Sarah O’Donnell
Partner, Little & Large
Entrepreneurs who use fulfilment centres have more time and energy to spend developing their businesses, says a consultant who helps e-retailers with their growth strategies.
Sarah O’Donnell understands the pressures that in-house fulfilment can put on a small business. As Partner at Little & Large — a Galway-based Advertising Agency helping Irish ecommerce brands launch and grow — she has seen some clients struggle under a mountain of customer orders and queries.
Outsource fulfilment boosts profits
“They get to a place where they think: Hang on…50% of my day and brain power is spent packing orders and dealing with questions,” says O’Donnell. “So, I suggest they consider partnering with a fulfilment centre that will do all of that for them. They can then devote their time, effort and headspace to making money for their business, rather than running their own fulfilment operations.”
Generally, when she floats this idea to clients, particularly those just starting out, their initial response is: ‘We can’t possibly afford to do that.’ That doesn’t have to be the case, she insists. “Many of them think that fulfilment is more expensive than it really is. They don’t realise that fees are based on the volume of sales you do and the amount of stock you have. It’s not a service that’s exclusive to big brands. You can be a small fish and use a fulfilment centre. So, I tell them: Build the cost into your pricing model.”
It’s not a service that’s exclusive
to big brands. You can be a small
fish and use a fulfilment centre.
Diligent and reliable customer service
The trick is partnering with the right fulfilment centre, however, because O’Donnell has also seen what happens when fulfilment goes wrong. “These days, ecommerce is such a tough industry,” she says. “Customers have extremely high expectations. Make one mistake, and it can go viral.”
Therefore, customer service is critical. When one of her clients was looking to move from their existing third-party logistics provider, looking for a more personal service, she suggested they migrate to Galway-based fulfilment centre, Autofulfil.
“I’ve worked with them for years and know the high level of personal service they give,” says O’Donnell. “That’s important. Because while a fulfilment centre can be brilliant at sending out your parcels, if it takes them four days to respond to one of your queries, you start to think: ‘Okay, I’m clearly not being prioritised here, and my customers are getting frustrated with receiving delayed updates.’ As a retailer, you need a reliable fulfilment partner that will drop everything and sort out any issue right away. Autofulfil provides that level of service.”
