The E-commerce industry has certainly flourished into one of the biggest and most profitable business ventures of the 2020s. With a marvelous growth rate of 8.9% in 2023, as well as a projected sales increase of 50% for the US alone in 2023, as reported by Oberlo. E-commerce is on track to overtake the retail industry and become the primary medium of sales worldwide.
With corporations like Amazon and eBay standing as pillars of the E-commerce industry, what could possibly go wrong?
Well, a lot could go wrong, actually.
One of the biggest consequences of the immense boom of the e-commerce industry is the influx of regular folks trying to set up a secondary income stream on the side without much knowledge of how everything works.
And without the knowledge of how to successfully manage an e-commerce business, the whole operation can fall apart and the next thing you know, you have an angry mob of dissatisfied customers at your doorstep. This can have disastrous implications for the entire industry, as such actors through their ignorance may unwittingly end up eventually breaking the wider consumer base’s trust in e-commerce.
To prevent any such incidents from occurring, and to provide general awareness about e-commerce business management, Expertise Accelerated’s supply chain management specialists thought it best to present outsourcing supply chain management as a viable solution to one of the most common problems seen in the e-commerce landscape.
This guide discusses outsourcing in supply chain management, and why it is not only the right solution for your e-commerce business but also the future of supply chain management in the e-commerce industry.
Table of Contents
What is Outsourcing in Supply Chain Management?
Outsourcing in supply chain management entails contracting a third-party supply chain management service provider, such as EA, to take on the responsibility for your e-commerce business’ supply chain. This includes responsibilities such as logistics, warehousing, inventory management, and Supplier Relationship Management (SRM).
Outsourcing as an industry has been growing steadily for the last two decades and, in the wake of the pandemic —which proved the success of the remote work model— has undergone quite a boost in popularity. Businesses worldwide are handing over responsibilities such as accounting and finance, IT, project management, etc., to remote talents across the world. What used to be a cheaper way of hiring labor for grunt work and menial tasks has now transformed into a booming industry of experts and professionals whose talents can be leveraged by US businesses through mutually beneficial business relationships.
When it comes to the success rate of outsourcing in supply chain management, the numbers are very promising. As reported in a 2017 survey by SupplyChain247, before the pandemic when outsourcing really took off, 95% of businesses leveraging third-party outsourced supply chain management reported positive experiences. With the progress in technology and methodology available to us today, six years later, outsourcing has gotten far more streamlined and lucrative, and the industry culture surrounding it has fostered a global community of professionals who are an asset to any business, especially to the e-commerce industry.
The Benefits of Outsourcing in Supply Chain Management
Time Savings
When you outsource, you are essentially hiring an employee to do the supply chain management for you, but there is a key difference. Where regular hiring requires you as the entrepreneur to painstakingly sift through tens or hundreds of resumes to find the right person to manage your supply chain, outsourcing in supply chain management does all the work for you.
Basically, with outsourcing in supply chain management, you are paying the service provider to find you the person you need. Oftentimes, entrepreneurs aren’t even sure what they should be looking for, and a competent outsourcing firm can help provide insight and advice to help you figure out your needs and wants. After that, it’s up to the firm to track down and find you the supply chain professional you need.
By subverting the hiring process in this way, you can save yourself months of trouble and mundane work, as indicated by the 41-day average hiring cycle duration reported by Workable. Instead, narrow your focus to developing your e-commerce business instead. For a relatively low cost, you can have a firm do all the talent-hunting for you while you focus on the real meat of the business.
Cost Savings
The biggest reason to leverage outsourcing in supply chain management is undoubtedly the cost-benefit analysis of the proposition. Outsourcing in supply chain management is significantly less costly than hiring from within the US.
Taking a quick glance at Salary.com, supply chain management professionals on average make $122,265 annually. This is a ludicrous amount of money required for the job, and while it is completely justified in the context of the US job market, it is still a cost most e-commerce businesses would shy away from.
Meanwhile, using EA’s demand and supply planning and management services as an example, it would cost US businesses a fraction of the cost to hire a remote outsourced professional without any drop in performance. This is the true beauty of outsourcing in supply chain management for e-commerce businesses, and why we believe it to be the future of supply chain management in the industry.
Because e-commerce is already an entirely online business model, supply chains most of the time need to be managed remotely. Outsourcing to the global talent pool is virtually indistinguishable in performance from having a professional from the US doing the same thing while providing significant cost savings.
Leveraging Expertise
One of the key features of outsourcing in supply chain management is the availability of experts within the profession. There is a wide variety of methods to manage supply chains, and every e-commerce business’ supply chain needs are different.
Having access to professionals who can provide expert input for bettering your supply chain management is an invaluable benefit of outsourcing. While sure, this can be achieved with US professionals as well, the difficulty arises in the cost; because such expertise is valued and comes at an inflated price tag that most can’t afford.
With outsourcing, the cost is already significantly more palatable, and the presence of expertise is the icing on top.
Conclusion
Outsourcing in supply chain management is the perfect mode of work for the industry. With the industry being predominantly online, it fits right in with the remote work model of outsourcing. Add on top of that the significant cost and time savings paired with the accessibility to expertise, and you have a recipe for success.