Third-Party Logistics, or 3PL, helps businesses outsource important aspects of their operations, giving them the ability to rely on experts to manage things like warehousing and shipping. By working with a 3PL provider, businesses are not only able to save time, but they’re also ensuring better-operating systems for their customers and their own bottom line.

Each 3PL business is unique, which means they offer different services to companies. Generally speaking, however, third-party logistics includes:

• Warehousing
• Transportation
• Inventory forecasting
• Picking and packing
• Order fulfillment
• Packaging
• Freight forwarding

While a 3PL company isn’t the right fit for all businesses, it can provide several benefits that are worth considering. Some of the biggest advantages to working with a third-party logistics provider include:

1. Having more time to focus on other parts of your business. When you work with a 3PL provider, you allow experts to focus on details of your business that might be difficult for you to understand or just simply too time-consuming.
2. Lowering the cost of your operations. A 3PL provider can give you lower costs for things like shipping because they work in more volume and with more frequency. By lowering costs, you can reallocate money to other parts of your business, which helps you to scale without as much risk.
3. Improving the experience for your customers. 3PL services allow you to make your business more efficient and reliable, which means that your customers have an overall better experience. Outsourcing these tasks for your business alleviates the demand for yourself and your employees, which means you can focus your attention on other important tasks.
4. Growing into new markets. The right 3PL service can help you easily expand into new markets, including internationally, without requiring you to make major changes to your business. This flexibility helps you test the feasibility of new target audiences and allows you to go “all in” when you find a lucrative niche.
5. Working with industry experts. Most business owners, especially those just starting out, don’t know a whole lot about the nuances of shipping and other business logistics. Rather than having to devote time to learning this whole new industry, working with a 3PL business gives you expert advice and guidance so that you make fewer mistakes and lose less money.

Because third-party logistics companies are specialists in warehousing, shipping, and other order fulfillment details, working with them ensures you that you’re doing things right for your business. And when you’re ready to grow and scale, a 3PL can help make the process easy for your business, guiding you so that you don’t make costly errors. By allowing experts to do what they do best, you get back your time, which means that you can do more of what you love and are good at.