Selecting one particular company to handle your warehouse fulfillment, mail order fulfillment, and direct fulfillment needs can make for an intimidating experience. So much of your business’ back end falls under the umbrella of services provided by a third party fulfillment service, that it’s often hard to determine how much should be outsourced and how much of the logistics and order fulfillment process should be kept close to home.
Ecommerce experts agree that you should never outsource more of your logistics fulfillment needs than you feel comfortable or can affordably manage. However, many fulfillment service companies offer package deals that in the long run may prove more cost-effective than parceling some of your fulfillment needs while retaining others under your own management.
Which Fulfillment Services Does My Business Need?
The first real step in choosing which fulfillment services you need is to evaluate your ecommerce business and gauge your future logistics costs against the likelihood that logistics management will eventually grow to overshadow your other operating expenses. In other words, if you can anticipate a point in the near future in which your logistics needs consume the majority of your operating capital, then outsourcing to a fulfillment service company is probably the wisest course of action.
Because fulfillment service companies offer a variety of features and services, ranging from one end of the order fulfillment process to the other, the choices available for their potential client companies are numerous and flexible. But again, bundling those services under the same logistics management makes the most cost-effective sense.
Warehousing
Fulfillment service companies are often also warehousing companies, so that they are able to accept and process inventory from their client company’s wholesaler or manufacturer in the same physical facilities.
Pick and Pack and Order Processing
Fulfillment service companies are experts in fast, reliable processing of mail order fulfillment duties, working constantly to streamline productivity and increase efficiency, both on behalf of their client companies and for the sake of their own profit margin. Because fulfillment service companies profit and grow as their client companies grow and profit, they have a vested and powerful interest in helping those client companies succeed.
And as their prosperity grows, they are also more likely to include more services available to their client companies, helping streamline those mail order fulfillment processes even further. Those services will be readily available to client companies, either bundled with other services or an “a la carte” basis.