Pick & Pack / Warehouse & Distribution companies

[gigabean-au]

Hey everyone,

We use a company in NSW which holds all our stock and each night we send them a spreadsheet of what orders we've made for the day and they send them out for us - saves us a bunch of time and of course they charge for this service. 

We'd been very happy with them up until recently but now there seems to be more errors than we'd like and we're starting to look at other potential options. So we're looking for recommendations of where we might take our business if you have any good experiences with companies that would do the job.

Obviously this could be a good thread for a number of people who are looking to stop doing all the boxing up and sending themselves and handing that off to someone else.

Thanks to anyone who can help out!

[autopartsmate]

As we rely on Australia Post, Couriers, and staff to maintain our reputation and income.  I now have 3 people that take care of my packing and sending, all within my warehousing, however, I dont have the time to oversee what they are doing, and instead, when required, deal with any issues that may arise. It is basic business sense to utilise the services of others, whether they be in house, or outsourced.

[gigabean-au]

phorum_junkie - without that service, our business wouldn't be able to sell as much as it does. No drop-shipping involved btw.

We started off with all the stock in my garage and we'd be boxing it up and sending it out each day and it was really the biggest time drain plus it meant I didn't have much of a garage anymore. 

Fast forward two years later and there is no chance I could fit all our stock in the garage even if there was nothing else in it. Some of our iPad compatible tower speakers are 1m tall and 15kg - get a few hundred of those in one order and that's taking up a lot of room just on that one product! I also work full-time elsewhere these days which I wouldn't be able to do if I had to deal with sending out the daily orders. 

We have had very minimal complaints about postage time, if you look at our non-positive feedback it's very rarely to do with postage time (maybe one neutral mentions it iirc) so I don't think it has negatively affected our business so far. The last week has been an abnormality and I'm not 100% convinced we're going to switch companies yet, just want to see what else is out there. All customers who have been getting delayed parcels have had their entire postage costs refunded or otherwise been getting refunds of a similar nature or upgrades to better products in some cases. We'll look after our customers 🙂

I guess you're right - maybe I do waffle a bit!

[brizzybee63]

gigabean-au ... I think your listings look GREAT!  Seems like heaps of information for those of us who are tech friendly.  Sometimes, especially with technical items, people don't have enough information.  I know that my hubby always ask specific questions and most listings don't have it, or even if you go in to a store the sales person has a dazed look.  Keep doing what you are doing, because obviously if it wasn't working, you wouldn't be getting the sales.  Some things works for some people and other things work for others.  I would have a different opinion if you weren't getting the sale.

[gigabean-au]

You're right in that some people want a little info and some want a lot - we found if we excluded some of the more technical info we would get a lot more emails from people asking for it - we generally try and separate the listings into different sections so people who prefer the advertising spiel can just read that and those who want to know specs can easily get what they need.

Thanks for the feedback on our listings 🙂

[bede3823]

yeah i reckon your listings are pretty cool as well.

Mate your in a dificult category but seem to be doing well.

I'd buy something off you anyday, keep it up.

[gigabean-au]

Thanks very much, I appreciate it 🙂

[beez*kneez]

well done auto .. can i ask you , from another thread, do you change the item location in the listings for the items that are drop shipped ?

🙂

[beez*kneez]

hi, personally i find every word you write quite uplifting & encouraging! you are the great aust story of a small business growing too much for the family home , what we'd all like 🙂

[*new2vintage]

Congratulations on recycling a 2 month old thread.

[thecatspjs]

May be a 2 month old thread - but if it has relevance to the poster good on them for posting  🙂

I too find the OPs business growth inspiring.