Just how important is delivery cost, delivery speed and ease of return to online shoppers? Has customer service become even more important than the product? The question arises as fulfillment companies contend with customer expectations that have risen, due in part to Amazon’s focus on customer service.
AMS Fulfillment recently became a bi-coastal fulfillment company with the acquisition of an exceptional fulfillment company located in Pennsylvania and Delaware, EchoData Group. We had worked in partnership with EchoData for two years prior to the acquisition and so were familiar with the high quality of this company, which has been in operation for 36 years.
The acquisition offers an ideal bi-coastal environment for AMS clients, allowing us to bring inventories closer to the end customer, which of course makes AMS even more competitive with delivery cost and delivery speed.
With the ever-rising transportation costs and lower required delivery days, it becomes much more important to have multiple distribution sites. Between our bi-coastal warehouses, typical shipping transport times are roughly half of what they would be if traversing the entire country and are also less expensive. If inventories are managed properly with a dual warehouse system, customers will receive the fastest possible shipping times all the time and, on every order, thus shipping cost will also be reduced on every order.
The U.S. entered the 24/7 business cycle many years ago, and we have now expanded into a global reach business cycle. It has become a huge logistical focus, keeping up with the frontrunners that can adequately perform. This means not just concentrating on great customer service domestically but Worldwide. Many shippers are not only looking at domestic distribution optimization, but how we can get delivery to other countries more quickly and more cost effectively.
The big carriers are racing to pull in more of this global market by providing numerous services to get products shipped reliably offshore. Of course, we welcome this additional competition as it helps provide better service levels and rates.
AMS is always looking for better and more efficient ways to ship globally as we expand sites domestically. We also have our eyes on the Global Optimization reach. AMS has several global ship programs available to customize your shipping needs from their multiple ship points.
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About the Freight Freak:
John Bevacqua is the VP of Logistics at AMS Fulfillment. His area of excellence is in creating distribution and fulfillment operations that function as a capable interface between suppliers, retailers, and wholesale distributors. His experience includes developing and leading FedEx/ Kinko’s Distribution Services into the FedEx post acquisition, USA Wireless Technologies, and a top Logistics Management company. He has also worked with third party fulfillment companies, preparing him for his current position with AMS Fulfillment.