How to Know If You Need a Dedicated Logistics Team

Perhaps you started out managing your own deliveries, but it's taking up too much of your time and you want to refocus on marketing & improving your product.

However, there’s something holding you back. You are worried you cannot afford it, that customer service will slip when you place it in someone else’s hands, and your profits will decrease. 

E-commerce retailers looking to scale their businesses often start outsourcing their logistics to focus in-house attention on other areas of the business. However, knowing when it’s time to hire out can be hard. And even if you hire out for elements of your logistics, do you still need an in-house logistics team to manage everything?

Your logistics is getting too big to handle and you want to expand your brand. Are you ready to hire a logistics team? And should you hire in-house employees or outsource?

There are a couple of considerations to make, and a process to follow that makes things simpler. We’ll walk you through it.

Read about CBIP's Adaptable 4PL Logistics Services

Know the signs that you need to hire a logistics team

• Your order volume has grown

What order volume do you need to be at before you need to hire a dedicated logistics team? That varies based on your business.

Most fulfillment providers want you to have a bare minimum of 100 orders per month before they take you on as a client, but doing over 100 orders doesn’t mean you need to hire a 3PL. 

However, the 100-order limit can be a helpful guideline. 

• Your market is expanding 

Realizing that your customer base is growing is exciting, but how can you handle customers on the other side of the country, or even the world, when you are running the show on your own?

Cross-border e-commerce has grown enormously in recent years. However, just because it has become popular, does not mean that it is easy to get right.

In fact, most sellers find that they need to invest in extra help to successfully sell their products across borders. Specifically, they need to invest in new technology and people in order to handle complex processes like clearing customs and fulfilling orders in a foreign nation.

• Logistics is taking away from your other business activities

Apart from numbers, the decision to hire additional resources comes down to you. Yes, building and managing a business is a full-time-plus job, but you shouldn’t feel like you are constantly underwater just managing the day-to-day stuff.

If you feel like you are just barely keeping your head above water doing the basics, it's going to be impossible to grow your business. In this case, it’s likely time to hire a dedicated team to take care of your logistics, letting you focus on other things to help your business expand and thrive.

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How to find a team

Many articles have been written about the trade-off: Should you hire in-house or outsource for a logistics team? We won’t cover that topic here, because you know the tradeoff is giving up some control but getting time back to do other things.

Whether you elect to hire an in-house team or outsource, you need to know how to find the right people for the job.

To find the right team to suit your needs and goals, use these tips:

1. Find out what your needs are first/define your scope

What is your order volume? How many warehouses do you have? Where are your suppliers located? If your brand continues to grow, can you continue with your current supplier, or will you need to find a new one?

These are all important questions to consider as your company grows. They are also important questions to consider before you go out and hire a logistics team

No matter what kind of team you hire, you need to make sure that those people can handle your current business, understand your scaling goals, and provide you with real value-growth opportunities.

When you go to hire a logistics team, you need to provide your potential candidates with as much information as possible. This will allow them to get you an accurate quote for their services, and it will ensure fulfillment runs smoothly when you decide to work together down the line.

Here is a list of items to put together for your logistics candidates:

• Monthly sales volumes
• Product weight and dimensions
• Number of SKUs you sell
• Packing specifications
• Location of your main customer base(s) 
• Supplier location(s)

2. Go shopping. Use your list and ask the following questions:

Once you understand your own goals and needs, you can bring them to various candidates for your logistics team. 

You can search for your candidates using a variety of sources: job boards on LinkedIn, providers that come recommended by similar companies — you can even attend networking events and seminars to meet potential candidates.

You should start a list of the most promising candidates and set up meetings with them. Discuss your volumes and goals to see if they will be able to take you on as a client/employer, and ask them the following questions to determine their skills:

• What is your communication turnaround rate? Will someone be available when I have an emergency/questions?
• Where can you enable value for my brand? 
• How can you help me scale my brand? 
• Are you able to take the time to understand my business and tailor services to fit my needs?
• How will you integrate with my team?

Consider a candidate that bridges the gap between in-house team and outsourced provider

Perhaps you have been shopping around for a little while, yet you still haven’t found the type of provider you are looking for.

The issue is that many retailers want elements of both: an outsourced provider who will allow them to take a hands-off approach when it comes to logistics, and an in-house team to take control of logistics and help them grow their business.

At CBIP Logistics, we meet you somewhere in the middle of the two. We are a 4PL, which technically means that we are an outsourced provider. Yet, our way of operating is quite different compared to other providers, as we prioritize becoming an integrated part of your team.

How do we do that? First, we get to know you and your company. We want to be your partner and your consultant for all supply chain and logistics matters, so we take the time to learn your goals, specifications, and how you like to manage your business.

Next, we set up your logistics for you, using partners from our global network. This is a simple process, because although they are all independent companies, we have all the partners(the warehouses, trucks, and ships) integrated with our online order management platform.

Once your logistics is set up, we take over managing, all while giving you a birds-eye view of all your operations through that same order management platform. 

And what happens when you want to scale your business to new places, and you need new providers and warehouse locations? Simple — we transfer your operations to another partner, while everything links seamlessly through our order management platform.

Interested in learning how to scale your business with agile global logistics? Give us a call for a free consultation any time.