order fulfillment services

According to Shopify, 86% of Fortune 500 companies and 96% of the Fortune 100 use order fulfillment services. If these brands trust their business in the hands of an order fulfillment company, why can’t you? Whether or not you need order fulfillment services usually depends on you and your business.

Additionally, your business can benefit from working with an order fulfillment company if your margins are decent. With the help of the right fulfillment partner, you can take your business to greater heights. Continue reading to discover the merits of using order fulfillment services.

You Don’t Need A Warehouse

One of the merits of using order fulfillment services is that you don’t have to warehouse your goods yourself. Managing your warehouse can be expensive. When you run your warehouse, not only would you pay for the space but everything else that goes into that space.

Easily Integrates With Ecommerce Platforms

Using order fulfillment services also integrates all of your ecommerce platforms for a stress-free solution. Instead of figuring out how to integrate each system yourself, you can hand this over to an experienced order fulfillment company that can help you integrate all your systems.

Having them help you out not only ensures that your system is set up right but frees up your time and money to focus on growing your business.

Order Fulfillment Services helps Negotiate Better Shipping Prices

Working with an order fulfillment company will help you take advantage of better shipping prices. If you’re doing self-fulfillment and shipping 50 orders per day, you won’t have as much negotiating power as if you part of a much larger group shipping thousands of orders per day.

The companies that do the actual delivery want to incentivize having a fuller truck so the more orders you ship the better the deal they’ll offer. Therefore, using an order fulfillment service that’s shipping hundreds or thousands of packages each day will make you benefit from that discount.

You Don’t Have to Hire Warehouse Employees

Keeping an order fulfillment in-house can be expensive and time-consuming. An order fulfillment company takes care of this work for you. They’re structured in such a way that they’ll make your business grow.

They’ve amazing employees that work hard to treat your brand with respect and care. They’re firm believers in doing what you’re best at and they’re good at hiring, training, and managing great warehouse staff.

Ability to Grow

When your business is in growth mode, the last thing you want is to pull up on the reigns and slow things down because you can’t keep up with fulfillment. The alternative would be to work yourself or employees into the ground to try and keep up. None is a good option. Using an order fulfillment services will give you plenty of runways to let your business take off.

Order Fulfillment Services help Save Time

If you’re still mailing packages out of your basement, then you’re not ready for a warehouse and you don’t have to worry about those costs yet. But how much time is self-fulfillment costing you?

How much time could you use to grow your business? Are you saving any money by doing self-fulfillment? If you’re sending out 20 or more orders a day, it’s high time you upgrade to using the order fulfillment services.

Ability to Go International

Going international can be a hassle as it’s not just getting your product to your customer that’s the tough part; it’s all the paperwork that goes with it too. According to Shopify, one of the bottlenecks of going internationally is dealing with global fulfillment.

Few business owners take care of documentation, customs, and other issues that may occur when dealing with overseas sales. Teaming with an order fulfillment company that has the experience and knows the lay of the land, you can minimize the headache and hassle of going international.

Outside Support

Nobody can be an expert in every area of their business. Sometimes a little assistance can make all the difference. Order fulfillment companies support your business so that you can focus on other things. They’ll give you a supporting hand in the supply chain of your business. They’ll also help you find areas for improvement. Ultimately, they’ll help your business grow.

Takeaway – Order Fulfillment Services May Be Right for Your Online Business

Self-fulfillment can seem a great way to save money but not always. It’s costly and requires a lot of cash to put together a warehouse of your own. Using order fulfillment services can save you time, and money and give you the ability to grow and expand your business. At this junction, it will be best you upgrade to using order fulfillment service if you haven’t.

Need Order Fulfilment Services? Contact Us Today!

Do you need a reputable order fulfillment services company for your ecommerce business? Contact us today at Fulfillman. We provide a wide range of services including Global Fulfillment, China Sourcing, Drop Shipping, Third Party Logistics, and lots more. What’s more, our trusted experts will be happy to speak with you and provide suitable answers to your questions and concerns. A fantastic experience awaits you.

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Order fulfillment is the complete process from when an order is placed, or a sale takes place to a customer receiving the package. Two of the top qualities customers consider when they shop online are cost and the estimated time of delivery, the latter influences 68% of customers’ decisions to purchase.

A successful order fulfillment process relies on a third-party logistics company (3PL) or a fulfillment center to complete all of the processes required. What goes on in the fulfillment center may seem to be a mystery, but it doesn’t have to be. The process of order fulfillment is about creating a brilliant experience for your customers. Continue reading to know more about the order fulfillment process, what it entails, and how it works.

Receiving Inventory

The first process to order fulfillment is receiving inventory from suppliers. Products may come from a third party, another company department, or a company warehouse. In any case, the incoming inventory must be counted, inspected, and double-checked to ensure the proper amount was received and the quality is acceptable. The bar codes on the arriving products are used in the receiving and storage processes, and to retrieve goods from internal storage later.

Inventory Storage

Once goods are received in the fulfillment center, they are inventoried. Then, they’re either immediately disbursed or sent to short- or longer-term storage. Products are ideally stored just long enough to help organize the orderly distribution of goods for existing sales, rather than to hold products for future sales.

Order Processing

An order processing management system dictates product picking and packing activities per each newly-received customer order. In the online marketplace, order management software can be integrated with the shopping cart on an ecommerce or dropshipping website to automatically initiate order processing.

Picking

A picking team or automated warehouse robots select products from the warehouse according to a packing slip’s instructions. The packing slip contains specific information, such as a list of product bar codes, product colors, sizes, number of units, and location in the distribution center’s warehouse.

Packing

Packing materials are selected by the packing team or automated fulfillment robots to achieve the lowest practical dimensional weight, which is calculated by multiplying package length times width times height. Since space on delivery trucks is at a premium, optimizing dimensional weight is important to speed transport while also potentially lowering shipment costs. Furthermore, packing teams often include return shipping materials and labels in case the customer wishes to exchange or return the product for a refund later.

Shipping

The order is sent to a shipping node or a transportation channel to be shipped to the customer. Shippers and carriers, whether freight lines or airlines, FedEx, the U.S. Postal Service, or other carriers, determine freight billable costs by whichever is greater: actual package weight or its dimensional weight.

Even if the actual weight is low, such as with a t-shirt, packing it in the lowest dimension is often worth it to keep the packaging from adding significantly to the overall package weight. Likewise, most carriers have packaging rules to optimize their profits from the shipping space they have available. Failing to meet those requirements can delay shipping if carriers refuse to accept the order.

Delivery

It is common for shipping routes to involve more than one carrier. For instance, FedEx may pick up a package at the fulfillment center that will later be delivered by the USPS to the customer’s home. There are many reasons for these hybrid shipping methods. One common example is that the USPS delivers even to remote areas where most other commercial carriers don’t. It’s simply just practical to use the USPS for the last mile of delivery in those cases.

Returns Processing

92.0% of customers say that they’ll buy from a business again if the returns process is easy. Returns processing begins by including shipping materials and a return label with the original customer’s order. When a customer returns a product for an exchange or a refund, the process must be executed carefully to ensure it’s appropriate to restock it.

If the product malfunctions or is damaged or soiled, then it can’t be restocked. Returns processing includes quality control checks and sorting returned products accordingly. Return products are then restocked, returned to a manufacturer for a distributor refund or credit, or sent to a recycling center.

Take Away

The order fulfillment processes differ depending on the type of fulfillment strategy you use. But a general idea of what the order fulfillment process looks like for an ecommerce retailer, dropshipper, or online business owner has been discussed.

Now that you’ve been enlightened on how the order fulfillment process works, how you get products to your customers faster is by optimizing your inventory management, double-checking the products before shipping, improving relationships with suppliers, and being transparent with customers. Finally, you’ll be on your way to satisfying them. Good luck!

Contact Us Today!

Do you need a reputable order fulfillment services company for your ecommerce business? Contact us today at Fulfillman. We provide a wide range of services including Global Fulfillment, China Sourcing, Drop Shipping, Third Party Logistics, and lots more. Our trusted experts will be happy to speak with you and provide suitable answers to your questions and concerns. A fantastic experience awaits you.

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Outsourcing your order fulfillment has several advantages. The right order fulfillment partner can help reduce your shipping cost, lower operating costs, and extend your reach. Also, your order fulfillment company can help improve your customer services and streamline the order fulfillment process using technology. This is why choosing the right order fulfillment partner is crucial for your dropshipping business.

Furthermore, these fulfillment companies are charged with storing, inventory management, packing, and delivering items to customers. Topics such as hoarding, excessive increment in the price of goods, uncontrollable dumping of scrupulous products, fraud, and scams, are quite rampant in the order fulfillment process. Therefore, the need to scrutinize and subject the fulfillment service providers to thorough investigation and consideration is crucial. In this post, we will be discussing some essential questions to ask before choosing an order fulfillment partner:

What Areas Does The Company Serve?

One of the major things that are often considered when choosing an order fulfillment company is the location and coverage areas. The areas served by the order fulfillment company is crucial. Choose majorly those with warehouses in countries or areas where your customers are concentrated. Having a close warehouse ensures the timely arrival of packages. With this, you can deliver items to customers on time.

Is The Shipping Rate Affordable?

The main aim of a business is to make profits. Therefore, this is a fundamental question to ask. Make inquiries about which of the order fulfillment companies offer the lowest rate and how soon it takes to get them cleared. These two would give an edge in your market space. Carefully access their carriers and range of shipping they bring to the table.

However, shipping fees have proven to be one of the main factors enhancing the practice of cart abandonment. These two factors are the fastest way to turn people’s attention to their store. According to Statista, 63% of online shoppers blame the abandonment of carted goods on expensive shipping fees. Directly, this inflates the price of products, and those whose fulfillment companies offer affordable shipping rates tend to have more sales.

Is The Price Fair?

Furthermore, the price of goods tends to have a proportionate effect on the type of product sold. Always be on the lookout for the marginal or average rate in the market and be prepared to bargain. The strategy to go about that is putting your attention majorly on goods you want to purchase against the price. Make sure also to check carefully if there are no other hidden additional charges on the carted products. Always put your instinct and brilliance in deciding which to go for among the order fulfillment companies.

Is The Company Big Enough to Accommodate Your Dropshipping Business Needs?

These hinges on the size of your business and orders. Get varieties of options and check which best suits your dropshipping business. In the course of doing this, put into consideration which can handle your requests effectively. In case of potential huge orders, choose a partner that would take it without any issues.

Does Your Need Align With The Service They Provide?

Furthermore, make sure you choose an order fulfillment company whose services align with your business needs. If there is a need for business expansion or diversification, your preferred partner should have an ideal solution for you. Therefore, analyze your needs and plan to devise practical solutions to them.

How Well Do They Attend To Emergency Issues through Their Customer Support?

Sometimes, there is a need for clarity or negotiation, which goes a long way to affect the business and agreement. The importance of accessing the credibility and availability of customer care is also vital. These are all advised to be put into consideration during the selection of a partner. The approach to issues and suggestions on ways of calming the tension before figuring out solutions is fundamental. You want to work with an order fulfillment company with reliable and efficient customer support.

Is the Company’s Philosophy Mutual?

When selecting a preferred choice, it is essential to choose those that are highly analytical as you. As a dropshipping business owner, you probably see beyond the surface and current happenings because you are critical and always careful of each decision. For this reason, it is highly advisable to work with a company that is goal-oriented and futuristic like you. Remember, the consequences of each business decision could either be negative or positive. Having an order fulfillment company with mutual philosophy can help you make perfect choices.

What is Your Minimum or Maximum Order Volume Requirements?

In addition, your order fulfillment partner should provide you with an estimate regarding the minimum or maximum amount of orders the company is able to handle. Several order fulfillment companies will “out price” you if you fail to meet the minimum requirements while others will restrict the growth of your dropshipping business by not allowing you to exceed a pre-set volume. Conversely, the ideal order fulfillment partner will be willing to contract with you and help your business grow.

Is There A Long-Term Commitment?

Lastly, you should never sign a long-term contract or agreement with an order fulfillment partner unless there is a way out if the service becomes unacceptable. The right strategy is to have a month-to-month contract or a short-term renewable agreement. With this, you can easily walk away if the services provided by the company becomes undesirable.

There you have it! Above are some important questions to ask before choosing an order fulfillment partner. Your outsourced order fulfillment company is crucial to the success of your dropshipping business. Ensure that you choose a partner that can help lower operating costs, reduce shipping costs, and help your business grow.

Do you need a reliable order fulfillment company for your dropshipping business? Contact us today at Fulfillman. We specialize in providing excellent Drop Shipping services, Order Fulfilment, Warehouse fulfillment, China sourcing, Third Party Logistics, and so forth. Our dedicated experts will be available to speak with you and discuss the options available to you. We guarantee you get quality and excellent services that give 100% client satisfaction.

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The supply chain of e-commerce businesses is a significant factor in determining their success. According to the Supply Chain Council, successful order fulfillment can be described as “the percentage of orders meeting delivery performance with complete and accurate documentation and no delivery damage.” Orders are increasingly becoming more arduous and challenging to manage given the increasing growth of the business from multi-channels and market challenges.

A disorganized order fulfillment system can lead to delay in order delivery to the customer. This eventually leads to poor customer experience. E-Commerce that has such delivery system leaves its customers in frustration and the business suffers in return. This indicate how important it is for order fulfillment to be successful.

To have a flourishing e-commerce business means to have a successful order fulfillment towards your customers. Here are tips on how you can manage your supply chain effectively and make your order fulfillment more successful.

Establish a Working Demand Management System

Creating a good demand management system is vital to accomplish a successful order. The purpose of a demand management system is to equip the business with the ability to handle unprecedented demand rise and gives a forecast of demand from customers. Multi-channels through which customers make purchases are monitored. Data are captured and analyzed to equip the business of real-time information regarding the flow of demand in the supply chain. Data captured using this system is accurate and helps forestall any challenge in the future. This also gives room to maximize profit and growth of the business.

Do Not Back Out On Promises to Customers

Not being able to live up to expectations can have a devastating effect on your business. Customers typically want to earn every value of their money. You can ensure that you have your customers’ trust and loyalty by ensuring that the stocks in your inventory levels match the specifications. Also, ensure that there are stocks that match the customers’ needs available at all time in the inventory. To effectively, ensure that your customers are satisfied, use Available to Promise (ATP) inventory. This method guarantees that a particular stock is always available.

During delivery, ensure that the shipping notification is working effectively. Regardless of the specified time for the arrival of the product customers naturally want to keep tabs on its movement. When customers are not notified they are likely to fidget, make incessant calls to the customer care and this amount to a loss of money and time. What with such experience they are likely not deal with such e-commerce platform again.

Understand the Challenges

Customers have an ever-changing taste and options to select regarding how they shop and receive orders. Retailers that have a complex e-commerce system are likely to offer their customers unsatisfied user experience. The whole e-commerce fulfillment should take minimal time and swift as possible to accomplish. Retailers should design their e-commerce system to enhance user experience and making shopping and order receiving hugely convenient.

Build Communication

Communication with customers is essential for the flourishing of an e-commerce business. During the delivery of an order to a customer, it is important to keep them abreast with its progress. When there is no communication customers are likely to get worried, which affects their confidence in the e-commerce service. Communication reassures them of a good supply chain and boosts their confidence.

Use A Working Distributed Order Management System

A distributed order management system gives an e-commerce business a competitive edge over its competitors. This management system utilizes a central approach to managing the real-time inventory of retailers. After a customer orders a product, the retailer should be able to locate the product. The inventory becomes organized to ensure that there are delivery or shipping delays.

Flexibility is introduced as customers can buy products and return them when and however means. E-commerce businesses that have the DOM are not going to leave their customers with a poor customer’s experience.

Make Customer Service Available

There will cases of late delivery of purchased products, missing products during delivery or damaged goods. The only recourse customers normally take when they experience any of these is the call the customer service. E-Commerce, where there is no customer service to respond swiftly to customers’ inquiries, may not last long. Having customer service representatives on ground addresses order fulfillment issues and enhances the relationship with customers.

Lost or Damaged Goods Replacement

At some point in an e-commerce business, goods in the inventory are bound to be lost or damaged. Replacing the damaged or lost products should be done regardless of its cost. Better still; each item in the inventory should have a purchase shipping insurance to cushion any loss. Damaged products returned by customers should be replaced without any charge. This should be done to avoid having a horde of irate and unsatisfied customers at hand.

Delivery Costs

Shipping costs by retailers are usually determined to utilize two criteria; by price and weight of the product. E-commerce retailers should ensure that customers are enlightened on how the shipping price is determined. In addition, e-commerce businesses should make an effort to keep shipping costs as reasonable as possible.

There you have it! Above are some top secretes to successful order fulfillment. A successful order fulfillment system is key to retaining customers and boosting e-commerce growth. Given the increase of channels through which customers make orders, it has posed challenges to e-commerce businesses. Building communication with customers, keeping your promise, creating an order management system all ensure that at the end of the day, e-commerce business has a successful order fulfillment system.

Do you need a reputable order fulfillment services company for your ecommerce business? Contact us today at Fulfillman. We provide a wide range of services including Global Fulfillment, China Sourcing, Drop Shipping, Third Party Logistics, and lots more. Our trusted experts will be happy to speak with you and provide suitable answers to your questions and concerns. A fantastic experience awaits you.