If you want to reach the growing ecommerce world, you need a robust plan for North American fulfillment. With more than 579 million people across 24 countries, North America represents a massive opportunity for any company and class of products. You can grow by targeting a single location or many.
Regional partners can make this significantly more manageable. For example, at Red Stag Fulfillment, we fulfill orders across North American countries from our U.S. fulfillment centers. We can help you with orders placed on your website or popular international marketplaces. Our network supports delivery to new customer places like El Salvador, Belize, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and many more markets. With a potential customer base this size—and a continent that’s more than 9.5 million square miles—it’s worth it to find an experienced partner.
Learn how a North American partner can help you manage inventory, fulfill orders, and support your trade compliance in different countries.
Here are a few considerations your business should know about international ecommerce.
Your customers don’t think about North American fulfillment
Your customers don’t care how you fulfill orders. They just want to know if you provide quick, reliable delivery to their destination country.
Two-day shipping promises and coverage maps may help you increase sales. When a new customer buys from your brand, they can see your shipping times by North American destination country and feel good about ordering from you. Also, consider website plugins that give estimates within shopping carts for shipping prices and any import duties.
Information and maps provide an immediate answer to the question: “Can I order this?” They also make your fulfillment look more reliable and make promises more trustworthy. If you outsource your fulfillment, consider using coverage maps from those third-party logistics firms (3PLs).
Learn more about U.S. inventory management and program fees.
Fulfill orders and handle returns across North America
Customers want to know that they can rely on you for everything you promise. If you offer a service to your core customer base, try to expand it to as much of your audience as possible. That means offering high-quality products, fast shipping, and returns.
Work with a company like Red Stag Fulfillment to help you handle shipping and returns across all of your fulfillment. When you have an established partner, you can optimize deliveries to avoid higher fulfillment fees than necessary. We can also help you manage the typical spike of year-end holiday returns on eligible items, including full processing and inventory updates at each of our fulfillment centers.
We’ll help your customers make their return to the closest facility, reducing your program fees and speeding up inventory reallocation. Your partner’s goal should always be to reduce the amount of time any product spends out of circulation. The more reliable your partner, the better you can avoid backorders too.
Manage seasonality with North American remote fulfillment
Seasonality differs significantly for ecommerce companies. Even when sales follow the weather, it flows across the continent to continually meet new audiences. Moving North and South around the continent also brings big swings in weather, temperament, and access at any point in the year.
With North American remote fulfillment, you should be able to follow these realities without interruption or any great difference. The best sales opportunities for you deserve a strong backing, no matter when they happen.
Your fulfillment partner should remove as many seasonal restrictions and limitations as possible to meet this. You should be able to scale inventory and order support as your company needs it. Whether ahead of holidays or your busy season, space shouldn’t get in the way of fulfillment.
This need is the main reason ecommerce companies start thinking about outsourcing fulfillment. By working with a 3PL like Red Stag Fulfillment, you get access to the space you need as you need it. That means no signing another lease or breaking new ground to expand a warehouse or move operations. Shelves are ready and waiting for your growth.
In lean months, you can reduce inventory count and still only pay for what you need. Outsourcing lets you avoid expenses around empty space in your warehouse.
How remote fulfillment can optimize your deliveries
By offering multiple fulfillment centers, 3PLs like Red Stag Fulfillment can help you reach customers across North America quickly and efficiently. When a new customer places an order, their package arrives in a few days with no hassle. They’ll appreciate your capabilities and give you all credit while your fulfillment centers ensure a smooth delivery.
One important thing to discuss with your 3PL is the location of their fulfillment centers and how these impact elements such as shipping time and import duties or customs. Using multiple locations gives you two benefits related to shortening the distance between starting point and destination. It’s faster for a carrier to move goods a shorter distance, and they may charge you less if you’re shipping across fewer zones.
To make the most of any partnership, get a firm idea of their import support. Look for North American remote fulfillment that makes it simple to ship to Canada and the U.S. A partner will help you calculate and predict costs, look for opportunities to minimize expenses, and work with carriers to establish rates right for your business.
How to satisfy other countries’ rules
A remote fulfillment partner may be able to help you handle destination country regulations, including shipping, import duties, and other trade compliance matters. Ask directly how they can help you meet eligibility requirements to introduce your brand to new marketplaces—without paying higher fulfillment fees or referral fees. At Red Stag, we make it easy for you to manage speed, cost, and other fulfillment requirements on our dashboard, where you can work with freight forwarding and export partners to establish an unbroken chain of custody.
We’ll track government and carrier requirements for every order. This may help you spot when you may need to comply with other countries’ rules to do things like pay taxes to satisfy local tax codes. Keep your business running smoothly while our experts help you avoid higher fulfillment fees, minimize your costs, protect products, and keep customers happy.
Ready to expand your North American fulfillment reach?
You deserve a reliable partner to help you fulfill orders. That’s true if you’re a U.S. company looking to reach more customers or want to set a firm foothold in North America as your next export target.
Instead of struggling with self-fulfillment or trying to master new carrier relationships, you can dedicate your time to business concerns like new listings for your inventory, how to pay taxes, and meet other industry regulations.
Consider outsourcing your inventory fulfillment to RSF. Our experts can help you understand expenses, create predictable costs, and minimize shipping times and pricing from our centrally located fulfillment centers. We’ll help you establish new North American customer geographies and expand your carrier relationships. Using a partner network that includes freight forwarders, we’ll assist you with exporting inventory and container consolidation, among other needs.
Reduce complexity and increase reach with a reliable partner that can help you fulfill orders to more North American destinations.
