10 Challenges Businesses Face with In-House Fulfillment

Whether you’re a brewery, winery, or distillery, you probably started your business providing in-house order fulfillment. The control it grants you over your entire operation is great, but it can also create challenges—especially as you grow your brand. 

From inventory management issues to the difficulties of customer service, in-house fulfillment is often easier said than done. In this blog, we’re going to walk you through the top 10 challenges and explain how you can simplify things when you outsource your logistics. 

Ready? Let’s talk fulfillment processes! 

What is In-House Order Fulfillment?

In-house order fulfillment refers to the internal management and execution of the entire order processing cycle, from receiving customer orders to shipping products. 

If you’re a craft beverage company, in-house fulfillment means handling all aspects of the process within your own facilities. Everything from inventory management to labeling to coordinating shipments falls on your shoulders. You may like having this level of complete control, but, as you will likely discover, it comes at a cost. 

If you choose to outsource this process by working with a fulfillment company, you shift much of this responsibility onto a third-party provider. However, if you still want to retain control over your business’s orders, you can just outsource your logistics and have an external provider—like Brew Movers—strictly handle the shipping and delivery of your products. 

Now, let’s break down those in-house challenges in more detail:

Challenge 1: Elevated Shipping Costs

Managing your shipping logistics—which includes packing materials, transportation, and delivery—can be complex and costly for a beverage company. 

Small or medium-sized operations may also struggle to negotiate favorable shipping rates, which can put a serious dent in their overall profitability. Larger companies typically ship a larger amount of orders, allowing them to negotiate shipping rates due to volume discounts. Smaller businesses may not have the same bargaining power because they ship fewer goods.

When you outsource logistics, LTL shipping can be a solution for small or medium-sized operations looking to mitigate the challenges of negotiating favorable shipping rates.

Challenge 2: Complex Inventory Management

Maintaining accurate and updated inventory records is crucial for in-house order fulfillment, but doing it yourself is rarely straightforward. 

Overstocking or understocking can lead to operational inefficiencies, which then increase holding costs and the risk of stockouts. The last thing you want is to have to pay for warehouse space because you produced more products than you needed for orders, or end up canceling a would-be-paying customer’s order because you misjudged what you already had.

Challenge 3: Order Accuracy and Timeliness

Whether you’re selling directly to your customers or a restaurant that then serves your beverages, accuracy and timeliness are key.

In-house fulfillment requires efficient systems to pick, pack, and ship orders promptly. Unfortunately, the people and systems needed to handle high order volume don’t grow on trees—can you afford to keep your customers and clients waiting?

Challenge 4: Packaging Complexities

In-house order fulfillment gives you more control over the fulfillment process and the opportunity to create a unique, branded unboxing experience for your customers. But it doesn’t come without its challenges.

Packaging poses challenges for in-house fulfillment, especially in scaling operations. This can include:

• Implementing efficient and cost-effective packaging solutions.
• The ability to efficiently handle orders of varying sizes and quantities.
• Higher costs for packaging materials due to limited buying power and negotiation leverage.
• Maintaining consistency and quality, especially during peak order periods.

Image source: Canva

Challenge 5: Hiring and Training Staff

In-house fulfillment takes a wide variety of staff members, which, as you probably know, requires a whole lot of hiring and training. 

If you want to handle everything yourself, you’ll need packaging pros, inventory managers, shippers, drivers, and everyone in between. Considering how hiring a new employee can cost you 1.2 to 1.4 times their salary, this can be an expensive undertaking.  

Challenge 6: Navigating Seasonal Fluctuations  

Seasonal fluctuations often result in unpredictable changes in consumer demand. Businesses must adapt to sudden spikes or drops in order volumes, leading to challenges in workforce management, inventory planning, and order fulfillment capacity.

Fluctuations in demand require businesses to allocate resources effectively. During peak seasons, companies may struggle to manage increased order volumes with existing staff and infrastructure, potentially leading to bottlenecks in order fulfillment processes.

Challenge 7: Regulatory Compliance

You probably know all about the strict regulations when it comes to labeling, packaging, and permits for shipping alcoholic beverages—as well as the fines for non-compliance. 

It can be easy to make mistakes when you’re doing in-house fulfillment. You likely have too much on your plate to worry about some of these things, but unfortunately, slip-ups have big consequences. Outsource your logistics to cover your bases! 

Challenge 8: Managing Customer Service

Handling customer inquiries, addressing issues with orders, and managing returns are all challenges of in-house order fulfillment. 

Sincere relationship management creates customer satisfaction, but you likely won’t have the bandwidth for it if you’re also worried about packaging, shipping, and so on. Or, if you struggle with this already, in-house fulfillment may exacerbate your concerns. 

Image source: Canva

Challenge 9: Environmental Concerns  

It’s no secret that sustainable logistics best practices are in, but in-house order fulfillment can leave you on the outside struggling to adapt them. 

Adopting eco-friendly packaging and shipping practices adds another layer of complexity (and additional costs) to your operations. If you don’t outsource logistics, you run the risk of falling behind the curve and losing conscious customers. 

Challenge 10: Implementing New Technology

There is always new fulfillment technology emerging that can help streamline your processes, but implementing that tech is rarely straightforward. 

If you can afford the cost of a new tech investment, you may then yourself struggling to survive the downtime where you’re implementing it. You also have to consider the potential for mistakes as your people get used to new processes. 

Streamline Your Order Fulfillment Process When You Outsource Logistics With Brew Movers

There you have them: 10 challenges businesses face with in-house order fulfillment. While having total control over your operations is great, you run the risk of falling short in several important areas. The solution is to outsource logistics with Brew Movers! 

Regardless of what kind of craft beverages you want to ship, we have the skills and experience to simplify the process. No matter how much you’re moving, you can count on our team to get it there on time and in perfect condition. You maintain the control of fulfilling orders in-house without the hassle of deliveries. 

Ready to simplify your order fulfillment? Contact us today!