Companies no longer closely follow a traditional retail model; instead now stepping into manufacturing, selling, and selling over multiple channels like brick and mortar, websites, and Amazon. That level of complexity requires a higher level of service from their logistics partners. At Argents, we’ve created a product allowing the customer to utilize us to get into all their sales channels from one company.
Customers need to bring in containers to our facilities, then distribute them to various places. They might need twenty pallets to Target, another ten to Amazon, and thirty will stay here as they sell directly to the consumer on their website. E-commerce is part of a grander picture that requires excellence in fulfillment, warehousing, and distribution – essentially closing the loop.
Having been a more traditional freight forwarder and customs broker for over 40 years, adding this option allows us to help customers finish getting the product where it needs to go. Offering a truly bespoke door to door solution.
We often find ourselves sitting around the table with customers, helping them make decisions, becoming a complete supply chain partner and a branch of their company. The most successful customers in freight and commerce overall use forwarders as an arm of their business and become a total supply chain solution provider.
Argents has over 450,000 square feet of warehouse space across the country. This gives us the flexibility to go to a customer and say, “What are you trying to do, and where do you want to be?” Then, we can create a product that revolves around them. There’s a different type of flexibility that we allow our customers to have.
Consider a clothing company offering different branding and silk screen laser printing. A traditional forwarder and warehouse might not want to deal with this, but that customer needs a solution dedicated to them.
They need us to manage freight and logistics to the warehouse and their customers, but they also need some of their staff on-site since there’s a lot of art and design that goes into it. Creating a product that allows customers to have that flexibility – to set up offices and use our space – to have employees working alongside us means Argents can leverage what we’re good at and create a product around that.
Some clients just want to do one thing, but we still like going in and sitting with a company and figuring out what they need instead of trying to fit them into what we do. How can Argents fit into the customer’s business with our facilities, software, order management system, and physical space while still guiding them to best practices?
Some companies have run their fulfillment, but now, they’re not just shipping to one retail store due to market complexities and expansions. Now, they have six different sales channels, different APIs, and different routing guides, so Argents meets them where they are and builds what they need into a logistics plan.
A small-scale example would be a company that wanted to send office supplies, but occasionally, they needed a piece of metal cut for a shelving unit, so Argents made it happen. Those little issues kept them from being able to use an Amazon warehouse, but for Argents it was an easy value add service we could provide. The product is already flowing through, so we help the customer and take tasks off their plate. They have peace of mind that Argents has them covered.
Argents has the staff and manpower in the warehouses and offices to cover the service levels we promise. With multiple warehouses in Charleston, Seattle, and Chicago, customers can spread out their top-selling items nationwide to shorten transit times to the final destination, making them more competitive.
In the fulfillment space, you don’t see that flexibility often. There are some highly specialized ones, but it’s harder to do what Argents does. But when you sit in front of a customer and realize you can give them exactly what they need, it’s a no-brainer. Ultimately, that leads to healthier relationships that last much longer.
If you’d like to learn more about how Argents can help you build solutions to your supply chain, contact us today.