The central goal of any eCommerce business is to make sure that the manufactured or sourced goods reach the customer safely and securely. Furthermore, keeping the customers informed about the movement of goods and services and seamless distribution throughout the supply chain is equally important. If you have a solid supply chain and deliver goods on time, but your customers are never in the loop or informed, you will still have many RTO because of missed and undelivered orders. This is where marketing logistics comes into the picture. Both Marketing and logistics are crucial arts for any eCommerce business. When they work in tandem with each other, you can create terrific delivery experiences for your customers. Let’s have a look at what marketing logistics is, the four functions of marketing logistics, and the role of marketing logistics in eCommerce.
What is Marketing Logistics?
Marketing logistics is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the movement of materials and components from the suppliers to the customers. It also includes transferring all relevant information throughout the supply chain from manufacturing and origin up to final consumption.
Marketing logistics includes distributing goods and services from the producer to the final customer at the right place, time, and price.
Marketing logistics aims to create a systematic and planned ecosystem that guarantees that goods ordered by the customer will be delivered on time, with proper transportation, in the fastest and cheapest way.
The Four Functions of Marketing Logistics
Product Delivery
The first function of marketing logistics is product delivery. This includes researching where your customers live and how you plan to transport the product. It could be done with in-house order fulfillment and shipping or with a 3PL fulfillment provider like Shiprocket Fulfillment. The products must be sent to the customers on time.
Price
The following function of marketing logistics is the price. The price of the products must be set, keeping in mind the logistics involved in procuring and delivering the product. Along with that, the price depends on several internal and external factors. It should understand how the elements affect the consumer’s decisions.
Promotion
Promotion is essential to increase sales of your business. When a new product is being introduced in marketing logistics, communication is the key to ensuring that suitable materials are being used and communicated to the customers. Marketing logistics work with the different departments to ensure that the correct information is collected for the marketing materials.
Place
Marketing logistics ultimately aims to deliver the product to the customer efficiently and safely. The distribution of the products should be done at the right place, i.e., the customer’s address. This means sharing the tracking details with the customers, verifying their delivery details, etc.
Role of Marketing Logistics
Warehousing
The first role of marketing logistics is in warehousing. Businesses need to store inventory in warehouses that vary in form and size. The role of marketing logistics is to calculate whether the warehouse location is correct as per the requirement of delivery, production, pricing, etc. It needs to decide whether the design of the warehouse is correct, the number of shelves required, etc.
Inventory Management
Inventory management is an essential aspect of your e-commerce fulfillment supply chain. It takes care of the SKUs that are stored in the warehouse. Marketing logistics is concerned with the cost of carrying inventory, ordering the raw materials from suppliers, and controlling the inventory costs.
Shipping and Delivery
The next role of marketing logistics of shipping and delivery is to consider the best route for shipping products, the most suitable courier partners for delivery, etc.
Communication
The most critical role of marketing logistics is communication. This takes into account customer service and promotional communication. The tracking information is sent to the customer, attending to any customer queries that may come in after delivery, handling returns, etc.
Role of 3PL Fulfillment Providers
3PL fulfillment providers like Shiprocket Fulfillment can help you enhance your marketing logistics operations. You can make the customer satisfaction more extraordinary by delivering the products on the same day and the next day. This can be done by storing your inventory in fulfillment centers located in more than 35 countries. The main advantage is that you will be able to store your stock closer to customers and process orders 3X faster. This will help you improve delivery speed, reduce delivery costs, and increase customer satisfaction. Along with that, you can improve communication throughout the supply chain by outsourcing fulfillment operations.
Final Thoughts
Marketing logistics is an integral part of eCommerce supply chain management. Make sure your efforts are headed in the right direction to ensure maximum effect and output for your business.
