#102 Greg Howlett from Cobblestone Trade: How Logistics & Fulfillment Affect Your Customer Experience

There’s a lot of talk about marketing and brand building surrounding eCommerce. However, that’s just one side of things. In today’s podcast, Greg Howlett from Cobblestone Trade and our podcast host and CEO, Daniel Budai will unbox the behind-the-scenes operations of an eCommerce brand. This episode will highlight the importance of logistics and fulfillment in enhancing customer experience.

Cobblestone Trade is an intelligent logistics company that delivers custom eCommerce solutions like warehousing and logistics, website development, customer service, Amazon specialist services, and end-to-end eCommerce consulting to increase a brand’s customer lifetime value.

This episode of The Ecom Show takes us through:

✔Greg’s journey into Logistics.

✔The different kinds of logistical solutions for eCommerce businesses.

✔How to enhance customer experience through logistics and fulfillment.

Let’s dive right in!

Greg’s Journey Into Logistics

Greg started his career as a software guy, working for Delta technology. It didn’t take long for Greg to realize that he didn’t enjoy software, and he quickly made the move to starting his own eCommerce store in 1999. He started by reselling retail products through his own online platform. Over the years, Greg has successfully built and sold multiple companies.

He also built an eCommerce brand from scratch and successfully exited it within the span of six years. That experience in particular made him realize that his strength lies in logistics and fulfillment, which is what drove him to start Cobblestone Trade.

Cobblestone Trade is an intelligent logistics solution for eCommerce brands that are looking for help in fulfillment and increasing lifetime customer value. They take over the day to day operations of a company by assisting with inventory management, customer service, fulfillment, brand management, price management, and advertising.

Different Kinds of Logistical Solutions for eCommerce Businesses

Let’s start by discussing how logistics and fulfillment can affect your brand before we jump into the different kinds of solutions available out there. There are several things involved in running your business. While having a good product and great marketing is essential, you can’t miss out on logistics and fulfillment when you look at delivering excellent customer experience.

Quick deliveries, great customer support both during and after sales, product availability, and brand transparency are qualities that all customers look for when they’re shopping online. This is precisely why Amazon is one of the most famous brands across the world.

As an eCommerce brand you have three options when you look at outsourcing your logistics and fulfillment:

1. Third party logistics: These are third party brands that offer warehousing and shipping solutions. They usually charge a monthly membership for warehousing, and charge a per order fee for providing shipping solutions. eCommerce brands can easily create an account and get started. This is ideal for brands looking to get their inventory out of their basement, and outsource without heavy investment costs. However, third party logistics often have hidden costs, and brands rely heavily on the service of their third party provider. The brand has to take accountability for order delays, and lost shipments.
2. Amazon: Amazon provides eCommerce brands with a listing spot on one of the busiest websites on the internet. Brands can leverage advertisements to secure higher search volume on the website. They also offer fulfillment and shipping options which make it convenient for sellers to get started in the world of eCommerce. Customer retention is the main issue with Amazon. They don’t provide the sellers with information about the buyer, this means that it is much harder to get repeat customers on Amazon.
3. Cobblestone Trade: Cobblestone Trade goes beyond the traditional duties of logistics and fulfillment. They partner up with businesses and take over the end-to-end operations of an eCommerce brand. They assist with everything from optimizing the website, to setting up systems and processes for scaling eCommerce logistics, and customer service.     

How to Enhance Customer Experience Through Logistics and Fulfillment

Logistics and fulfillment are the two pillars that all eCommerce businesses rely on for smooth operations. It’s no secret that having smooth daily operations will help you create a trustworthy and credible brand in the long-term. Both of these terms cover a broad range of elements ranging from product availability to deliveries and after sales support.

It basically comprises all the backend work that goes into providing customers exactly what they need, such as:

• On-time delivery: If you’re a brick and mortar store shipping out of your basement, handling even 10 orders a day can seem time consuming. This gets even more complicated when you add express deliveries, and returns/exchanges to the mix. Outsourcing logistics and fulfillment enables brands to seamlessly scale the number of orders they ship out, and in turn reduces the order processing time. There’s nothing customers love more than quick shipping.
• Order fill rate: Order fill rate is the percentage of wholesale orders that are filled. This is a metric that enables eCommerce businesses to calculate how much inventory they have in hand. As a brand you don’t want customers to turn away from your website because 70% of your products are sold out, on the other hand you don’t want to be sitting on a huge pile of unsold inventory as well. Inventory management is a skill that can make or break your eCommerce business.
• Customer support: There’s nothing customers hate more than a complicated customer service line with too many touchpoints. While automation is great, it’s essential for businesses to know what they should automate, and use human support for customer escalations. For instance: Sending out order confirmation and tracking details can be automated, however, customers would prefer having human assistance if their order gets lost in transition.
• Brand management: There are a ton of eCommerce brands selling similar products. Infact, the market is flooded with individuals selling counterfeit products from popular brands. As you grow, it becomes increasingly important for you to police the internet and keep a lookout for counterfeit products, or unauthorized retailers that are trying to misrepresent your brand.
• Exposure: Having an omni-channel presence for your products increases your visibility and makes it easier for customers to buy your products. However, each platform has their own set of regulations and compliances to list products. eCommerce businesses need to have a flexible and strong logistical solution in place to supply to multiple platforms like Amazon, Walmart, Target, etc.     

Check out Cobblestone Trade for more expert advice on logistics and fulfillment.

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