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HELP! Ecommerce 3PL (Product Fulfillment) Startup

Matake007

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Fastlaners,

I am undertaking the development of an ecommerce 3PL (outsourced product fulfillment) platform that I believe has the potential to have massive impact on ecommerce as a whole. In order for it to work, I need to find business owners that are willing to first allow me to individually ship their products to further prove the concept I have in mind.

This way I can alleviate fulfillment from the business owner, start generating revenue for my startup, prove the concept, gain invaluable experience and also better understand all requirements prior to the development of the platform.

So far I've been reaching out to people via Reddit, Etsy, and even a few Facebook groups and though I am nowhere near quiting, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on the best approach to find business owners. From what I see through Reddit, most that are actively looking for a 3PL request to see the site (which I don't have as mentioned above).

Appreciate any advice/ideas. Thanks!
 
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Matake007

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Oct 23, 2020
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Fastlaners,

I am undertaking the development of an ecommerce 3PL (outsourced product fulfillment) platform that I believe has the potential to have massive impact on ecommerce as a whole. In order for it to work, I need to find business owners that are willing to first allow me to individually ship their products to further prove the concept I have in mind.

This way I can alleviate fulfillment from the business owner, start generating revenue for my startup, prove the concept, gain invaluable experience and also better understand all requirements prior to the development of the platform.

So far I've been reaching out to people via Reddit, Etsy, and even a few Facebook groups and though I am nowhere near quiting, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on the best approach to find business owners. From what I see through Reddit, most that are actively looking for a 3PL request to see the site (which I don't have as mentioned above).

Appreciate any advice/ideas. Thanks!

To elaborate, I will be designing the platform whilst also trying to get my first customer but I am kinda held up by not having the first hand experience of knowing some of the nuances that may be critical for the platform.
 

BizyDad

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I've helped build a business in this space from nothing to 7 figures.

Email outreach is the best, most consistent source of business.

I won't say more because the specifics are not mine to offer, but if you master that, you'll gain business faster than you can build infrastructure.
 

Matake007

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I've helped build a business in this space from nothing to 7 figures.

Email outreach is the best, most consistent source of business.

I won't say more because the specifics are not mine to offer, but if you master that, you'll gain business faster than you can build infrastructure.

Thanks for the advice! I've tried the route of emailing the site owners via the "Contact us" route but it's a little more difficult due to no aggregate place to find many stores directly at once.
 
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biophase

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Why don’t you just ship products from you to friends to prove the system? Sign up shopify account and create a fake store to test?
 

BizyDad

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Matake007

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This is not true. Keep looking. There are many places to find this.
I don't intend to give up, but beyond going to targeted subreddits for entrepreneurship and shopify I've yet to find another place for quality leads.
 
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Matake007

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Why don’t you just ship products from you to friends to prove the system? Sign up shopify account and create a fake store to test?
I would need to order a sizable amount of junk inventory essentially, and while it would provide some good data points, I'd be losing money and not really receiving a true customer perspective.

This is also ultimately because I know this is the kind of thing venture capitalists would like to see. Real traction before I need funding.
 

biophase

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I would need to order a sizable amount of junk inventory essentially, and while it would provide some good data points, I'd be losing money and not really receiving a true customer perspective.

This is also ultimately because I know this is the kind of thing venture capitalists would like to see. Real traction before I need funding.
Why would it need to be sizable? Are you load testing? What exactly are you testing by using live orders?
 

Matake007

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Why would it need to be sizable? Are you load testing? What exactly are you testing by using live orders?

Load testing is part of it. I've never had to deal with pallet sized orders before, so I want to make sure my platform can meet the needs expected with the logistics that come with that.

With the live orders I ultimately want to start building a customer base, and really know what requirements are actually needed in the platform BEFORE I start building it. It would just be more efficient to work with customers while building versus waiting until after.
 
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