilment

When should you choose to handle your own e-fulfilment? You can keep sending your orders yourself if you can still handle it easily and don't have the ambition to grow. Or you may prefer managing your own people, or there may still be plenty of space in your warehouse. Perhaps you don't mind spending some of your time processing orders. But if this gets in the way of growth, it makes sense to outsource it.

Outsourcing fulfilment

Outsourcing your e-fulfilment can very quickly save you time and money. You can recoup the costs from just ten packages a day, and it gives you more time to work on growing your business. Spend your time purchasing rather than packaging. And on selling rather than shipping. By outsourcing, you also no longer need to deal with capacity problems. Your e-fulfilment company is your external warehouse that grows with you.

“By outsourcing your e-fulfilment, your hobby can still be your hobby. Even if it's now your job.”

Work it out for yourself

With a single fixed fee, starting from just €7.95 per package, you know exactly how much it costs and can focus on increasing your sales. What will it cost if you keep doing it yourself? Add up the following costs:

• Labour in hours x hourly rate
• Postal costs
• Packaging costs
• Printing and labelling costs
• Return costs
• Storage costs
• Costs of relocating as you grow
• Costs of missed opportunities to upscale your e-commerce business

See a calculation example

“Spend your time on purchasing and sales. Outsource your webshop logistics.”