When it doesn’t feel like you have time to run and grow your business, it might be time to look at third-party eCommerce solutions. These services, chosen wisely, can help your business succeed while you focus on other aspects of your business. One solution that growing companies often overlook is fulfillment. Red Stag Fulfillment offers third-party eCommerce fulfillment and order support services.
There are plenty of opportunities to outsource eCommerce solutions and operations to help you stay afloat while running your business. Let’s look at the best third-party eCommerce solutions that can benefit your business.
Best types of third-party eCommerce solutions
It’s possible to outsource many aspects of your eCommerce business. There is a wide array of third-party solutions. Here are some of the best outsourcing options to free up time for you to focus on sales, products, and growth.
Please note that these companies serve as examples for each category. Red Stag is not making a specific recommendation. Every business deserves a custom approach and set of partners to accomplish its specific needs.
Technology management/IT support
Technology is ever-changing, and managing this can be overwhelming. By outsourcing to the right third-party solutions, your business can continue operating with a great tech/IT team that supports growth. But it can be challenging to know who to choose.
NetSuite
NetSuite is a comprehensive platform that can be suitable for a business of any size. The company’s offerings are nearly endless — ranging from marketing solutions to warehouse management. However, here we will discuss its IT/technology management services.
NetSuite’s Support program gives your business the capabilities it needs when things go awry. Premium Support offers 24/7 emergency support assistance, online case submission, and telephone case submission, while Advanced Partner Support (APS) offers product expertise/guidance, data conversion strategy, and unlimited authorized users.
Digital marketing and social media management
Digital marketing is important for a business to get its name out there, but it can be difficult to figure out where to start. Developing an SEO strategy or email marketing campaign from scratch can seem like a large task for someone who hasn’t gone through the motions before. Even managing a social media account can pull your attention away from other important aspects of your business.
A social media presence for any B2C company is vital. With 59% of the global population using social media, it’s important to stay relevant and consistent within those platforms. If you don’t have the time to create native posts consistently on your business’s social platforms, it might be time to look at social media management solutions.
A third-party digital marketing and social media management solution can help. With the right platform, you can manage your entire digital marketing and social media campaigns with your paid social efforts, add tags to your website to see who’s viewing your ads, and create email marketing campaigns. HubSpot can do this and so much more.
HubSpot
HubSpot’s CRM platform features everything you need for your business. The platform offers marketing, sales, content management, and customer service. HubSpot’s Marketing Hub™ offers free tools and premium editions to help generate leads, create forms, aid in email marketing, and help create social media ads. However, premium editions allow you to run a complete inbound marketing campaign with HubSpot’s all-in-one software.
Within the Marketing Hub, you can create monthly social media calendars, schedule posts, monitor your social pages, and analyze data from your organic strategy.
Order Fulfillment
For order fulfillment, we always recommend that companies outsource. Working with a 3PL like Red Stag Fulfillment allows you to have accurate picking and packing and on-time shipping. How? 3PLs have the advantage of years of picking, packing, and shipping experience. And companies like us have connections to national carriers to provide cost-efficient and faster shipping and delivery.
Red Stag Fulfillment
At Red Stag Fulfillment, we value our clients and want them to succeed. We do the heavy lifting of eCommerce fulfillment so our clients can focus on other aspects of their business. We offer a variety of guarantees, including a zero shrinkage commitment and 100% order accuracy. However, it doesn’t stop there. Our strategically placed warehouses can reach 96% of the continental U.S. within two days. Plus, we work with warehouse management software to ensure our accuracy is nearly perfect, allowing our clients to track their packages as they make their way through our warehouses.
Online eCommerce Platform
Probably the biggest outsourcing decision for your eCommerce business will be your online store. While you could try to create your online store on your own, there are many options to choose from for online eCommerce platform solutions. Commercial platforms allow you to focus your time and resources on other aspects of the business.
But, which one should you use? Here are two of the most popular platforms to help you start thinking about your options.
Shopify
Shopify is an all-in-one eCommerce platform. You can start your business through the site and even manage online payments. With millions of businesses in 175 countries, Shopify is the perfect option for small businesses and startups. And the payment options vary based on your business needs: Basic, Shopify, and Advanced. Basic gives you everything you need to start up your store. Shopify boosts your business by providing professional reports and allowing more staff accounts.
Lastly, the Advanced subscription gives you everything on the other tiers, along with custom reporting and lower transaction fees.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce provides third-party eCommerce solutions for businesses that want to scale in growth. This platform allows for multi-storefronts, wholesale, and international integrations for your online business. It also provides launch support and success services to ensure your business runs and scales without issues.
Find the right third-party eCommerce solution
It can be challenging to figure out which cog in your business’ machine to outsource to third-party solutions, but you don’t have to do it alone. We’ve provided some great options as you start to grow your business, and there is so much more out there. Do your research to find the right third-party solution.
If you’re still in the search, we’ve pulled together some great articles and guides to help aid you in your decision.
