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.
