How to Scale Your Fashion Brand with a 3PL

1. Streamline Your Operations

As order volumes increase, being able to keep up with demand is critical to success.  A reliable and experienced fashion 3PL can manage various aspects of your supply chain, including warehousing, order fulfilment, and value-add services. Allowing you to focus on design, production, marketing, and customer experience. A 3PL can also help you optimise inventory management, reducing the risk of overstocking or stock shortages, which can be crucial for a fashion brand dealing with seasonal trends and/or influencer-led demands.

2. Enhance Customer Experience

Customer experience is everything. Fast, accurate fulfilment and shipping as well as seamless returns are essential to keeping customers delighted and loyal. A 3PL can offer advanced fulfilment services, ensuring that your products are delivered quickly, efficiently and on brand, no matter where your customers are located. At ILG, we also offer value-added services like gift wrapping, customised packaging, and personalisation, enhancing the unboxing experience and strengthening your brand identity.

3. Expand to New Markets and Channels

Partnering with a 3PL can enable you to reach new markets without the need for significant capital investment. With warehouses and fulfilment centres often located in strategic locations, a 3PL can help you offer fast shipping times and low shipping costs to a broader customer base. At ILG, we have warehouses located around the UK and EU, with our brand new warehouse in Poland recently opened, so our customers can reach their customers wherever they are located.

A 3PL can also help you reach customers that prefer to shop offline. With customers looking to try on their fashion purchases before they buy, expertise in omnichannel fulfilment is crucial, meaning you can deliver into your retail locations too.

4. Technology and Data

Many 3PLs offer sophisticated technology solutions that can provide real-time data and insights into your operations. This data can help you make informed decisions about inventory management, demand forecasting, and sales trends. By leveraging this technology, you can better anticipate customer needs, reduce operational costs, and improve overall efficiency. Additionally, integrating your e-commerce platform with a 3PL’s system can provide seamless order processing and inventory tracking, ensuring that your customers always know accurate stock levels and when to expect their purchases.

5. Reduce Operational Costs

Scaling your brand in-house requires significant investment in warehousing, technology, labour, and transportation. By outsourcing your fashion fulfilment to a 3PL, you are only paying for the services you use. This flexibility allows you to scale more efficiently, whether you’re launching a new product line, entering a new market, or managing seasonal fluctuations. A 3PL’s established relationships with multiple carriers also often result in lower shipping rates, further reducing your operational costs.

As your fashion brand continues to grow and order volumes increase, so does the likelihood of customer returns. Handling returns can be time consuming and costly so being able to rely on your 3PL to manage your reverse logistics is crucial to reducing operating costs and managing your growth.

6. Focus on Your Brand

As your fashion brand scales, your time and resources should be focused on what you do best – creating and marketing your products. By entrusting fulfilment to a 3PL, you can free up valuable time to concentrate on product development, branding, and customer engagement. This not only helps you develop, maintain and market your brand but also ensures that you are well-positioned to respond to market trends and customer demands.

7. Scale with Flexibility

One of the biggest advantages of working with a 3PL is the ability to scale your operations with flexibility. Whether you experience a sudden surge in orders due to a successful marketing campaign or need to scale down during off-peak seasons, the right 3PL will be able to adjust accordingly to your needs. This scalability is crucial for a fashion brand, where demand can be unpredictable and influenced by various factors like seasonality, promotions, and trends. At ILG, we pride ourselves on being a supportive, flexible and scalable fulfilment partner, read about how we prepare for sales peaks on our Peak Hub.

Scale Your Fashion Brand with a 3PL

Working with the right 3PL partner to provide the support needed to manage growth efficiently, allows you to scale your brand, grow into new channels and navigate the complexities of growth. By leveraging the expertise and resources of a 3PL, you can ensure that your fashion brand continues to thrive in a highly competitive market.

If you’re ready to scale your fashion brand, consider partnering with a 3PL that understands the unique demands of the fashion industry. At ILG, we work with numerous fashion brands including Self Portrait, Mori and Bordelle. Find out more about our fashion fulfilment services or get in touch to find out how we can help you scale.