January is the Time for Business Assessment and Planning – What to Do

2024 Fulfillment Company Business Assessment

As the new year starts, this is an ideal time to focus on planning and assessment. What steps can you take to help your business grow in the coming year? From partnering with a fulfillment company to writing down goals, the following tips can help you evaluate and plan for a successful year.

Write Down Business Goals

What goals do you want to accomplish as a business owner? Are there any areas of weakness that could use some improvement this year? Write down the goals you have for your company over the next few months. Then, write down more goals for the next few months. Keep doing this 90-day goal setting method to keep you motivated throughout the year.

Create an Updated Budget

Business growth and financial changes can lead to the need for a fresh budget. Come up with a financial plan for the new year. Take several factors into consideration, such as your profit margin, overhead spending, and projected business growth. This helps you determine a smart budget to follow during the year.

Make Long-Term Plans

Think long-term for your business. What do you hope to achieve a year from now or 5 years from now? You can even look a decade into the future. Write down long-term plans for your company, along with steps you can take to start working toward these goals.

Partner with a Fulfillment Company

As a practical step, consider hiring a fulfillment partner. This allows you to have a dedicated company handle order processing, packing, and shipping. These services can ensure prompt shipping and delivery and save you money on warehousing costs.

If partnering with a fulfillment company is on your to-do list for 2024, contact Medallion Fulfillment and Logistics. Our fulfillment services can boost customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and ensure timely deliveries.

Protect Your Supply Chain with a Focus on Cyber Security

Supply Chain Security Tactics for Fulfillment Company

Disruptions to the supply chain your company depends on can lead to costly problems for your business. Cyber security threats are among the biggest risks to the supply chain as more and more businesses and consumers use online services. From keeping your fulfillment warehouse up and running to protecting your supply chain, consider the following to enhance cyber security.

Cyber Security Education Is Key

Making sure every member of your IT team and other staff are aware of cyber security measures helps keep your supply chain data safe. This involves educating them on the potential risks to data security, such as malware, and ways to protect data. All members of your staff should collaborate in order to ensure that your supply chain has maximum protection from cyber security risks.

Encourage Shared Responsibility

Taking measures to boost cyber security protection for the supply chain should involve your supply chain partners and customers, along with your staff. Promote shared responsibility among these different parties to keep the supply chain safe. Otherwise, vulnerabilities could end up affecting the supply chain, putting data at risk. For example, ensure that staff, partners, and customers have secure ways to connect devices to your system.

Adopt Zero Trust Principles

These principles are an important part of finding weaknesses in the supply chain, such as devices used in the manufacturing industry or delivery services. Zero Trust means that cyber security isn’t taken for granted based on the location of physical devices or networks or based on who owns and operates them. This encourages businesses to take extra steps to protect the supply chain from potential cyber security threats.

If you’re searching for a fulfillment company and warehouse to help your business succeed, please contact Medallion Fulfillment and Logistics. We can help your company grow and thrive in the new year.

Happy Holidays From the Team At Medallion Fulfillment: Avoiding the Post Holiday Sales Slump

post holiday slump

No matter how successful the holiday selling season is for your eCommerce business, there’s no time to rest on your laurels. You can’t afford to ease up and have a soft start to the new year. Let our fulfillment company team share some valuable tips to help avoid that dreaded post-holiday sales slump.

1. Conduct a post-holiday sale.

Sales and discounts are part of your holiday marketing plan, but there’s no reason they can’t be part of after-holiday marketing as well. Top global brands such as Nike are known to run clearance sales straight through the month of January. This strategy can pay some additional benefits:

  • Offering deep discounts or buy-one-get-one sales is a good way to clear out old inventory and make room for new merchandise.
  • Great pricing can mitigate the effect of post-holiday returns by enticing customers to spend more money to upgrade.

2. Retarget your existing customer base.

When email ads are retargeted, studies show that the click-through rate is 180.6 percent higher than the initial email run. This plan also builds loyalty that pays benefits in the long run.

3. Highlight season-appropriate items.

This is where your market research will come in handy. Have you identified any specific buying patterns during the beginning of each year? In addition, there are many products such as outerwear and snow removal equipment that are sure-fire sellers during this time of year.

4. Up your social media game.

Holiday activities may have slowed down social media use, but during the post-holiday lull, old habits are sure to come back. If you’ve been meaning to try TikTok or include more interactive content, there’s no time like the present.

Partner with Our Fulfillment Company in 2024

Let Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics help make 2024 your best year yet. Contact us to learn more.

Pull through This Holiday Season Strong With a Solid Sales and Fulfillment Plan Pt. 2

Holiday Season Sales and Fulfillment Plan

With a sales plan and inbounding plan in place, it’s time to take the next steps toward preparing for the holiday season. This involves receiving inventory or sending it to your fulfillment company and handling order fulfillment.

Send or Receive Inventory

Ordering inventory ahead of time ensures that you won’t have frustrated customers and out-of-stock items. Where will all of this inventory go? If you’re receiving it to store in your own facility, make sure you have room for it. Keeping inventory organized and stored safely is important to lower the risk of lost or damage items or delays in having orders packed and shipped.

If you work with a fulfillment company, ensure that they have enough space in their warehouse. Have inventory sent to them and communicate with them to confirm that everything has been received. Once your inventory is sorted and organized on shelves, you’ll be ready to start fulfilling orders.

Handle Order Fulfillment

Fulfilling orders involves processing them, picking merchandise off shelves, packing it up, and shipping it to customers. During the holiday season, customers are going to want their orders delivered as quickly as possible. This means you’ll need to make sure you’re able to handle the entire fulfillment process fast.

Fulfillment companies can assist with this. If you work with one, they can take care of fulfilling orders and ensure prompt deliveries to all of your customers. This gives you time to focus on marketing, boosting sales, and handling other aspects of your business. Keep in mind that efficient and timely order fulfillment can help you gain repeat business from satisfied customers and attract new customers.

Let Medallion Fulfillment and Logistics help your business handle the holiday season. Contact us for more details on our services as a fulfillment company.

5 Tips on How to Measure The Success of a Black Friday Sale

Fulfillment Company Team Looking Over Black Friday Analytics

As an eCommerce entrepreneur, creating and executing a marketing plan is only part of the job. The final step involves reviewing results and making necessary adjustments to improve going forward. Our fulfillment company staff shares five tips to use in measuring the success of your event.

1. Make sure you use the right sales tools.

Today, it’s easier than ever to capture accurate data reflecting all aspects of your eCommerce business. How familiar are you with these digital tools?

  • Google Analytics is the gold standard for tracking website traffic to reveal user behavior and conversions.
  • Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and other social media platforms have their own analytics programs to identify top-performing posts and determine levels of engagement.
  • Mailchimp and Sendinblue are valuable tools to assess email campaigns.

2. Compare average order values.

Ideally, customers will be motivated to spend more money during Black Friday. Compare the average order value, or AOV, of Black Friday sales to AOV over the rest of the year as well as last year’s Black Friday sales.

3. Determine customer acquisition cost and return on ad spend.

How productive are your advertising dollars? Take a look at customer acquisition cost (CAC) and return on ad spend (ROAS) to ensure that your budget is being optimized.

4. Review conversion rates.

Bounce rates and abandoned carts will give you insight into how effective your campaigns are in guiding people all the way through the sales funnel.

5. Study customer feedback.

Are customers leaving positive reviews? How many of them are return visitors? The more satisfied a customer is, the more likely they are to come back and recommend your shopfront to others.

A First-Class Fulfillment Company for All Seasons

Contact Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics to learn more about our comprehensive range of services, including advertising and media resources.