E-commerce is slowly taking over the world which means, anyone who is involved in it or thinking about getting involved, needs to understand the logistics side of things. One of the basic concepts of e-commerce is that it is not based in a brick-and-mortar store. However, products do need a home until they are sent out to the customer. This is when e-commerce businesses rely on a third party to store and ship products. In other words, instead of customers going to a store to pick up what they want, the store is sending the product to the customer. This is when the logistics side of the equation comes into play.
Defining Logistics
In a nutshell, logistics in the context of e-commerce simply means the gathering of resources, stored and sent to the purchaser. All of this activity needs to be organized in such a way so that it achieves this specific purpose. The details can differ from one industry to another. However, it is possible to divide industries into two basic types; small and large companies. Large companies tend to establish relationships with multiple logistics companies and smaller companies tend to stick with one shipper.
Setting the Ball in Motion
For smaller businesses who run it from their home or brick-and-mortar location, once the customer puts in the order for the product, the inventory tracking software will adjust the inventory level automatically. All that the business owner needs to do is package and ship it to the right address. With larger companies using outsourced logistics, they will get an automatic notification and take care of the shipping part.
The fact is, no one can expect to run an online business these days without the help of e-commerce logistics services. With a company such as Sun Ship in their corner, logistics problems will be a thing of the past.
