10 Steps to Building a Competitive eCommerce Supply Chain

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  These tips are hiding in plain sight and will make a big impact as you scale your small or medium business!

supply chain operator packing ecommerce box

In today’s fast-moving world of omni-channel eCommerce, building and maintaining your supply chain is hard. Especially if supply chain isn’t your background. This guide de-mystifies the process and gives you the tools and insights you need to do your supply chain right.

Table of Contents:

  1. Who this guide is for and how it will help you.

  2. First: Getting a handle on your data

  3. Key focus – Strategic Sourcing

  4. Key focus – Planning Tools

  5. Key focus – Purchase Order Management

  6. Key focus – Inbound & Intra-Network Freight

  7. Key focus – Warehousing & Order Fulfillment

  8. Key focus – Supply Chain Finance

  9. Key focus – Group Purchasing

  10. Don’t forget! Other critical business services that sustain your operation.

1. Who this guide is for and how it will help you.

Congratulations. Perhaps you’ve just started your eCommerce business and are seeing your first sales trickle in. Perhaps you’ve crossed $10M in sales and are eager to scale. Or perhaps you’ve grown your eCommerce business all the way to $100M and wish to transform your business into an enterprise. Either way, you’ve found your way to this page, meaning you know you’ll need to shore up your supply chain to make the next phase of growth possible.

You’re miles ahead of the crowd.

See, for most entrepreneurs, supply chain is a thorn in their side right up until the bitter end. Oftentimes founders and CEOs are world-class marketers and product visionaries with little to no interest in the X’s and O’s of supply chain management, and the only time they ever really get involved is when things break along the chain (weather events, strikes, wars, pandemics, etc.). And when this happens, as it inevitably does, they’re forced by urgent needs of the business to delay any real systematic improvements and opt instead for bandaid solutions that solve for the current crisis but leave their supply chains scarred with tedious processes that make future attempts to evolve the business even more of a nightmare than the last.  

We’ve put this guide together to help you avoid those headaches forever, because here at FlexChain, we live and breathe the complexities of supply chain and it is our mission to give small-medium eCommerce businesses like yours an actionable roadmap that allows you to compete without having to spend a fortune. We hope you enjoy the read and can benefit from it!

Also, this is definitely a living guide, and we expect that we’ll continue to refine it over time. So if there are areas of supply chain you and your industry peers deal with that need more attention in this guide, we’re interested in your feedback! This is an operational blueprint assembled by professionals in the eCommerce supply chain space, and should not be construed as financial advice. Any significant financial decisions you intend to take based on the info we’re about to share should be discussed with a financial advisor who can advise on what makes sense for your particular situation.   

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 Now with all that said, let’s get into it. There are 1million+1 different software products and and services out there to serve every company of every size in every industry (WMS, TMS, LMS, Planning, Tracking, P2P, ERP, MRP, etc.). But there are some key operational and systems capabilities that stand out above the rest, and are uniquely well-suited to helping small-medium business scale efficiently. We’ll cover each one below and advise on solutions you should consider for your business.

2. First: Getting a handle on your data

Making good business decisions requires good business data. That’s been true for at least the past 100 years, but today it would be darn near impossible to scale an eCommerce supply chain without a grip on the key silos of information that drive your business. If your business “data” amounts to a Google sheet and a series of notes scattered across emails, you should prioritize getting basic infrastructure in place so that you aren’t buried down the line.

 With that said, there are seemingly infinite data sources that can be useful, so where to begin? Here at FlexChain, we recommend a crawl-walk-run approach and the first step is making sure that you have data available to at least cover the following: 

  • Historical Sales Details

  • Product information master table

  • Distribution facility information master

  • Supplier information master

  • Supplier-product mapping

  • Current pipeline inventory QTY with status (on hand, in transit, in production, etc.)

  • Historical inventory snapshot archive

Once you have the data in place, and depending on your available funds, you will want to consider a more formal data management strategy that involves centrally storing & maintaining your business information in a database. This would involve hiring or outsourcing database administration and data engineering, and will unlock the full suite of business intelligence capabilities we promote here at FlexChain.

 Why do we do this? So that you can start leveraging data analytics to drive business decisions, and progressively answer the following questions in real-time:

  • Level 1: Descriptive Analytics – What’s happening in my business right now?

  • Level 2: Predictive Analytics – What will happen to my business in the future?

  • Level 3: Prescriptive Analytics – Based on outputs from Level 1 & Level 2, what should I do?

As your data infrastructure develops, you can build more and more reporting and automation workflows to embed best practices into your daily activities. Don't underestimate the power that great data analytics can have to elevate your business. Every single operation in your supply chain can be enhanced by it if done right, and your competitors will think you have a profit-generating superpower.

Need help getting started? At FlexChain, we work with you every step of the way to get your analytics engine humming. Have a look at our offerings and reach out to us if you’re interested in a consultation!

3. Key Focus - Strategic Sourcing

This is an area you really don’t want to ignore, as it’s the front gate to your whole supply chain and when done right it can prevent A LOT of headaches further downstream.

By identifying the right suppliers and building long-term relationships with them, your business can secure a steady supply of high-quality products at competitive prices. This helps to reduce operating costs and improve margins, while also ensuring that products are delivered on time and meet customer expectations.

But that’s only the first part – to truly have a strategic sourcing process you need to consider big picture questions about how you’re structuring your business:

  • How often do you analyze your spend and have suppliers bid on your business?

  • Are you overly dependent on a particular supplier?

  • Are you spread too thin across your supply base and diluting your leverage?

  • Are tariffs & regulations hitting your bottom line?

  • Is geo-political instability a risk for your supply chain?

  • Are your suppliers too far away and leading to higher lead times and working capital costs to operate your business?

At FlexChain, we have the expertise to help you address all these questions and get your supply chain set up on the right foundation. If your supply chain is overly concentrated in Asia, our Nearshoring Services may be of particular interest to you!

4. Key Focus Supply Chain Planning Tools

The holy grail of Supply Chain is figuring out how to have the right amount of the right product in the right place at the right time and at the right cost. As your business scales (think around ~$10M+ in annual sales with multiple active SKUs), this challenge becomes infinitely more complex, especially in today’s market.

Now we love Microsoft Excel as much as anyone, but once your business is at this level, you will want to consider Supply Chain Planning software. This software serves as your data hub and business intelligence tool, and will drive key decisions around your demand, supply, and inventory. A quick overview on what those functions entail:

Demand Planning: Leveraging statistical forecasting techniques to understand demand patterns (level, trend, seasonality) and gauge future demand is crucial for ensuring that your business has the right inventory levels to meet customer need. Doing this right helps to reduce stock-outs and excess inventory buildup, which lead to lost sales and increased costs.

Supply Planning: Effective supply planning involves balancing demand forecasts with supply constraints, such as supplier lead times, production capacity, and inventory levels to drive replenishment. By optimizing the supply chain planning function, your business can improve customer service levels and reduce inventory carrying costs.

Inventory Planning: Maintaining optimal inventory levels is essential for your business to meet customer demand while minimizing costs. This involves managing inventory on hand targets, safety stock, and replenishment policies to ensure that products are segmented appropriately and that key items are always available when customers need them.

Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP): Integrated sales and operations planning helps your business to coordinate demand and supply plans and ensures that all other business functions are in alignment (sales, marketing, merchandising, finance, logistics, etc.). This helps to improve efficiency of operational execution and reduce costs, while also enhancing customer service levels.

So, what does a planning software do? Essentially it takes layers upon layers of analysis that would take a human expert weeks to run, overlays analytics & best practices, and then automates it so that once you’ve tuned the software models they will automatically ingest new data and feed you operational next steps, allowing you to leverage best-in-class insights to run your business in real time as you scale.

There are tons of providers out there for every business ranging from small to enterprise, but we have some recommended solutions here at FlexChain depending on your business size:

  • For companies at $10M-100M we recommend GMDH Streamline. They are a lean & mean planning tool that can bring you tons of value without breaking the bank like an enterprise system. They are a close partner of ours here at FlexChain so if you are interested in exploring, click here to contact us and we’ll make the introduction for you. (We can also help you secure the best possible discounts and service!)

  •  For companies > $100M Revenue – The right system will depend on your business’ size and unique requirements. Click this link to reach out to us and we can discuss options!

5. Key Focus - Purchase Order (PO) & Supplier Performance Management

Business operators often make the mistake of thinking that once they place an order with a supplier, their work is done until the product arrives. In truth, there are many steps involved upstream to make sure that orders are being produced, shipped, and received properly, and if the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that seamless execution of these activities should not be taken for granted!

Late order production, quality issues, over/under-shipments, shipping delays, etc. are just a few of the many things that can go wrong after you place an order, and many businesses fail to notice non-compliance at all until it shows on the balance sheet.

Of course, following up with vendors regularly will help to limit this, but as your business scales it becomes impossible to manage orders at a granular level without the right tools (i.e. not just email).

If your business has started moving volume (around $5M+ in annual sales), you’ll want to consider buying a PO Management System to help you achieve the following:

  • Know the status of all open orders (in production, shipped, needs escalation, etc.)

  • Prevent vendors booking shipments incorrectly

  • Track inbound shipments for planning receipts

  • Monitor & review supplier performance metrics to drive improvement

By efficiently managing purchase orders and tracking shipments, your business can ensure that you receive products on time and in good condition, while also minimizing the risk of errors and delays. Additionally, you can work with suppliers to drive performance against key benchmarks or replace them if they present undue risk to your business.

For Purchase Order & Supplier Management, Anvyl is a great tool that offers a clean interface for managing complexity at an affordable price. We highly recommend considering them if your business is at the right stage of maturity.

If your business is <$5M in annual sales, skip the fancy software for now, and try to keep your factory and freight forwarder footprint narrow so you can personally manage them and ensure compliance for your shipments.

6. Freight: Inbound and Intra-Network (get moving on this NOW)

Freight is an area you as a business operator can’t afford to ignore. Essentially this is the set of processes that get your products from factories to distribution centers or between distribution centers. There are major cost implications of getting this wrong (extra shipping costs, missed sales, fines & penalties, etc.), and conversely, huge potential savings and operational efficiencies for getting it right.

The supplier ecosystem here is massive. There are tens-of-thousands of companies offering a wide variety of services. Most will cast a wide net, offering commoditized service to no particular industry, and if you want a more personal touch for your business it can be a challenge if you aren’t a huge customer. 

Market rates tend to fluctuate throughout the year, so as you scale (think around ~250 inbound FCL shipments annually) it may make sense to enter a fixed volume contract to stabilize costs. As you get toward ~500+ FCL containers annually, you may consider splitting your business across multiple forwarders or carriers to build some resiliency & supplier competition (be careful with this to ensure you don’t spread your leverage too thin with any carrier you’re working with).

For small-medium eCommerce businesses that aren’t yet at 250 annual containers, the goal should be to consolidate your freight business to a single forwarder who understands your business and can help you scale.

Ideally this supplier…

  • Is well-versed omni-channel commerce, and helps you position inventory in the right locations to maximize availability and minimize shipping costs.

  • Offers boutique services such as LCL consolidation, Direct Importing, Crossdocking, Zone Skipping, etc. that enable your small-medium eCommerce business to access economies of scale and minimize costs.

  • Provides best-in-class service, with systems & processes in place to ensure your freight is delivered seamlessly and you are kept in the loop on where your freight is at any given time, to maximize your service to your customers.

  • Understands the customs & regulatory framework your business operates in and provides scalable solutions for you to stay compliant as well as advisory services to help you minimize duties long-term.

  • Minimizes lead times so that you can run your eCommerce supply chain with less cash locked up in inventory.

It just so happens that we offer freight services directly! We are so passionate about serving small-medium eCommerce businesses that we developed a tailored freight forwarding agency that uniquely caters to your needs. Learn more about our offerings here.

7. Key Focus - Warehousing & Order Fulfillment

Now we’re getting to the ‘downstream’ nodes of your supply chain: warehousing your product so it can be delivered to your customer seamlessly. This is where your operation starts to interact with your customer, and a huge source of cost in any eCommerce operation since most sales are fulfilled & shipped small parcel rather than in bulk like other types of businesses.

When you’re just starting out, you may have handled storing/packing/shipping out of your own house, which comes with perks:

  • Cheap storage ($0)

  • Cheap fulfillment costs ($0)

  • Excellent customer care given to each order (priceless)

…but obviously this method isn’t tenable as your operation scales, and you’ll need a solution that can balance customer service requirements, packaging/labeling requirements, and costs to take your business to the next level and allow you to focus your attention elsewhere. If you’re currently fulfilling orders from home, the magic number for when you’ll absolutely want a new solution is ~100+ orders per month.

That said, thanks to recent innovations in the industry, it’s never too early to get your business set up with a scalable fulfillment solution, and you have options from the very beginning that we’ll walk through here. These are the 3 most popular options:

  • Warehouse Option 1 - Startup 3PL: These are the newer Third-party logistics (3PL) companies and offer warehousing & order fulfillment plans to eCommerce brands of any size. They are great for giving your newly launched business access to large warehouse networks to position your inventory around the country without making an upfront investment. These companies typically boast extremely low fixed costs, but higher variable costs per order, and as your business scales you can meaningfully negotiate these costs down. Another benefit of these companies is that they tend to be tech-forward and have robust systems in place for tracking & managing your warehoused inventory. They are also eCommerce focused where other 3PLs may concentrate on other industries.

    Be mindful that these companies are often newer companies themselves and experience their own growing pains as they ramp new capabilities. If you have a complex retail footprint and unique requirements you’ll want to make sure that they can handle them.

If you are looking to explore this option right out the gate, we highly recommend working with ShipBob, as they are a mature company in this ecosystem with competitive rates and diverse capabilities. Check them out here!

  • Warehouse Option 2 - Large 3PL: These are the more old-school, enterprise grade 3PL companies that many large businesses work with. They typically have minimum volume requirements of 400-1,000 orders/month and boast large global warehouse footprints with standardized processes in place for scaling your labor and warehousing operations at competitive costs and minimal operational risk. Fixed costs for this option will be higher than Option 1, but variable costs will be lower and you will typically have more flexibility to negotiate unique service requirements you may have (such as custom labeling, kitting, inventory management, etc.). As with option 1, the larger your business is, the more effectively you can negotiate on costs. Make sure to take advantage. Some top companies offering these services are DHL, C.H. Robinson, FEDEX, etc.

    Also, these companies tend to work on longer term contracts, so you’ll want to consider them when your business has matured, and you have a steady flow of order volume., but also be sure to confirm they can handle any custom requirements your business may have before signing anything!  

  • Warehouse Option 3 - Operating your own warehouse: This is the favored option for larger and more mature businesses. Up front and fixed costs will be highest, and you are taking on more risk by leasing and operating your own warehouse, but variable costs are much lower (no middleman!) and you will have full control over your processes in contrast to the other options. Before considering this path, you’ll want to be sure your business has a steady annual order volume and that you have the know-how to develop your own in-house fulfillment capabilities. The better you understand the key costs driving warehouse operation (real estate, labor, materials, equipment, etc.) and what your supply chain needs, the better you will be able to negotiate and set up operations profitably.

If you believe this option best suits your business and need help finding the perfect warehouse to bring your supply chain network to the next level, let us know on this form and we will connect you with the right resources!

Choosing the right option (or even a combination of options!) is both art & science and very specific to your business. You’ll need to think through your customer requirements and business trajectory, and then map out cost scenarios for each option on a spreadsheet. Below are a few helpful qualitative guidelines:

  • High customization required for most orders (favors own warehouse)

  • Very high order volume (favors own warehouse)

  • Very seasonal business (favors 3PL)

  • Distributed customer base or imminent expansion plans (favors 3PL)

  • High customer expectations around service (favors 3PL for early stage, then own)

Something else to consider, as your warehouse footprint becomes more complex (either operating your own warehouse or leveraging a mix of options), you will need systems in place to govern warehouse management, order management, and fulfillment seamlessly. We recommend at least covering Warehouse Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Order Management, and Outbound Shipping Management. We’ll cover each in more detail below.

Warehouse Management System (WMS) & Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): This is a critical capability for tracking and managing activities in your growing business. As your sales stream in from multiple channels, product is stored in multiple locations, and product configurations become ever more complex, you will need software to synthesize all information, give warehouse staff the fulfillment instructions they need, and provide reporting to ensure your sales, inventory, and financial data are accurate.  

For small-medium eCommerce businesses doing at least ~$1M in annual sales, we recommend a solution called Acctivate, which bolts onto Quickbooks and blends capabilities of WMS and lite ERP functionality to deliver tons of value to your bottom line and at a very affordable price. If you’re interested in exploring, click here to contact us and we’ll make the introduction for you. (We can also help you secure the best possible discounts and service!)

Large enterprises will generally use top-of-the-line ERPs like Netsuite, SAP, Infor, etc. and WMS systems like Manhattan Associates, HighJump, etc. that can cost well into the 7-figures. If you are at ~$100M+ in annual revenue then you should definitely explore these options.

Order Management Software: As your eCommerce retail footprint expands to new channels and your inventory is spread across a larger network of warehouses, managing order allocation to the correct warehouse, and preserving accurate reporting, can become incredibly complex. Some warehouses may be restricted to certain sales channels, some items may be out of stock in certain warehouses, etc. and you need to centrally manage all this complexity or face the risk of order errors, stockouts, and manual processing tasks that can crater your business fast. A great eCommerce Order Management tool will help you solve all these challenges, empowering you with automated workflows, real-time inventory tracking, and intelligent order routing to ensure timely and accurate order fulfillment.

One great and well-priced software tool we recommend for small-medium businesses is FlxPoint, which adapts to your unique business needs and helps you seamlessly manage your orders, inventory, and fulfillment processes, all in one central platform. If you’re interested in exploring, click here to contact us and we’ll make the introduction for you. (We can also help you secure the best possible discounts and service!) 

Outbound Shipping Management: This is an area that seems simple and then becomes a huge pain as you try to scale. Once you receive an order, you want to be able to select the lowest-cost carrier, print the label, and generate tracking information in bulk to let you profitably handle large volume in your eCommerce business. Doing this effectively will require a platform solution for managing your outbound shipment volume.

Small-medium eCommerce businesses (under ~10,000 monthly orders) should leverage a shipping aggregator solution, which has a single platform to handle the full print & ship workflow at scale. They also have contracts in place with the major shipping carriers and let you tap into big discounts that you would not be able to get on your own. Our recommendation here at FlexChain is for you to work with ShipStation or Shippo. They are affordable, highly experienced, and you really can’t go wrong with either of them.

If you are a larger enterprise (10,000+ orders per month) we also recommend exploring a direct contract with a carrier (FEDEX, UPS, DHL, OnTrac, etc.) to see if you can secure better rates or coverage. There aren’t a huge number of small parcel shipping providers out there, but they have key differentiators between them that may make one or another better for your business. If you have good contracts in place with carriers, you can still leverage your Shippo or ShipStation account for batch printing and workflow management.

Whether you are looking to open your own warehouse or need help deciding which fulfillment options are right for your business, you can get in touch with us here and we’ll help you get the right solutions in place to take your business to the stratosphere! 

8. Key Focus - Supply Chain Finance

You’ve got an amazing product you’re selling, and the customers are buying it. The trouble is, the time between when you first sourced that product in bulk and when that inventory gets converted to revenue can be weeks, months, or even years. So now all your working capital is tied up in inventory, and your other business operating costs are still accruing. This scenario sound familiar? Some businesses with great customer bases literally go bankrupt because they didn’t have cash available when they needed it. And this affects every company along the chain, so your suppliers and your business customers are dealing with the same challenge.

That’s where Supply Chain Finance & Factoring come into play.

In essence, supply chain finance is a short-term loan taken from a financial institution to cover production & logistics costs to serve a downstream buyer. The distinction from a regular business loan, however, is that here the buyer’s credit-worthiness can be used to determine lending to the merchant. So, your credit-worthiness could be used to advance payments to your suppliers, and if you have large retail institutions you work with, their credit-worthiness can be used to advance payment to you against their confirmed orders. This enables you to avoid a cash crunch, and the borrower (you our your supplier) would instead pay an nominal interest fee for the duration of the loan. It probably goes without saying that this option is much more attractive when interest rates are low, but still if your business is highly profitable but faces intermittent cashflow challenges, this is definitely an avenue you should explore.

Note – the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued a regulation in 2023 requiring companies leveraging supply chain finance programs to disclose the terms and size of these programs in financial statement footnotes. Make sure to account for this when considering these options.

If you think supply chain finance could suit your business, you’ve got choices. Taulia, PrimeRevenue, and FlexPort Capital are all options to consider. We’d suggest contacting all of them and seeing who offers the best terms for your business!

9. Join a Group Purchasing Organization

As a small-medium size eCommerce business operator, you know it costs a lot to buy the products and services you need to keep your business running. Freight. Warehousing. Labor. Professional services. Etc. Etc. And in today’s world, those costs are borderline unmanageable and only getting worse.

Larger organizations leverage their buying power to minimize these costs with their suppliers, but you as a smaller business don’t have that luxury and are left at a competitive disadvantage.

That’s what a Group Purchasing Organization could help you solve.

Group Purchasing Organizations (or buying co-op, sourcing alliance, procurement consortium, etc.) are organizations that represent a large pool of buyers and have negotiated discount rates and terms with select vendors to cover a whole host of products and services, helping their members secure big cost savings and excellent service terms while avoiding the headache of having to negotiate every contract themselves.

10. Don’t Forget! Other critical business services that sustain your operation!

In this guide we covered supply chain in rigorous detail, but as a tech-forward entrepreneur there are other key areas of your business that need attention and we want to highlight a few to include in your roadmap – plus some helpful tips and discounts with our preferred vendors! Note that pretty much all of these services would be fully tax deductible.

  • Financial Management: we all start on Microsoft excel, but as your payroll gets more complicated, and you have more and more supplier and invoices to manage, a proper accounting system is absolutely essential. QuickBooks is the obvious choice for small businesses, with crazy amounts of functionality at a very affordable price. Use our referral link to sign up and get 30% off your first 6 months!

  • Accounting & Financial Services: As your business grows so do your needs for advice on tax, financial strategy, bookkeeping, etc. and you’ll want a reliable advisor to help you navigate tax & regulatory environments to help you stay compliant and maximize your profits. If you’re looking for an accountant or financial professional fill out this form and we’ll pair you with someone exceptional from our rolodex!

  • Marketing: While we at FlexChain may be more focused on the profitability side of your business, we also know that marketing & sales are the beating heart of eCommerce. Trends are constantly shifting, and you need a dedicated team who can ensure your paid search, social media, amazon ads, creative, SEO, etc. are always fresh and growing your topline. Sama Labs is an excellent firm to work with here, and they boast a highly energized and experienced team that fully serves your brand with a human touch. If you wish to explore working with them, fill out this form and we’ll put you in touch to get you an extra 10% off their services!

  • Virtual Assistant Services: Your time as a brand operator is critical. As your business scales, you’ll need to focus your attention where you can add the most value and learn to hire and outsource the rest. Fiverr may be the best app in the world for finding freelance work. They have freelance services available for virtually anything a business or person may need: new logo design, programming & web design, data processing, translation, and everything in between…we’ve used them extensively in our own business activities, and highly recommend you develop the capability to document and hire out work that isn’t in your current wheelhouse. Check them out here.

  • Office Space: Here at FlexChain we think businesses should look to stay as nimble as possible for as long as possible, so “office space on Wall Street” would not rank high on our list of priorities for where to spend your early dollars. That said, working from home gets lonely and distracting, so we strongly recommend getting a dedicated space where you can work without noise, internet issues, etc. and be in the company of other professionals on your own terms. WeWork is the best option here by far, with locations in almost every major city around the world, you can choose to book permanent space for your team in one location, and/or get an all-access pass that lets you hotdesk and find conference rooms whenever you need one in any city. Many locations also host happy hours and other professional networking events that can be a great opportunity to meet friends and allies for your business!

  • Legal Services: We probably don’t need to explain this to most of you, but staying legally compliant in all your business activities is critical, and becomes even more so the bigger you get (bigger business = bigger target for lawsuits). But it’s best to start off on the right foot and get contracts, notices and activities set up correctly from the get-go to avoid surprises down the line. If you want an easily navigable solution for basic agreements, filings, etc. your best bet is probably RocketLawyer or LegalZoom. As you become more established, find a good small business firm that will learn your business and proactively advise you how to conduct your operations properly.

  • Business Insurance: This falls into a similar category to legal services. Business can get messy and sometimes things happen that you couldn’t have planned for (lawsuits, catastrophic events, theft/losses, etc.) and you find yourself facing costs your business can’t cover. You will need a solid business insurance plan to shield your business assets potential incidents, so if you’ve been operating up until now without or with insufficient insurance, change that now and thank us later. Note there are a lot of types of insurance (general liability, product liability, professional liability, workers compensation, data breach) so do your research and work with your agent to determine your needs and act accordingly. We highly recommend Thimble as an insurer for businesses that want a hassle-free setup process.

  • Cyber Security: While we’re on the subject of covering your assets…one look at today’s news and you’ll read about another company whose weak data protections were exploited by hackers, causing their business and customer base to be compromised and speculation abound that they’ll get bankrupted by lawsuits. You don’t want to be that business. Getting a handle on cyber security (at least to 95%) doesn’t have to be complicated or costly. NordLayer is an excellent all-in-one solution that’s affordable and will protect you in the highest risk areas:

    • NordVPN will secure your team’s internet access anywhere in the world and help prevent malware (click here to sign up)

    • NordPass will secure your team’s passwords with an easy-to-use password encryption interface (click here to sign up)

    • NordLocker will protect your company’s files with cloud encryption across your devices (click here to sign up)

 When you sign up with our link and send us a confirmation, we’ll send you a free guide on how to keep your supply chain safe from data breaches!

And that’s a wrap, folks.

We hope our guide has been able to offer you some clarity on the chaotic world of managing your eCommerce business and supply chain. As always, we are open to any feedback you want to share. In the meantime, we wish you epic success as you continue your journey. Enjoy the process!

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