Selecting the Best Order Fulfillment Company

Customer experience is on top priority for every successful eCommerce site. To provide them with a seamless and amazing experience, eCommerce sites are shifting their focus to back-end services, which is where order fulfillment company come into play. So, in this article, you will explore how to pick the right service for your operations.

As an owner of an eCommerce site, you might have spent lots of money and time figuring out the best website designs and features for your customers. Provisioning them the best of the best services, that includes quick payment options, easy navigation, customized offerings, and every other thing that your customers are looking for. And that’s really awesome because this is what your customer is able to see, what we technically refer to as the front-end. But, it is important to equally consider the back-end part also. Once the payment is done by your customer, your back-end work begins. This includes accurately fulfillment of order, packaging,  and shipping it to the place where your customer wants. To accomplish these tasks seamlessly, an order fulfillment company is there for your help. This company can help you to handle inventory management, picking, packaging, shipping, and returns of the orders. 

When you are on your way to hire the best order fulfillment company, you should know how to select it. Have a look – 

• Flexibility and pricing 

The first thing you should always ask your ecommerce fulfillment service provider is what process they follow to bill their clients. We recommend you avoid agreeing on huge monthly or annual retainers. For example, if you are a distributor who deals with Christmas accessories then you do not need to meet a monthly retainer of 400 dollars in the month of July and August. This is due to the reason that you will still need to pay the amount, it doesn’t matter if your sales go down as you agreed on the conditions with your order fulfillment company.

Instead, you should look for an order fulfillment company with a low and flat-rate pricing structure. This will help you even in times when your company increases shipments. 

• Storage charge and rules 

Each of us is aware of the eCommerce giant Amazon. The company has set a policy of moving out the products from the facility faster. This one rule pushes retailers to select only fast movers. This could be a lesson for small-sized eCommerce companies, experts say that one should look for a service that is providing the storage capacity with low fees. Along with this, it is important to check that the company is flexible in terms of keeping your products at their warehouse for a long duration. You will surely never want to face the situation of throwing away your products from the warehouse. Therefore, it is important to look for an eCommerce fulfillment provider that has low rates and no time limit for keeping your products in its warehouse. Ensure to go through all the other rules related to your products and payments. 

• Pricing 

At first, most of the fulfillment companies will show you standard pricing to impress you. Make sure you are able to know about their hidden and added fees that they will be planning to mention in the contract only. This added pricing may include charges for dunnage (padding material used to protect goods) and extra fees for packing slips. Most of the time, the company can charge a hidden amount as technology fees whenever you talk to a developer or every time you call the help desk. With the growth of your business, these extra fees may also increase. Therefore, it is important to keep an eye on it. 

• Is there a possibility for scaling? 

You are working so hard to achieve bigger success in your business. It is very obvious that the demands for different products from your eCommerce site will be increasing and touching a big number soon. Are you ready for it? Is your order fulfillment company perfect for this? So,  before hiring one, make sure to check whether there is a scope for scaling or not. You need to check the capacity of the company’s warehouse if it can handle the increased volume that your business is going to generate one day. Ask the service provider about its staff members and their experiences. Lastly, you need to be sure about the company’s technical capabilities. Is it advanced enough to handle the extra inventory? 

Right now, you might think that these considerations mean nothing for your business. However, just think if you need to switch your ecommerce fulfillment services in the middle of your peak season then it could cripple your operations and business both. If you believe in yourself then find a partner that can help you to make your dreams come true. 

• Software and automation 

With the non-stop inventions of software and technologies, everything is just becoming easier. All these updates and inventions are helping the eCommerce sector also. With one of the best order fulfillment companies, you can enjoy the benefits of technologies. Without any hassle, all the product orders and their details can automatically be shared from your eCommerce platform to your eCommerce service provider for starting the shipment process. Moreover, with this, you do not need to put any additional input from your side. You need to ensure that the software your service provider is using is able to automatically update all the statuses of orders and inventory. The updates should be done in all the systems of the warehouse as well as on your eCommerce site. These are customized solutions designed to make toe work easier and simple. This also makes your website function in real-time. 

Along with providing you with every detail, your eCommerce fulfillment service provider should provide a platform for all your customers. With this portal/platform your customers will be able to track their order and every minute details about it. For example, when the order has been received at the warehouse, when it is packed and sent for shipment, etc. Also, the software should provide some advanced reporting details, this includes delivery timings, shipping costs. etc.