When you’re starting your own business from the ground up, it makes complete sense to handle all business tasks on your own. After all, it’s your business, and you’re in charge. However, it might only be a matter of time until you realize it makes business sense to outsource some tasks to other businesses and companies.
Here are just a few of the many benefits you might enjoy by outsourcing inventory management to a third party.
1. Faster Shipping to Customers
Shipping time frames can be problematic if you live in an outlying state or an isolated country. Customers might expect fast shipping, but you won’t always be able to provide it due to your location. However, businesses offering inventory management can sometimes solve this problem if they have a centrally-located warehouse.
For example, GovernmentProcurement.com prides itself on storage and distribution, with significant inventories of supplies, parts, and equipment housed within a 42,000-square-foot warehouse. Their central location means their clients purchasing aerospace parts from them can enjoy short shipping routes to both coasts.
2. Improve Your Process Efficiency
It’s easy for your attention to be dragged away from your core business tasks when you’re so busy focusing on your inventory. Improve your process efficiency by outsourcing inventory management to a business solely focused on taking care of inventory. When you outsource such a resource-intensive task, you can concentrate on advertising, marketing, and providing superior customer service.
3. Save Space and Money
Warehouse space is expensive, with the average business owner having to part with rental payments of $9.54 per square foot in the United States. This can equate to tens of thousands of dollars annually. When you outsource inventory management, you don’t require as much space and can often lease or rent much smaller premises for your daily operations.
In part, space and money savings are what make dropshipping retail operations so popular with entrepreneurs and business owners. They can work from the comfort of their own home while still having access to a significant amount of merchandise to satisfy their customers’ buying needs.
4. Lower Unit Rate Costs
When you have limited space, you might only order limited quantities of products to suit your storage facility or business. As a result, you don’t always benefit from competitive unit rates that contribute to higher profit margins. That can often change when you outsource inventory management. You can purchase bulk stock quantities, store them with your inventory manager, and take advantage of bulk deals.
5. Benefit from Experts
Business owners wear many hats, but you don’t have to wear them all. You might be an expert in your field, but that doesn’t mean you’re an expert in inventory management. Rather than spend countless hours getting up to speed with the intricacies of stock control and management, save yourself a great deal of stress by taking advantage of people who are already experts and can handle it for you.
As eager as you might be to handle all parts of business ownership on your own, it’s not always practical. Sometimes, it can even be more helpful and profitable not to do everything yourself. If you’ve been unsure about outsourcing inventory management, the advantages above might be the incentive you need to explore this helpful service sooner rather than later.
