Since there are many moving parts involved in running a business, a fulfillment center is incredibly useful when it comes to online product sales.
As a business owner, you’ve probably heard of fulfillment centers, but what are they, and how do they operate? The term is often used interchangeably with “warehouse,” but a fulfillment center offers an array of unique services.
Review the following breakdown so you can learn everything you need to know about fulfillment centers and how they can help your business.
What Does a Fulfillment Center Do?
Businesses of all sizes must be able to store inventory and dispatch orders to their numerous destinations when they sell products online. The more effective the process, the more shipping costs and time are reduced.
A fulfillment center is a stand-alone company that stores the goods and supplies for numerous eCommerce businesses. It fills orders submitted through a seller’s point of sale– typically a website. These companies help alleviate space, time, expenses, and energy.
Fulfillment centers specialize in numerous areas, including:
- Receiving Inventory
- Order picking
- Processing
- Assembly
- Packing
- Labeling
- Shipping
- Delivering
- Returns
- Exchanges
- Customer service
Fulfillment Centers Vs. Warehouses
In a traditional warehouse, inventory is usually kept for a long time and might only sometimes be readily available. Unlike fulfillment centers, warehouses simply offer storage rather than picking, labeling, packaging, shipping, or other eCommerce fulfillment services.
Warehouses are helpful if you have seasonal products that only sell during specific times of the year or surplus inventory that must be stored until you are ready to sell.
Warehouses can be useful for eCommerce businesses looking to store inventory for an extended period. Still, fulfillment centers are more than just storage facilities–they are a far more interwoven aspect of a firm.
Fulfillment centers , as opposed to warehouses, concentrate on keeping products for only brief periods of time before distributing them to clients once orders are received.
Fulfillment centers are also much more complex and busier. They handle multitudes of complex processes as opposed to warehouses that are only involved in storage. These centers continuously operate to meet customer demands.
Why You Should Outsource Fulfillment
To better help you understand the advantages of outsourcing fulfillment, here is a breakdown of six critical elements.
Save Money
If the costs of packaging and shipping are causing you to lose money, a fulfillment center can help. A good fulfillment firm will be straightforward and transparent about its costs with no hidden fees. Working with a fulfillment provider should save you money on labor, packing supplies, overhead, shipping charges, and other expenses on your ecommerce fulfillment services.
Fulfillment companies use the total shipment volume of all their customers to negotiate lower shipping prices with their carriers. As a result, they may be able to give you lower rates. When you save money on order fulfillment, you can use those savings towards other aspects of your ecommerce business that will help it expand.
Customer Service
One of the most fundamental elements of any company is customer service, and everyone knows that keeping existing clients is much simpler than acquiring new ones. Providing exceptional customer service can make your company stand out from the competitors. Through quick, precise, and effective shipping services, fulfillment businesses can raise the quality of customer care provided by any organization.
Numerous businesses offer email and telephone help that is available around the clock. These services make returns, exchanges, and reimbursements much more straightforward for both you and the customer.
Personalized Packaging
The first time a consumer will experience an eCommerce seller’s product is when it arrives at their door, and these days, a damaged brown box wrapped in packing tape won’t do. Custom packaging options enable you to design your own unique shipping boxes, coupons, and inserts.
You can also upgrade your packaging to make it more exciting and novel every time a customer makes a purchase. This can be based on demographics, spending patterns, birthdays, anniversaries, or other factors. Customers become brand evangelists as a result and increasing loyalty.
Manage Inventory
Technology is always developing, and so should your ecommerce fulfillment services. To optimize carrier selection and inventory optimization duties, efficient technology will combine your sales channels and other management tools. Inventory tracking methods improve year after year, and a reputable fulfillment business will use cutting-edge technology to do so.
Free Up Space
Many businesses start by working out of their basements, attics, garages, or second bedrooms. If you have inventory stuffed in every crevice of your house, that might be the sign you need that it’s time to outsource your fulfillment.
When space is minimal, moving your inventory offsite can help you achieve better organization and faster shipping results. Fulfillment centers offer enough space to store your inventory so you can have more space to focus on other aspects of business expansion.
Fewer Employees
It takes significant time, money, and stress to hire, train, and manage personnel. It can take time away from developing or expanding other areas of your organization to manage personnel. Fulfillment businesses help relieve you of the burden of handling your entire ordering procedures.
You’ll be able to hire fewer staff or put the ones you do have to other uses when order fulfillment is covered elsewhere. This will give you more time to concentrate on your items and make sure you have enough to meet demand.
Improve Your Business With Mintfulfill
If you’re ready to work with a reputable fulfillment center to save money and develop your business, you need Mintfulfill. Our professional systems will handle the costly difficulties of shipping and fulfillment, allowing you to enhance revenues.
We take pride in our speedy processing times, excellent communication, and price range that may be tailored to your specific requirements.
From customers to staff, we have built an environment that feels like a family. Contact us today to become a member of the MintFulfill family!