How to Grow Business and Customers with a 3PL

Manufacturers and retailers face a common supply chain dilemma: how to continue to grow business without compromising their profit margins. It’s a dicey proposition filled with promise and uncertainty, though the solution is often found in a third-party logistics (3PL) partnership.  

Defining Expansion Is Step One

Depending on the type of industry, product offerings, customer base, storage needs, and transportation requirements—business scalability can undoubtedly open the door to greater success if costs are managed. Manufacturers and retailers scaling for the first time may be unaware of what that entails and what to prepare for.   

Business growth is bigger than rolling up sleeves and getting hands dirty. It’s juggling more balls in the air without missing a beat. And if there’s no extra set of expert hands to help handle the increased operational load, mistakes happen. 

Prioritize Goals, Identify Spend

Before embarking on supply chain growth initiatives, it’s important to know what the overall goal is before mapping out a plan to achieve it. 

The business may be adding more brands, introducing new product lines, or consolidating operations in one area to make room for growth in another. Changes in supply and demand for materials may also have a major impact on logistics strategies. Establishing clear goals and providing visibility into historical challenges can be the key to setting up for future success. Whenever a company decides to grow business, there are tangible and intangible elements to be considered and how each will impact operations and brand position. 

Gaging how to effectively manage storage and distribution logistics requires enabling accountability, visibility, and agility across operations. At the same time, knowing how to grow business also means looking at the intangibles—the company mission, vision, and long-term goals—ensuring they continue to support the tangibles throughout business growth cycles. 

By creating an easy-to-refer-to template detailing concrete and abstract goals, and identifying the innovation needed to establish and sustain business growth, the costs to come can be shopped, negotiated, and monitored. And by working with a 3PL provider specializing in order fulfillment, meeting growth and exceeding its potential is maximized by improving the customer experience.  

Navigating the unexpected

No matter how long a business has been operating, there’s always something new to learn. And for every anticipated situation, there’s an unexpected unforgettable one, too.  

Supply chain strikes, transportation disputes, an aging workforce, and human error can make finding reliable order fulfillment and logistics challenging.  New trade regulations, tariffs, and customs processing requirements add more time and stress to trade, making components, building materials, and sensitive products moving across borders more difficult. These are some of the reasons why partnering with a 3PL provider that has seen and done it all can help businesses stay on track and meet their projections. 

Finding a 3PL growth partner

Even the most seasoned companies experience new challenges each time another growth cycle begins. For those instances and for startups getting their first taste of business growth, how to go about it sensibly could involve discussions with a 3PL. However, before the conversation begins, here are some key details to determine if now is the right time for a third-party relationship. 

 Key considerations for choosing a 3pl partner

Each of the following topics will provide clues into how ready current operations are to handle scale and how much difference it would make to work alongside a 3PL: the costs, the impacts, and the objectives. Whether you’re a seasoned business scaling operations or a startup experiencing rapid expansion, growth brings new challenges at every stage. Partnering with a 3pl can be a momentous decision, but before making that move, businesses should assess key areas to determine if now is the right time. 

Cost management – how to grow with no surprises 

Expanding operations comes with financial complexity and corporations need to have a plan that includes scalable logistics costs without compromising productivity. 

• Evaluate the upfront and long-term costs for warehousing, transportation, and fulfillment 
• Cost fluctuations – plan for seasonal demand, disruptions, and inventory shifts  
• Leverage your 3PL’s cost-saving strategies such as consolidated shipping, improved inventory placement, and forecasting tools 

 Data-driven visibility  

Visibility across supply chains is synonymous with operational efficiency. And because customers and delivery to happen faster with more accuracy while fueling cost-savings, sharing real-time information is a must-have.   

Manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, warehouse and logistics operators are increasingly using data derived from IMS (Inventory Management System), WMS (Warehouse Management System), and OMS (Order Management System) technologies to forecast demand and adjust inventories, even in high-SKU environments. And when disruptions happen, data systems can offer quick-pivot solutions based on historical trends and current conditions—reducing risk. Plus, the data is another vehicle to pinpoint areas needing continuous improvement, and provide proof of what’s already working.  

Customer-centric drives quality service 

 As business booms, customer expectations start to grow as well. A reliable 3PL partner should be able to support expansion without compromising their service levels. A customer-first mentality should mean that scaling up doesn’t mean losing the trust of existing customers. Your 3PL should be able to: 

• Maintain fast and accurate order fulfillment even as order volume increases 
• Handle returns, customer inquiries, and order tracking to enhance the customer experience 

Risk mitigation 

Cyber-risk vulnerability is not an if but when, and because a single business is part of a larger supply chain, each time product changes hands from supplier or manufacturer through fulfillment to delivery, the threat increases. 

As business scales and success becomes more evident, to cyber criminals it’s ripe with ways to orchestrate an attack. 3PLs should reassess how backend systems, data gathered and stored, customer profiles, and financial information are protected and if privacy laws are being observed. A 3PL should have the infrastructure, trained personnel, and systems in place to proactively manage risks as business expands.  

Scale Efficiently with an Expert 3PL  

Choosing a growth-ready 3PL isn’t just about outsourcing logistics, it’s about gaining a partner that supports operational excellence, customer satisfaction, and overall growth. Strategic partnerships allow companies greater exposure to advantages they otherwise may not have access to, and the collaboration between them helps create more stability as businesses scale.  

Even when a business is happy with their existing 3PL company, businesses should gauge whether their provider is able to accommodate their next phase of expansion. Businesses should conduct regular evaluations and explore new opportunities to ensure that their logistics strategy is evolving with their goals.