With the world of shopping changing, increasing numbers of people are opting for subscription boxes. Instead of shopping every week or month for the items they need, these items can be delivered to their home. Subscription boxes can include just about anything! Must-haves for around the home, fun projects for kids, hobby-related items for adults, and anything else someone may purchase regularly.

For the subscription services, outsourcing the fulfillment process can be highly beneficial.

How Subscription Box Fulfillment Works

With subscription boxes, it’s necessary to accept customer subscriptions, take the payment for the box regularly, and ship out the boxes regularly. For a monthly subscription, the customer will pay, typically automatically, each month, and they will receive a box in the mail with the products they want or need.

Why You Should Outsource Your Fulfillment

When this is outsourced, the subscription service doesn’t have to worry about handling the packaging and shipping on their own, so there are a number of benefits they will see, as well as some that their customers may notice too.

Reduce Overhead

When the boxes are packaged and shipped from a fulfillment company, the subscription service doesn’t need to have a huge warehouse with products and boxes stored and ready to go. The fulfillment company will handle all of that for them.

This significantly reduces their overhead, as they won’t need as many employees, yet the customer service offered will not decrease. It’s easier to handle everything, and there’s no need to keep all of the supplies for the boxes on hand.

Easily Scale the Service

Typically, scaling up means expanding the warehouse space, adding new employees, increasing technology used, and more. This is not only expensive, but it’s also time-consuming as well since it’s not always easy to find new employees or a larger warehouse to use. This means it’s going to take a while for the subscription service to scale up.

With outsourcing, however, none of this is a concern for the subscription service. They simply increase the number of subscriptions sold, and the fulfillment company will handle the rest. No matter if the number of orders increases slowly over time or overnight, the fulfillment company can handle the scaling.

Better Shipping Offers

Shipping is always a concern. Companies want to provide the fastest and least expensive shipping options to their customers and may want to offer a few different options to make it easier for customers to choose whether they want the products faster or they want to save money. When the subscription service works with a fulfillment company, however, they can offer better shipping options to their customers. The fulfillment company has contracts with the major carriers, so it’s easier for them to get reduced rates, which can then be passed onto the customers.

Reduce Service Failures

A lot of things can go wrong when a subscription service handles the boxes on its own. Inventory issues, orders that are not accurate, and delays with delivery are all common and can not only cause issues for the company but create unhappy customers, as well.

When the subscription service takes advantage of outsourced subscription box fulfillment, there is less that will go wrong. The fulfillment centers already know how to avoid service failures and are designed to minimize the potential for anything to go wrong at any time in the process. 

Handle Returns Easier

Returns are going to happen. Some customers will be unhappy with the product received, or something may have been broken or damaged during shipping. When returns happen, they need to be handled properly to minimize waste and reduce potential issues.

With a fulfillment company, it’s easier for customers to do returns, and the process is already set in place, so there’s less room for any issues. Letting the fulfillment center handle the returns means that it’s easier to tackle everything about the returns, from shipping to checking the products and determining what to do with them.

Keep Up With Technology

The right software is crucial for any subscription service, but the cost of the software and the need for frequent updates can be a lot for a subscription service to handle. The fulfillment service, on the other hand, already has the latest technology implemented in their warehouses and offices, they already handle the updates regularly, and they make sure the systems used are state-of-the-art to help minimize potential issues the subscription service may have on their own.

Save Time

A big benefit of working with the fulfillment center is the amount of time that can be saved. Often, the company does more than just offer a subscription service to customers, so they need to be available for the other parts of the job as well. The subscription service does take a lot of time to handle, whether it’s updating technology, working on shipping issues, or just stocking the warehouse and packing all of the boxes to send out. Working with a fulfillment center means all of this is handled, so the subscription service can focus on other important aspects of their work, as well.

Why Work With the Pros?

For companies that offer subscription services, the right help is crucial if they’re going to outsource the fulfillment process for subscription boxes. Your Logistics offers top-of-the-line fulfillment for eCommerce businesses and subscription services. They offer transparent pricing, error-free order fulfillment, and increased efficiency to help any subscription service thrive. Services include warehousing, fulfillment, kitting, labeling, adding product inserts, and shipping, so the company doesn’t have to worry about anything on its own.

Subscription boxes are becoming increasingly popular with consumers, yet not every company is set up in a way that makes offering subscription services easy. When companies want to add subscription services, working with the pros at Your Logistics is the best way to get the job done without a huge increase in overhead, worries about fulfillment issues, or concerns about the logistics of the boxes. Before adding subscription boxes to the products you offer or scaling your subscription boxes to reach more customers, learn more about the benefits they can provide when you choose them for fulfillment.