A logistics provider will handle your stock and speak to your customers through every parcel. Before signing, ask these questions and ask to see the answers working, not in a slide deck.
Published · Vialog Fulfillment
1. How does it connect to my store and what syncs? 2. Do I see stock and orders in real time, with history? 3. How do you avoid shipping the wrong item? 4. What happens with a return and who decides whether it goes back to stock? 5. What is the cut-off and what ships today? 6. What evidence do I have if a buyer claims something was missing? 7. Which carriers do you use and can I bring my contract? 8. How is each item charged and is there lock-in? 9. How do you handle a peak? 10. Who looks after me when something fails and how fast?
They will not let you see the warehouse. Stock updates "once a day". No barcode verification. Returns go back to stock without anyone looking. The rate card has an undetailed "other". A one-year lock-in.
Size matters less than how it works: what decides is whether you see your stock in real time, whether it verifies every order by barcode and whether someone who knows your account looks after you. A large provider brings capacity; a smaller one tends to adapt its rules to your product more quickly.
No: what counts is how well connected it is to your buyers, because that and the cut-off time set the delivery time. From Córdoba, for example, deliveries take 24 hours across Spain, Portugal and Europe with GLS, CTT Express and UPS Express, and you follow your stock from the portal.
Work out the total cost of a typical month of yours under each rate card (orders, extra lines, storage, receiving, returns and packaging) instead of comparing only the price per order. Ask what the base order includes and be wary of unitemised charges, because that is where two similar quotes end up very different.
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Why Vialog
In-house software, video of every order and a complete client portal.
What is a WMS
What is a WMS, a warehouse management system, what it does for your stock and orders and why your logistics provider having one matters.
How much does outsourcing logistics cost
Outsourcing logistics cost explained: what a provider charges for (order, line, storage, returns, shipping) and how to compare it with doing it yourself.
Pricing: how we charge
The items you pay for, each with its price in writing, and the full rate card within one working day.
Would you rather we did it for you?
Tell us what you sell and how many orders you ship a month: within one working day we tell you what it would cost and how we would start.