Enhancing Supply Chain Visibility and Control by Leveraging Virtual Assistants

You want to sell. But you don’t have all the time and manpower to facilitate the entire process. This results in a lack of awareness about what’s happening to your shipment. 

What if you could gain visibility and control of your supply chain? 

With supply chain visibility (SVC), you can track your products at whatever point in transit. This allows you to gain a clearer view of the activities so you can update your inventory in real time. It’s essential not just in your internal business operations, but including external partners as well. 

Before the innovation in freight forwarding, it would be impossible for sellers to know the status of their products during shipment. But now, you’re just a click away into checking the progress of your supply chain—from the production and assembly of raw materials all the way to the delivery of the finished products. You just have to make sure you have the right people to assist you all throughout the process. 

That’s where Virtual Assistants (VAs) come in handy.

supply chain

What can VAs do to help you?

If you’re not living in a cave, you must be well aware of today’s heroes in the e-Commerce world—VAs. 

Yes. VAs are rapidly dominating the business realm with their efficiency and highly desirable skill sets. When the world shut down due to the devastating effects of the pandemic, a huge gate opened for limitless opportunities for remote work. And that’s when the magic started. 

You can engage the services of a VA to:

  • perform technical, administrative, and creative tasks
  • coordinate with logistics
  • gather relevant data regarding your products
  • manage and control your inventory
  • forecast possible gains and risks
  • negotiate procurement/purchasing contracts
  • control the flow of your expenses
  • allocate your resources efficiently

Imagine the huge amount of tasks that a VA can take off your load so you can focus more on your business strategy. 

Scale faster with a VA.

In this fast-moving world of e-Commerce, made more competitive by the complexity of modern supply chains, you need to outsmart your competitors. Hard work is not enough. Let alone the commitment to hustle 24/7—you’ll only drain yourself out.

If you want to cater to a wider audience, or expand your reach by offering additional products or services, or rank higher among your competitors, you are in for a long and tough ride. 

You need help. Get it from VAs.

VAs can help shippers improve their overall customer service quality. One of the most notable benefits of working with a VA is the ability to control costs. This is made possible through the updating shipment status proactively and managing inventory in real time, thereby limiting disruptions and mitigating risks.

How do VAs enhance supply chain visibility and control?

Supply chain visibility and control is deeply reliant on your ability to consistently and adequately track, keep records of, and manage all raw materials and components from suppliers as they move along the supply chain. As you outsource more and more items of your supply chain, you could really use the assistance of VAs.

Data Entry, Analysis, and Reporting

Data entry, analysis, and reporting are tedious and repetitive tasks that can drag you down. Delegating these tasks to a VA allows you to understand the performance of your supply chain. Through this, you can now have a better chance at identifying areas for improvement.

Inventory Management

It’s not a CEO’s task to track inventory levels, manage stocks, or reorder products. You should spend your sweat on executive duties. These are administrative duties perfect for VAs, and these allow you to ensure that you always have the right number of products in stock.

Logistics Coordination

A sale does not end when the customer checks your product out. You need to make sure that it is shipped successfully and delivered to the customer on time. VAs can help you with logistics coordination. They can communicate with suppliers and track the progress of your supply chain. 

Procurement and Order Processing

While you can talk directly to your supplier and close a deal, you don’t have to do all the researching and scouting for potential ones. Leave this task to your VAs. They can identify your potential suppliers through a thorough market research and price negotiation. And at the end of the spectrum, your VAs can also help you in processing customer orders by doing the invoices and tracking payments.

Administrative Support

What you see as routinary tasks can be entrusted to your VAs. They can give administrative support such as document management, drafting contracts, preparing invoices and purchase orders, and other ad hoc tasks. This can be very helpful in streamlining your paperwork. 

By leveraging your VAs, you will be able to obtain more useful information about your supply chain operation. This will consequently lead to reducing risks, improving efficiency, and ultimately, increasing profits.

Where can you find competent VAs?

Currently, there is undeniably a great demand for VAs. So how can you ensure that you are hiring the right one for you? Hire from reputable agencies who train VAs to specifically match your needs. 

Check Virtual Assistants Academy (VAA) out! They take pride in offering experts in various fields essential for scaling a business. These VAs undergo extensive training to make them highly qualified to assist you in your administrative, technical, and creative needs.See their pool of talents here and let them know if they could be of any help to your business! They would surely love to talk!