Shopify is an all-inclusive platform that enables merchants to set up an online store and sell their products. This shopping cart software provides ecommerce brands with everything they need to sell online, including hosting, order management, and anything for accepting orders from customers within a matter of hours.

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Today, there are over 4 million ecommerce stores built by Shopify. Moreover, Shopify has generated sales worth $200 billion to date.

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With the boon of independent online stores, some roadblocks still hinder the growth potential of Shopify store owners.

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For instance, it can be challenging for Shopify store owners to ensure seamless Shopify fulfilment and a delightful customer experience. Luckily, 3PL (third-party logistics) providers can help Shopify stores to improve their supply chain, delight their customers and build loyalty.  Let’s find out more about it.

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In this blog, you will learn why Shopify sellers need a 3PL and how to choose a 3PL for your Shopify Store.

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Why do Shopify sellers need a 3PL partner?

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A 3PL is a great partner to help take care of Shopify fulfilment, inventory planning and shipping while saving on costs. By moving from in-house to outsourced fulfilment, you’ll ideally have more time to iterate new products and focus on marketing and other core operations.

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A 3PL partner can give you the ready infrastructure to manage your ecommerce operations, ensure effective order processing, reduce fulfilment costs, gain a geographic footprint with multiple warehouses in India and much more benefits. Ultimately, a 3PL partner can turn ecommerce fulfilment into a revenue driver.

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If you fail to address this necessity, this can result in missed timelines, poor order accuracy, slow shipping speed, or ordinary packaging. Ultimately, it can hamper the customer experience all at once and may cost brand loyalty. That’s why a 3PL is imperative for your Shopify business.

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73% of 3PL users agree that 3PLs provide new and innovative ways to improve logistics effectiveness.

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Now, let’s see how to vet your options to choose the right 3PL for your Shopify store.

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How to choose a 3PL for your Shopify Store?

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1. Pre-built integrations and open APIs for easy integration

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Integration isn’t just about connecting your online business with Shopify, it’s about automating your business operations and managing your day-to-day. However, integrations are often complex, time-consuming, and require expertise. So you need a 3PL provider that facilitates easy integration.

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Fortunately, you can connect your Shopify store with Eshopbox in just a few steps within a matter of minutes. You can integrate within a few clicks without any developer effort or custom integration.

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2. Automated order fulfillment for error-free and efficient operations

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When handled manually, critical and repetitive tasks can become prone to human errors and result in a loss of efficiency. Here's where you need a tech-enabled 3PL to automate everything from basic tasks to complex processes.

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With Eshopbox, you can streamline your Shopify operations with the technology that enables you to innovate workflows. As soon as an order is placed on your Shopify store, it is automatically pushed to the Eshopbox workspace. Then, the order is picked, packed and shipped from the fulfilment centre nearest to the customer location. Eshopbox also ensures complete transparency so you can track the entire order fulfilment process in real time —from order confirmation to order delivery and even returns or exchanges.

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3. Multiple warehouses across the country to distribute your inventory

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Distributing your inventory is crucial to achieving a significant increase in shipping speed and a reduction in shipping costs. However, effectively distributing your inventory is tricky. You need a 3PL that has multiple ecommerce warehouses spread across the country and expertise to strategise inventory allocation based on customer demand.

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Eshopbox enables strategic allocation of inventory with data-driven analytics to plan your ideal inventory distribution based on your historical data and customer demand. You can split and store your inventory across multiple fulfilment centres to place them closer to your customers. This saves you transit time, shipping costs, and grants you the ability to serve your customers better.

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4. Fast Shopify shipping to compete with major marketplaces

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Today’s customers expect affordable and lightning-fast shipping everywhere they shop online. A 3PL can make it possible on your Shopify store.

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Eshopbox chooses the fastest and most cost-effective shipping options when an order is placed on your Shopify store. You can choose from various shipping options and display badges like same-day delivery, 2-day shipping, and express shipping powered by Eshopbox’s powerful technology and network of fulfilment centres.

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5. Superior inventory management to ensure incredible accuracy

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Keeping track of your inventory is fundamental to your success in ecommerce. The stock levels constantly fluctuate with every transaction and if you try to manage your operations manually, it will be too hard to handle and prone to human errors. You need a 3PL that allows you to track your inventory across your supply chain and manages it effectively.

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‍Eshopbox empowers you with complete real-time visibility of your Shopify inventory at all stages-from order confirmation to delivery. You can view the inventory by status, and quantity on hand across fulfilment centres. Such visibility enables you to avoid stockouts and plan when you need to reorder inventory for your Shopify store. Moreover, you can gain insights into the performance of your Shopify store like slow-moving inventory, inventory turnover, and other ecommerce metrics.

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6. Engaging and branded post-purchase journey to improve customer experience

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Customer experience is driving the ecommerce market in a new direction. Online shoppers want a lot more from ecommerce brands. Simultaneously, marketplaces like Amazon and Myntra have set some high standards for a great shopping experience. This has raised expectations from from Shopify stores too—from estimated date of delivery and real-time order tracking to proactive order notifications and the easiest way to offer returns and exchanges. Thus, you require a 3PL provider that helps you deliver a great post-purchase experience to delight customers.

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An end-to end- fulfilment provider like Eshopbox gives you access to a self-service portal for a superior customer experience that facilitates the following:

• Estimated date of order delivery so that your customers know when their order will arrive
• Branded order tracking page with real-time order tracking so that your customers have complete visibility of their orders at any given time
• Easy returns and exchanges that can be initiated within a few clicks—leaving the hassle out of the returns process

Apart from the customer portal, you can enhance the customer experience in the following ways:

• Proactive order updates via email and SMS throughout the fulfilment process
• Branded and custom packaging to curate highly personalised unboxing experiences for your customers and differentiate your brand with an option to go eco-friendly

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Top online stores lead in customer experience (CX) 80% of the time.

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Wrapping up

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Shopify stores are the future of ecommerce and their success majorly depends on your order fulfilment capabilities and ability to delight customers. If you want to scale your Shopify store, you need a 3PL partner that can enable you to leverage robust technology, infrastructure, and experience to drive you in the right direction.