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Last updated on October 9, 2025 Written By Kristina Lopienski
When it comes to your ecommerce supply chain, complacency is the enemy of growth.
No matter how efficient your supply chain is running, finding ways to improve your supply chain is something you should always be doing.
But knowing how to improve and optimize your supply chain can be a challenge — not only for small brands but also for established ecommerce businesses.
In this article, you will learn best practices on how to improve supply chain efficiency and how a third-party logistics (3PL) partner like ShipBob can help.
Supply chain efficiency is a business’s ability to use resources, technology, and expertise in order to minimize logistics costs and maximize profits. The goal of an efficient supply chain is to save money and maximize profits by optimizing the processes and stages in the supply chain.
Supply chain efficiency is defined as the internal standard of performance of an organization, while supply chain effectiveness is the external standard of performance.
In other words, supply chain effectiveness focuses on meeting the demands of groups outside your organization; and supply chain efficiency refers to meeting those demands as quickly and cost-effectively.
Supply chain responsiveness refers to the ability to react quickly to sudden changes in the environment that affect your logistics processes.
Examples include the ability to scale up when the COVID-19 pandemic hit (i.e., meeting demand for more than double the amount of typical online orders when lockdowns went into place), or getting inventory shipped quickly during the period of time when some of the busiest ports in the world were completely overloaded with container ship congestion.
What separates out typical supply chains from responsive supply chains? While you could argue that luck is often on the side of responsive supply chains, there’s a lot more that goes into it behind the scenes, from diversifying suppliers and carriers, to implementing connected technology that enables real-time tracking across the supply chain.
Flexibility is at the core of a responsive supply chain, which is not just reacting to changes but being proactive as well.
The objectives of a responsive supply chain include:
There are several key stakeholders (and often third-parties) involved in ensuring a responsive supply chain runs smoothly, including:
All of these stakeholders must be responsive communicators, with communication going both ways.
Supply chain efficiency is focused on doing more with less, where supply chain responsiveness is focused on agility and keeping business afloat when things don’t go according to plan. But really, supply chain efficiency and supply chain responsiveness work together by managing continuous chaos, as supply chains are some of the most volatile and delicate things in business.
At the end of the day, it’s not about having an efficient vs. responsive supply chain but a cohesive supply chain that can move quickly and adapt without losing money. Efficient and responsive supply chains have common metics to monitor, like on-time fulfillment, profit margins, shipping speeds, lead times, and more.
Together, they have the same end goal of meeting customer expectations.
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Whether you’ve just started your ecommerce business, or it’s already well-established, improving supply chain efficiency can seem like a monumental task. If you don’t know where to start, here are seven steps towards greater supply chain efficiency:
The first step in improving supply chain efficiency is to increase your visibility over logistics operations.
The best way to do this is to implement inventory management strategies that allow you and your team to track inventory levels as they move through stages, from receiving to warehousing, to being packed, picked, and shipped to customers.
A modern inventory management software (IMS)can provide more visibility, as well as the ability to access real-time inventory tracking, so you can avoid stockouts, backorders, and overpaying carrying costs.
By implementing an IMS, you’re also given access to data and analytics to help you make informed business decisions, such as inventory forecasting.
Communication with your suppliers is key! When you have a good relationship with your suppliers, you can plan better and avoid any shortages, delays, or issues early on.
A dependable supplier is responsible for tracking the work-in-process inventory phase (i.e., the movement of raw materials being processed into finished goods), which impacts the quality of the products you sell and how quickly you can obtain more inventory.
Suppliers that are inconsistent in delivering a quality product can slow down your supply from the very beginning, so it’s important to be selective and weed out suppliers that are consistently causing issues or delays to your sourcing.
Once you have discovered suppliers that are both responsible and flexible, you’ll need to continually foster those relationships through clear and open communication and conflict resolution.
Finding ways to automate supply chain processes is one of the best ways to improve efficiency, reduce human error, increase supply chain performance and velocity, and save time and money in the long run.
Automating time-consuming tasks, from order processing to automated shipping, doesn’t necessarily replace the need for human effort, but it does help you streamline your operations and increase productivity.
Warehouse automation reduces the time, effort, and errors that are common in logistics. Some business owners even employ logistics automation in their own warehouse, using their own technology and tools.
However, since automation technology, equipment, and robotics can be costly, many ecommerce businesses rely on a tech-enabled 3PL that have made investments in automation to optimize their supply chain.
This way, businesses can invest more in product development, marketing, and other important initiatives.
With so many processes taking place simultaneously across your supply chain, it’s important to use implement the right software and technology that allows your team to work as efficiently as possible.
If you manage a warehouse inventory across locations, you might want to consider using a warehouse management system (WMS) that connects with your IMS, which can help you automate order processing, get real-time inventory tracking, order management tools, and data reporting and analytics.
Of course, implementing a robust tech stack can become costly. Fortunately, many direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands partner with a 3PL that already has the technology necessary to optimize supply chain efficiency.
For instance, ShipBob’s fulfillment centers are powered by a proprietary tech stack, including a WMS that lets you know what’s going on in every fulfillment center you have inventory stored in and where your products are stored at all times.
Once you’ve made the decision to implement all of the changes above, the next step is to create a training plan for your employees.
Remember, your supply chain is only as efficient as the people who manage it. Warehouse associates, order fillers, and logistics managers should all be trained on standard operating procedures to provide consistency, efficiency, and accuracy in their decision making.
If an employee has been at the company for a long time, be sure to ask for feedback on how your warehouse team can improve operations. If you lack a logistics team, a 3PL can provide the expertise needs to manage your supply chain.
Going green is business value that more customers these days are looking for. Your customers are becoming extremely aware of the steps that companies are taking (or not taking) to reduce their carbon footprint, so it’s important to consider ways to reduce waste.
One great cost-effective way is to utilize SIOC packaging whenever possible — which can also reduce shipping costs — or strive for eco-friendly packaging that utilizes biodegradable materials and minimizes waste by cutting back on unnecessary filler materials.
If you’re looking to outsource fulfillment, partner with a 3PL that invest in eco-friendly initiatives or allow you to use your own sustainable custom packaging.
For example, ShipBob partners with Ecocart so you can purchase carbon credits by allowing your customers to choose (and optionally, pay for) carbon offsets on a per-order basis, and allowing you to offset the carbon impact of product manufacturing and even last-mile delivery. We also partner with experts in eco-friendly shipping and packaging.
Improving your entire supply chain is not a one-time fix. It’s a process that needs to be reviewed and optimized as often as possible.
It’s important to continuously collect and analyze warehouse inventory management performance to identify areas of improvement where further efficiency and higher order accuracy can be achieved. This can be done by investing in technology, automating processes, or hiring logistics experts to help.
For instance, ShipBob looks at several different aspects of their fulfillment operations to find ways to become more efficient, such as assigning pickers optimized routes, opening more fulfillment center locations to cut down on shipping times, and improving warehouse picking and packing processes.
Investing in supply chain efficiency improvements allows ShipBob merchants the ability to provide a better customer experience, save on costs, and spend less time worrying about logistics.
It’s one thing to make your supply chain more efficient — but keeping it that way is another matter altogether. To maintain an efficient supply chain, here are four supply chain management best practices to consider.
Keeping track of your inventory at all stages of your supply chain requires an investment in technology to improve inventory management processes. There are several inventory apps on the market that can you help you:
