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Third-Party Distribution

Third-party distribution is the management of customer order fulfilment on behalf of a commerce business via a 3pl fulfilment centre.

Also known as 3pl—or third party logistics—investment in third party distribution services is made by a business seeking to streamline its inventory management and order fulfilment efficiencies. 

This is achieved by outsourcing the storage, picking, packaging, and distribution of their products to a 3pl distribution logistics specialist like Invenco.  

Partnering with third-party logistics companies enables businesses to utilise their 3pl supply chain. Using the latest technology, 3pl providers offer a range of services in logistics designed to help increase the speed of order fulfilment and accuracy of inventory management in a cost-effective way. 

Prioritising the efficiency of these key performance indicators is crucial to remaining competitive in the rapidly growing eCommerce market. By outsourcing operations to third-party distribution facilities, businesses can then focus on key sales and commerce growth aspects such as marketing and product development.

How does third-party distribution work?

Third-party distribution via dedicated eCommerce 3pls has revolutionised online business. 

3pl companies provide a direct service between business and customer. This means that once customers have placed their orders online, the third-party distribution partner is in charge of fulfilment. As a direct result of outsourcing, ensuing reductions in order fulfilment and delivery time correlate to increased sales and profit margins for eCommerce businesses of all sizes. 

3pl distribution logistics services now extend well beyond simple warehouse storage and delivery. Invaluable tools like real-time inventory management, order updates, and shipment tracking have been made possible through integration of the latest technology with all major online sales platforms. 

By utilising 3rd party logistics services, businesses can check things like exactly what stock is available or how many orders are awaiting fulfilment. At Invenco, this information is updated in real-time and is directly accessible through our online customer portal, making financial forecasting and responding to customer enquiries easy. 

Partnering with a third-party distribution provider is easy. Once you’ve determined the logistics provider that best serves your needs and made the investment, you’ll deliver your stock for inventory and storage at the third party warehouse. 

Once your inventory is part of the 3pl supply chain, you can rest assured that the third party logistics provider will take care of the order fulfilment process, including: 

  • picking each customer order from your inventory, kept in the 3pl fulfilment centre’s secure warehouse storage; 
  • carefully packaging your product; and
  • arranging safe, timely and cost-effective delivery through their network of third party transport carriers. 
  • reverse logistics.

There are many benefits to investing in third-party distribution. Being confident that your inventory is accurate at the point of purchase is crucial for sales consistency and growth. Customer order fulfilment efficiencies are invaluable to your company’s reputation and to getting positive product reviews. And recouping the time and labour costs previously spent personally processing and shipping customer orders and being able to focus on optimising your business is certainly priceless. 

Our 3pl services support end-to-end customer order fulfilment and include:

  • Inventory management – receipt of goods and ongoing real-time warehouse stock data to support product manufacturing and financial forecasting.
  • Order picking and packing – ensuring all customers receive their products safely and exactly as ordered. 
  • Shipping – nationwide fixed-price shipping across all orders, with real-time tracking information provided to customers and delivery via numerous freight carriers to achieve short, accurate delivery times.
  • Reverse logistics – managing returned or damaged stock, in addition to maximising the lifecycle of eco-friendly packaging for economic and environmental impact. 

Invenco are specialists in third-party distribution in Australia.  Outsourcing your business operations to us will reap immediate benefits as you take advantage of our 3pl industry expertise, extensive business resources, and professional network. 

Our goal is to provide the highest quality customer service and we work hard to develop strong, genuine relationships with each supplier and customer. This helps us to secure the lowest 3pl costs and provide you with the most cost-effective 3pl solution. 

Invenco’s cost-effective 3pl solutions provide the perfect infrastructure for you to scale your business. We offer automated information management and both custom and standard integrations with many of the largest and most popular online sales platforms e.g. Shopify. So, you don’t have to worry about the complexities of building and maintaining an online store—we’ve got you covered! 

We’re also committed to financial and logistics transparency. We understand that outsourcing your business might make you feel like you’ve lost that immediate, hands-on accessibility of information. That’s why we’ve developed our fantastic online customer portal. Through this, you can access real-time reporting 24/7 for things like inventory on-hand, order fulfilment status, shipment tracking, customer history, and financial statistics. 

These user-friendly tools are a key product of our third-party distribution services. They’re designed to help you easily analyse every aspect of your business from stock levels, income and freight expenditure, right down to warehouse storage and logistics cost per product. This information can directly inform your business strategy and allows you to easily assess and adapt our 3pl services to meet your specific business needs. 

To find out how Invenco can help optimise your eCommerce business, simply complete our handy online quote form or speak with one of our representatives via the pop-up chat window. 

Call us today to get the happy customers that you deserve, to fuel your business for many years to come.