A fulfillment center is a company that handles the receiving, storage and shipping of your product to the end user. The end user could be a retail customer of a business entity . A fulfillment Center the ideal solution for small and medium-sized eCommerce businesses that want to scale, add more products, increase sales and at the same time, keep costs low.

Who needs a Fulfillment Center ?

companies who meet below criteria need to solicit the services of an order fulfillment company

Companies with limited space . If the company lacks the budget to lease or warehouse, a fulfillment company is the way to go.

Does shipping and packaging make you struggle? ? Do you often find yourself dropping the ball on sending the orders out leading to unhappy customers?

Organizations that are limited in resources and need to free up time in order to focus in their core competencies need a 3PL company that can handle the order fulfillment.

Need to reduce costs. What happens when you decide to add more products to your range? You need to hire additional hands to help you with packaging, inventory management or shipping. a third party logistics company might be the answer.

How to choose a Fulfillment center?

• Location
• Review and Testimonials
• Years in Business
• Service rates and don’t look for the cheapest. You get what you pay for.

Here are some questions you can ask as you are interviewing prospective fulfillment centers:

• can you provide references from current or past clients that I can call?
• how soon do you ship an order after it comes in?
• what type of packaging is included?
• do you have a minimum monthly fee?
• can you handle large orders?
• do you partner with any shipping carriers to get discounts on shipping?
• what are your monthly storage fees and other fees?
• how do you handle the receiving process?
• Can you handle returns?
• how are the packages branded when they go out?
• can you handle international shipping?

Keep in mind that a fulfillment center is different that a warehouse.

A fulfillment center is the physical location from which a third-party logistics (3PL) provider (also known as a fulfillment provider) fulfills customer orders for ecommerce retailers. A fulfillment center exists to get online orders to customers in a timely fashion and relieve ecommerce companies of managing this crucial-yet-challenging process.

When we talk about a warehousing solution, we’re referring to a company that stores products for an extended period of time. A warehouse is a large storage center or industrial space designed to house inventory in bulk. You will see equipment like forklifts and containers, with shelves stacked high and stocked with large quantities of products.

When you hear the term Drop Ship , it refers to movement of goods from the manufacturer directly to the retailer or end user without going through the usual distribution channels.

it is a fulfillment method where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, when a store sells a product, it purchases the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer. As a result, the merchant never sees or handles the product.

The biggest difference between dropshipping and the standard retail model is that the selling merchant doesn’t stock or own inventory. Instead, the merchant purchases inventory as needed from a third party – usually a wholesaler or manufacturer – to fulfill orders. 

Pros and cons of using drop ship for order fulfillment

Pros

Good earning potential.

Location independent . For small, one-person businesses, most of the time you just need a laptop and an internet connection.

Less capital needed for the initial investment. With drop shipping, you don’t manufacture anything yourself, so you don’t need to invest in inventory, materials, tools, or anything else related to getting a product created.

It’s easier to scale your business. Quite simply, as a drop shipping business, ramping up your sales volume is not that much connected to higher product/operating expenses. 

Less overhead. 

• no storage needed, as you don’t keep any products with you,
• no need to pack anything yourself,
• no need to track your inventory,
• no need to hire more staff to deal with more products or sales coming in.

Cons

Someone else builds and sends the product. This is just a huge part of the overall customer experience. If anything goes bad with your supplier, the customer will still blame only you. In general, you lose quality control since you can’t see or use the product before it goes to the customer.

It’s more probable to come across copycats – people attempting to do exactly what you are doing.

Returns can be tough. Based on the agreement you have with your suppliers, customers might be required to return the products to you, and then you have to take care of the return/complaint process yourself. During that time, keeping the client happy can be difficult.

International 3PL works with you to make sure that your product reaches the end user quickly and efficiently.

Our facilities are equipped to handle all your needs form small to large projects. We are one of the favorite drop shippers for National stores.

International 3PL is a Warehousing Services Provider. Our Services include:  distribution and order fulfillment services. We also will transport or store your product at an affordable rate. Since we operate in Many countries, we can handle all of your local transportation,  and storage needs.

If you are involved in selling products, most probably you will need our services.

What is Order Fulfillment ?

Order fulfillment is the steps involved in receiving, processing and delivering orders to the final consumer.
A fulfillment service is a third-party company that provides these order fulfillment steps on behalf of another party.

These general definitions can apply to many types of orders, from large business-to-business orders, to the individual consumer.

International 3PL has been the choice of many companies for their order fulfillment services.

Order fulfillment is one of the services International 3PL is proud of.
To help better understand exactly what  order fulfillment is, here are some of the steps:

Receiving

Count each item to ensure the actual number of items matches the number of items ordered from the supplier(s)

• Inspect the inventory to see if any items have been damaged
• Add SKUs to warehouse management software in order to keep track of the location, counts and number of sales of each of your items
• Apply SKU or bar code labels if they do not already have them

Inventory Storage

Once inventory has been received, counted, inspected, labeled, and added to your warehouse management software, it is time for it to be shelved.

Proper inventory storage is one of the most important aspects of maximizing the speed and accuracy of your order fulfillment operations.

Order Processing

So now your inventory has been inspected, sorted and placed on shelves in the warehouse. Next comes order processing.

The first step in processing an order is receiving that order.
Once the order has been received by your warehouse, the individual items that make up that order are then picked off the shelves by warehouse staff. Transported to an order packing station. The packing station will go through a series of quality control checks, determine the best packaging materials, scan items, add packing slips and any inserts, seal the box, and then move it to the shipping station.

Shipping

After an order has been picked and packed, it is moved to a shipping station to prep it for delivery to the end customer.
The Shipping station will then prepare the order for shipment using the most economical way and according to requirements by the shipper.

Returns Processing

We handle all RMA requests and accept returns by customers should the need arise, we inspect the goods make sure they are in good order and place back on the shelf. damaged goods are handled according to shipper guidelines.