The hard work has paid off and your small business is flourishing – so what's the next step?

When a business is in its infancy, it's often easier and cheaper for owners to try to manage as much as they can themselves before taking on additional resource.

Inevitably, however, there comes a point of diminishing returns as your customer base grows. The decision to move inventory away from your spare room to a fulfilment warehouse is a big step, but one that carries a wealth of benefits.

Here are nine signs you might be ready to take the leap.

1. You feel a little out of your depth

Simply put, professional fulfilment centres are experts in what they do. Take advantage of their technology, networks, and trained staff to complete the jobs you don't have the time to do (or learn to do) to the same exemplary standard.

2. You want to save further down the line

Outsourcing is an investment, but it pays dividends in the long run. From shipping to packaging, fulfilment centres have the advantage of shared overheads and bulk pricing on materials and services, which filter down to their customers.

Lower shipping costs can make it sustainable to offer free delivery, which can give you a real competitive edge in the market. Shop smartly when choosing your centre – look at reputation, as well as pricing, to ensure you're putting your business in the best hands.

3. You just don't have the time 

While tangible cost savings are important, having a third party fulfil orders creates value in other ways too.

Preparing and dispatching customer orders can be hugely time-consuming, especially for the ambitious small business owner trying to do it all. Delegating this portion to an organisation frees up valuable hours. This time can be reinvested into developing your brand, marketing, and new products.

You're now free to grow your customer base and range – and you'll regain your Friday nights as a bonus!

4. You just don't have the space

It's time to move inventory out of the spare room, attic or garage.

While it may be critical in the early days to keep costs low, as a small business grows it can be difficult to keep the workspace organised and clutter-free – especially when it's operating as an all-in-one office, storage space and order processing area.

Transferring inventory to a fulfilment centre offers greater visibility on stock holding (read: no more unfulfilled orders because you thought there was an extra box hidden somewhere!).

What's more, you'll avoid those last-minute trips to the only shop open in town that sells bubble wrap. Leave this to a centre and focus on more important objectives – like attracting more buyers.

5. You've had it up to here with admin

Integrated software means fewer spreadsheets and fewer headaches – not to mention a much more professional impression left on your customers.

Receiving customer orders, processing payments and tracking deliveries are important to get right for business security as much as the customer experience. Rather than face the hefty costs of acquiring tracking and monitoring software yourself, rely on the industry-standard systems (and trained workforce) offered by a fulfilment centre.

6. You're wasting time with returns

Hard to track, expensive, time-consuming… customer returns can be a major headache for eCommerce brands.

Inappropriately managed, returns can eat into your bottom line. Starting out, small business owners are often forced to balance customer experience with turning a profit when it comes to offering a returns policy at all, particularly if products are customised or bespoke to order.

The reality, however, is that returns management is a critical part of your business strategy and should be handled more thoroughly than with a chaotic spreadsheet. In this sense, using a fulfilment centre can offer some real benefits in terms of organisation and financial planning.

Ask about your chosen centre's reverse logistics process and any technology they might use to receive returns, process replacements, and record learnings that can be used to reduce product returns in the future. It will give you greater peace of mind that, in the unfortunate situation the customer has been dissatisfied with an order, they are experiencing a smooth, hassle-free return process while you focus on business development.

7. You're ready to reach a global audience

Whatever stage your business is at, its reach will be instantly extended by moving to a fulfilment organisation.

At its simplest, this could mean access to 24-hour customer service or same-day dispatch. But many centres already operate on a national or international level, making it easy to broaden the scope of your business.

Want to expand into other countries but have no idea how to tackle the minefield of regulations? Centres already have expertise in this area and are likely to have established networks in operation, just waiting to be taken advantage of.

8. You want to be able to scale

With more people shopping online than ever, eCommerce businesses have to be able to expand their capacity to meet customer demand quickly – and react to changes in the marketplace to remain relevant. Responding too slowly is a surefire way to send customers running to the nearest competitor, and leave you missing opportunities for sales.

Most fulfilment centres already have the software and infrastructure to cope with seasonal demand and peak planning, with the cost of additional labour and resource shared across the client base.

You can harness this expertise in many ways. For example, you might want to prepare for Christmas demand, or understand how you should anticipate the spikes caused by deploying a new marketing campaign, taking on an influencer, or launching a new product.

9. You want to maintain customer service standards

With a small business, it's all about the personal touch. Hand-written notes, inserts and extras included with orders are important for customer satisfaction and retention, but they are hard to scale up.

Some fulfilment centres have the flexibility to maintain these small, yet crucial, details. For instance, they can send printed "thank you" notes (which can still be personal when designed digitally), as well as coupons and advertising materials.

But they can offer bulk flexibility here too. By developing packaging so it can be tailored to a returning customer, or for specific order purchases (think birthday notes or messages for special occasions) you can quickly deepen engagement with your customers, meaning they're more likely to come back for more.

Some centres also offer customised packaging designed around the order or product. Custom boxes have little void space, reducing the risk of transit damage – and improving your stance on sustainability, which is always a hit with today's customer base.

Ready to take the plunge? Find out more about Stowsafe and our third-party logistics services today.