About: Fulfillmen

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Three Options for Fulfilling Shopify Orders

Fulfilment within Shopify

Fulfilment outside Shopify

Fulfilment with Fulfillmen

Shopify Order fulfilment isn’t the most glamorous aspect of running an eCommerce business, especially now that so many retailers and services provide free two-day shipping. The threshold for quick, free delivery has been raised, and companies who can’t optimize their fulfilment process risk going out of business.

Let’s look at the fulfilment process of Shopify, one of the most popular eCommerce platforms. Because the normal Shopify fulfillment process is made up of multiple moving elements, fulfilling orders on Shopify can be intimidating for novice sellers.

Three Options for Fulfilling Shopify Orders

Shopify offers three alternative solutions for fulfilling orders depending on the demands of your Shopify store:

a. Automatic Order Fulfilment

b. Manual Order Fulfilment

c. Partial Order Fulfilment

1. Automatic Order Fulfilment

You don’t have to sit in front of your computer when you get an order. This procedure makes sense only if:

• You’re working with a third-party fulfilment company.

• Packing and shipping transactions is not a requirement. Consider digital downloads.

• You don’t have any pre-order goods available.

From the Checkout page, set up automatic order fulfilment. With automatic fulfilment, you can use automatic payment capture.

2. Manual Order Fulfilment

Manual order fulfillment is mostly preferred because it provides them control and allows them to keep track of their inventory levels.

If you choose the manual order fulfillment option, make sure “Automatic fulfillment” is not checked in the “Order Processing” section. The vendor might be more involved in the purchasing and delivery process by manually fulfilling orders.

The following should be considered in Manual Fulfillment.:

• Run out of stock every now and then.
• There are items available for pre-order.
• You manufacture items on demand.
• You wish to provide partial fulfillment to your customers.

3. Partial Order Fulfilment

There are times when a consumer places an order for multiple products and one or more of the items is out of stock or on backorder. When you receive an order for a product that is out of stock or on pre-order, but the buyer has already paid for many items, the majority of which you already have.

You will be fulfilling the remainder of the order.

Delivery and shipping

Another vital duty would be to choose a shipping courier with whom you will collaborate. The courier will be a business partner, choose someone who can better represent your company. Here are a few shipping and delivery choices available to you.

1. Fulfilment within Shopify

Shopify Shipping is the process of setting up fulfillment within your Shopify admin. You can get cheap shipping prices on many carriers, print your own shipping labels, and use additional shipping tools like return labels using Shopify Shipping.

2. Fulfilment outside Shopify

There are numerous carriers, and you must determine which one best meets your needs.

When looking for a carrier, you will need to do a lot of research so if you’re selling high-value things, you might want to look into a carrier that offers package insurance and monitoring.

3. Fulfilment with Fulfillmen

Fulfillmen offers Shopify integration so that Shopify merchants can directly integrate their fulfillment process with Fulfillmen! It is the key to streamlining an efficient fulfillment process for your Shopify business, with an emphasis on fast fulfillment that delights your customers.

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What is Kitting Fulfillment?

The Kitting Process

Types of eCommerce Product Kitting

Choose Fulfillmen for Kitting and Fulfillment Services

Product kitting is a strong but frequently ignored ecommerce fulfillment approach in which many things are purchased together and offered as a single product however, managing kitting and fulfillment is a large task that necessitates the correct approach and support in order to please customers and boost revenue.

What is Kitting Fulfillment?

Kitting is an inventory management method and e-commerce fulfillment service where multiple products are bundled, packaged, and sold together as a single offering. Product kitting is a method of streamlining the order fulfillment process by generating a succession of ready-to-ship product bundles. The availability of pre-assembled kits for purchase reduces the number of unique multi-item orders that warehouse workers must assemble, resulting in speedier shipping and delivery times.

The Kitting Process

Receiving an order for your product kit. 

A customer will use your ecommerce website to order one of your product kits. This could be a one-time kit or a subscription service that will be sent on a certain day each cycle.

Picking/packing the kit for shipping.

If the product kit is pre-assembled, the picker will need to locate it in the warehouse’s allocated location. If the kit is being packed on demand, the picker must extract all of the kit’s components and pack them according to the packing plan.

Scan and label

After the kit has been completed, it will need a shipping label and scanning to identify it as a single SKU with a specific list of items.

Shipping

The finished kit will then be delivered to the purchaser who has been anticipating their purchase.

Types of eCommerce Product Kitting

Subscription Boxes

One of the most prevalent types of bundled merchandise is subscription boxes. Third-party systems can assist you in running your subscription box service more efficiently and converting one-time buyers into monthly members who earn cash for your company.

Assembled Products

Kitting is a common practice that is considered an important element of the fulfillment process. It allows eCommerce stores to provide customers with more choices. Parts for any built-to-order product kits can be kept in stock and assembled in several combinations to give customers more options.

Packed-to-Order Sets

Packed-to-order sets allow eCommerce companies to give customers a variety of options in terms of quantity, color, and product mix. Customers can purchase a wider range of products from online retailers that offer kitting and bundling services.

Choose Fulfillmen for Kitting and Fulfillment Services

For simplified fulfillment, Fulfillmen can pre-assemble and store all of your kits in your facilities in properly-sized shipping boxes ahead of time. In addition, complex kits such as subscription boxes or gift sets that require extra narrative in the form of special packaging or complimentary samples can now be easily managed. Contact us today!

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What Exactly is Order Fulfilment?

What is the procedure for order fulfilment?

Order fulfilment: 3 pointers for success

What Exactly is Order Fulfilment?

Order fulfilment refers to the entire process that begins with a transaction and ends with delivery to your customer. Order fulfilment for an e-commerce online company relies on a third party to complete the stages from receiving, processing, packing, selecting, and shipping an online order to clients.

To stay competitive and maintain consumer loyalty, e-commerce businesses need a successful retail order fulfillment plan.

What is the procedure for order fulfilment?

You might be considering outsourcing ecommerce order fulfilment to a 3PL at this point, but what does it entail? It may appear that what happens in a fulfillment center is a secret, but it doesn’t have to be.

When a customer places an order on your online store, the fulfilment center of a 3PL handles it.

Step 1: Receiving

In order to begin fulfilling orders, your 3PL requires inventory. Receiving refers to the acceptance and storage of incoming merchandise at the fulfilment center.

Each 3PL has its own procedures for receiving and keeping goods, which frequently involve the merchant’s submission of documents. This keeps things organized and on schedule, allowing your orders to arrive sooner.

The items are subsequently placed in specific warehousing storage areas, such as shelves, bins, or pallets, once the 3PL gets your inventory.

Step 2: Picking

Fulfilment warehouse picking is the first step in the order fulfillment process.

Once your order is pushed to your 3PL’s order fulfilment system, that order will be assigned to the picking crew. To collect the ordered products from their different locations, a picker receives a packing slip containing the items, quantities, and storage locations at the fulfilment center.

Step 3: Packing

Once all of the items in an order have been selected, it’s time to pack them safely.

Packing materials are charged by certain 3PLs, while others include them as part of their fulfilment services. Your 3PL will select packing materials that will protect your products while also resulting in the smallest possible dimensional weight.

Boxes, bubble mailers or poly bags, packing tape, bubble wrap, air-fill, and other dunnage are examples of these materials.

Some 3PLs allow you to stock your own bespoke boxes or utilize plain brown boxes if you like to keep your brand front and center.

Step 4: Shipping

On behalf of the merchant, most 3PLs will acquire shipping labels from shipping carriers.

Some fulfilment center work with preferred carriers, while others compare shipping prices from a number of carriers. The latter ensures that each shipping option is priced as affordably as possible.

One of the biggest advantages of outsourcing fulfillment is that major carriers pick up orders and send them directly from 3PL fulfillment facilities.

You will receive order tracking information once your order has shipped. You can communicate this information with customers either automatically or manually, depending on the 3PL’s technology.

Order fulfilment: 3 pointers for success

Your receiving procedures are critical.

You want to make sure that the receiving component of your order fulfillment operations is optimized so that you can act quickly. Any shipment should be processed as soon as feasible so that your customers can receive their orders immediately.

Prepare a contingency plan.

There are several external circumstances that you will have no control over when transporting merchandise. Goods may be damaged, carriers may decide to raise their prices, extreme weather may delay your delivery, and so on. Having a robust order fulfillment backup strategy will help you avoid late delivery.

Make every effort to predict demand.

To keep up with demand, you’ll need a sufficient amount of supplies in your inventory. Whether this isn’t your first year in business, you could start by looking at your past year’s data (orders, inventories, etc.) to see if your market has any seasonality.

Fulfill Your Products With Fulfillmen

If you need fulfillment services, Fulfillmen can help you with your business! If you are selling on Shopify, Fulfillmen offers Shopify integration so that Shopify merchants can directly integrate their fulfillment process with Fulfillmen!

E- Commerce has been steadily growing over the last few years, and all indications are that it will continue to do so. If you manage an online store, you’ll want to be sure you have access to a reliable online order fulfillment provider. E-Commerce fulfillment service has gone a long way in reality. In the past, you would have to physically fill all orders and ship them out using a variety of services depending on your needs.

You can now hire a best e-commerce order fulfillment company to complete the task for you. This makes the entire ordering and shipping process go more smoothly for everyone involved.

What is E-Commerce fulfillment service?

All successful eCommerce businesses have one thing in common: a top-notch eCommerce fulfillment solution handling their demands.

You may have the most innovative product on the market. Your product may be in high demand and still popular. However, if you don’t have E-Commerce fulfillment provider, all of your hard work and preparation could be for naught.

Simply, eCommerce fulfillment refers to the element of your online business responsible for delivering products to clients. If this step of the process fails, it can be quite frustrating for both you and your consumers.

We’ve produced a list of some of the best ecommerce fulfillment companies to help you find the right fit for your company.

Top 5 Best eCommerce Fulfillment Companies

1. Fulfillmen 

Fulfillmen is a foreign-Chinese co-operated fulfillment company founded and based in China and accredited by HCEIA, China. 

One major benefit of using Fulfillmen is their order fulfillment software—their dashboard provides detailed, real-time reports for inventory, material receipts, orders, reorders, and shipment tracking. It also has one of the best ecommerce warehouse in China, Hongkong, as well as in India.

Fulfillmen offers a variety of services from order fulfillment services and returns management to co-packing, and product assembly services.  It is perfect for businesses as they have no monthly minimums on order volume, storage levels, or ongoing fees. Plus, they don’t charge long-term storage fees. In addition, it is also integrated with major eCommerce platforms and tools.

Fulfillmen securely stores all of your inventory and ships it to clients as soon as an order is placed. It is one of the top eCommerce fulfillment companies worth considering because of its high customer satisfaction rate and good customer service standards.

2. NTG Freight

FreightPros gives you access to attentive services and a wide range of tools that allow you to handle your shipment, rail carriers, and other logistics directly.

It is perfect for small businesses because it can handle huge shipments as well as single shipments with proper management. The company’s tiny shipment level is the major feature that sets it apart from the competition.

3. FedEx Fulfillment

FedEx Fulfillment is ideal for growing small businesses because of its visibility and open policies regarding items, inventory, and the tracking procedure. More importantly, the company appoints a knowledgeable professional to assist small business owners in understanding and completing the entire procedure.

FedEx Fulfillment also offers integrations with all major eCommerce platforms, including Shift4Shop and Shopify. It also allows users to customize packing and value-added services, allowing small enterprises to meet client expectations.

4. ShipMonk

ShipMonk is another order fulfillment software that is specifically developed for eCommerce. They accomplish this by providing a straightforward system based on four key components for inventory, orders, shipping, and warehousing management.

A superb order management platform is also provided by the provider. This interface allows you to take a more active role in managing the entire ShipMonk client experience. They also provide shipping services that are handled by all major airlines as a result of their partnerships with them.

5. Fulfillment by Amazon

Fulfillment by Amazon completes our list of the best eCommerce fulfillment services available today.

The area of inventory management is where Fulfillment by Amazon really shines. Whether you sell a few items or thousands, you can take advantage of Amazon’s logistical skills and global warehouse network.

This is ideal for handling the majority of the fulfillment tasks.

What to Look for in a Fulfillment Service for eCommerce

If you run a successful online store, you’ll almost certainly want to hire a best e-commerce fulfillment companies. As a result, you might be unsure of what to look for when selecting an eCommerce fulfillment provider.

Of course, you must consider both personal preferences and commercial requirements. However, all of the greatest eCommerce fulfillment services should have the following features.

Final Thoughts 

Having a good eCommerce fulfillment service will make the entire ordering and fulfillment process for you and your clients quicker, faster, and more user-friendly. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all situation here.

Any of the eCommerce fulfillment companies on this list is a good option, and you can’t go wrong with any of them. Take a look at them all, do some research, try them out for free if they provide it, and discover which one works best for you.

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What is the definition of dropshipping?

Why Dropshipping?

How to Pick the Best Dropshipping Companies

Fulfill Your Products With Fulfillmen

You’ve probably heard of dropshipping if you’re looking for an online business opportunity. Dropshipping is an online business concept that can pay off handsomely for a budding e-commerce entrepreneur. With a minimal amount of beginning capital and some sweat equity, you can start dropshipping. You can increase your business after you start seeing results by committing additional money to advertise and brand marketing. But how does dropshipping operate, and why should you use it to achieve your entrepreneurial goals?

What is the definition of dropshipping?

Dropshipping is an online store fulfillment strategy in which merchants buy things from third-party suppliers when customers place orders, rather than storing inventory. The products are subsequently delivered to the customer. This eliminates the seller’s need to handle the merchandise directly. Sounds familiar, right?

When it comes to shipping and order fulfillment, the retail shop manager has little involvement. The merchant is not required to keep goods on hand, order items in bulk, or physically fulfill orders. Instead, the merchant’s products will be shipped by a third-party source.

Dropshipping is advantageous to entrepreneurs because it requires less operational capital than the typical retail model. You don’t need to create a physical business, hire personnel, keep the lights on, pay overhead, or manage inventory. Instead, you start an internet store and purchase wholesale from vendors that already have merchandise and warehouse space.

Why Dropshipping?

Less Capital

Businesses that use a dropshipping method avoid having to invest money in inventory or setting up a storage facility. They also save time by not having to organize their inventory or hire people to fill orders. Dropshipping has a low barrier to entry since you can start a dropshipping business even if you don’t have the cash to run a typical retail operation.

Scalability

Because order fulfillment is not reliant on the size of a physical facility or the number of personnel needed to ship out an order, a dropshipping company may scale swiftly. As a result, dropshipping can be extremely beneficial to retailers who have changing sales owing to seasonal considerations or other factors.

Product range is extensive.

Dropshipping expands your product options. Retailers can sell a greater assortment of products, allowing a small firm that otherwise wouldn’t be able to provide as many options due to a lack of storage to do so.

Flexibility

Many aspects of a retail business benefit from dropshipping. A brand can operate from any location, offer a variety of products, and easily adjust its offers as market preferences shift.

How to Pick the Best Dropshipping Companies

You’re entering a commercial partnership with the supplier whenever you integrate dropshipping in your sales plan – in any capacity.

As previously said, you are frequently at the mercy of your dropshipper in terms of product quality, timely distribution, and even legal compliance as a vendor.

That implies you must select them with extreme caution.

You want to make sure that the products are as described, but you need also check to see if the shipment matches your requirements.

Aside from the product’s condition, there are still lots of worries concerning your supplier’s business practices.

Before agreeing to do business with someone, ask yourself the following questions:

• How do they manage product returns or damage?

• How long does it take them to complete an order from start to finish, from sale to delivery?

• What is their customer service like? (Feel free to put this to the test.)

• Do they provide insurance for orders?

• Do they provide protection against fraud?

• Are there any internet reviews or references?

Fulfill Your Products With Fulfillmen

If you need fulfillment services, Fulfillmen can help you with your business! If you are selling on Shopify, Fulfillmen offers Shopify integration so that Shopify merchants can directly integrate their fulfillment process with Fulfillmen!

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• What is exactly Amazon FBA?
• Amazon FBA Costs
• Fulfillment Cost
• Storage Cost
• Cost of Inventory Placement
• Shipment Fee for Amazon-Partnered Carrier
• Before Shipping, Make Decisions
• To Amazon FBA directly or indirectly
• 3PL charges
• When should you use Amazon FBA Indirect Shipping?
• When should you ship directly from Amazon FBA?
• Fulfill Your Products With Fulfillmen

We know that shipping your products from China to Amazon FBA can be a lot to take in.

Whether you’re a first-time importer or a seasoned veteran, there are a lot of things to consider when it comes to getting your product safely and efficiently from the factory in China to Amazon’s warehouse in the US. That’s why we created this guide—to make sure that you have all the information you need to know about shipping from China to Amazon FBA.

What is exactly Amazon FBA?

Because there are so many publications concerning Amazon FBA, I won’t go into detail. FBA stands for “Fullfilment by Amazon.” The logistical route of a product from an Amazon warehouse to the end client is known as FBA. The “last mile” refers to the final stretch of the voyage. You can utilize Amazon FBA to connect to their warehouse network. Amazon will be confident in the timely delivery of your product to the final client. Your listing will now be marked as “Prime.”

Amazon FBA Costs

There are four different sorts of costs related with Amazon FBA.

1. Fulfillment Cost
2. Storage Cost
3. Cost of Inventory Placement
4. Shipment Fee for Amazon-Partnered Carrier

Fulfillment Cost

Fulfillment cost is calculated per order. This fee is applied when the goods is purchased and fulfilled,. By the way, fulfillment refers to the process of picking, packing, and shipping customer orders. 

Fulfillment cost is determined by the weight, category, and size of your item. The FBA fulfillment fees for the US marketplace can be found here.

Storage Cost

Storage cost is the cost of Amazon storing your merchandise in their warehouse. It is priced per cubic foot, and the it changes between peak and low inventory storage seasons. As a result, it makes sense to ship to Amazon FBA through a 3PL during peak season; more on that later. You can learn more about the completing inventory storage cost by clicking here.

Cost of Inventory Placement

Inventory placement cost is the cost of Amazon dispersing your shipment to their many warehouses across the country. Amazon may improve their warehouse space and shipping time to end customers by doing so.

The placement fee will be waived if you ship your shipment to more than one FC (Fulfillment Center) by default. You can avoid this and ship to a single FC by altering the Inventory Placement settings in Inbound Settings. Click “edit” and select the option “Inventory Placement Service.”

Shipment Fee for Amazon-Partnered Carrier

When delivering from a domestic location to an Amazon FBA warehouse, the Amazon-Partnered Carrier Shipment Fee is the cost of the prepaid carton label. The cost will be computed when you produce the prepaid shipping label as part of the inbound shipment process. This cost will not apply if you send your shipment directly to Amazon FBA; more on that later.

Before Shipping, Make Decisions

You must decide on the following before contacting a freight forwarder for shipping from China to Amazon FBA:

1. Direct or indirect to Amazon FBA
2. Whether or not to inspect

Carefully choosing on the above two points will enable you to thoroughly consider your logistics/shipment plans.

To Amazon FBA directly or indirectly

Direct shipping from China to Amazon FBA implies having your supplier ship your inventory directly from their factory to Amazon FBA, whereas indirect shipping means having your supplier transport your inventory to a middleman, who then ships it to Amazon FBA.

The latter necessitates an additional stage in the shipping process, which could result in twice the work and cost. As you expand your SKU choices and work with more vendors, the cost/labor might add up.

The middleman can be you, working out of your garage, or a third-party logistics provider (3rd party logistics). A third-party logistics (3PL) is a non-Amazon warehouse that stores, picks, packs, and ships your orders. They should also be able to ship merchandise to Amazon FBA in pallets and cartons.

3PL charges

It would take at least an additional 1-2 weeks for the middleman or 3PL to receive, prep, and transport your merchandise into Amazon FBA.

On top of that, most 3PLs will charge a receiving fee (often $1-$5 per carton or $10-$50 per pallet), a pick/pack fee to actually send the products to Amazon FBA (typically $1-$4), any labeling fees such as barcodes (typically $0.1-$0.25), and storage fees (charge by to Cubic meters or by Pallet). This strategy is only viable if your business is tiny and your inventory is less than a pallet.

When should you use Amazon FBA Indirect Shipping?

• If this is your first order from the provider, double-check that everything is in working order (both in terms of quality and preparation) before sending it to FBA.
• It’s your first time sending merchandise to FBA, and if you make a mistake, it won’t affect the rest of your stock.
• You work with multiple suppliers in China, and consolidating inventories from the various vendors makes financial sense.
• If you place a large front-load order (Q4), you can save a lot of money on storage fees.
• Have the cash resources and inventory to handle the longer lead time
• Amazon shouldn’t know who your suppliers are.
• Keep the fact that you’re selling on Amazon hidden from your source (to avoid giving them ideas).

When should you ship directly from Amazon FBA?

• You’re running out of stock in FBA, and you need to act quickly.
• Due to a cash shortage, you must stock up and begin selling immediately.

A tiny quantity of product, one carton or less than $800 in value.

Generally, one should start with indirect shipping if you’re a new Amazon seller or are just getting started importing from China. You’ll have a lot more control over the shipping process, from inspection to preparation, and you’ll have a lot more leeway to make mistakes than if you sent directly to Amazon.

Fulfill Your Products With Fulfillmen

If you need fulfillment services, Fulfillmen can help you with your business! If you are selling on Shopify, Fulfillmen offers Shopify integration so that Shopify merchants can directly integrate their fulfillment process with Fulfillmen!

Content Table

• Sell on TikTok with Shopify
• Shopify X TikTok: How It Works
• Tag your products on your TikTok videos
• Bring your Shopify store to TikTok
• Create ads on Tiktok
• Final Thoughts
• Fullfill Your Products With Fulfillmen

If you are selling through Shopify, you can now expand your market by promoting your business and product through TikTok!

Sell on TikTok with Shopify

Last October 2020, Shopify had announced that they had partnered with Tiktok to allow its sellers and merchants to sell and promote their products through TikTok. The two giant platforms – the king of short-form videos and e-commerce giant – decided to integrate their systems so that Shopify sellers can sell through Tiktok. Here’s how it works.

Shopify X TikTok: How It Works

Basically, there are three ways you can do to integrate your Shopify store through Tiktok:

• Tag your products on your TikTok videos
• “Bringing” your Shopify store to TikTok
• Create ads on TikTok

Tag your products on your TikTok videos

You can now tag your Shopify products on your TikTok videos. Best of all, you can do it for free!

Also, if you’re new to TikTok, don’t worry. It’s normal to feel intimidated when first getting started on TikTok because there’s so many videos out there for yours to be noticed. But in TikTok, content and engagement is what matters – so, as long as you have great content, you can have a good headstart from there.

Bring your Shopify store to TikTok

Second, you can simply bring your Shopify store on TikTok. Thanks to their integration, TikTok allows users to swipe when they want to shop. If they want your product, they can simply swipe left to access your profile and be able to shop from there. And yes, users can now show directly on TikTok!

Create ads on Tiktok

Finally, you can create ads for your Shopify store on TikTok. What’s great about TikTok is that, placing ads there tends to offer more engagement than in other platforms.

Needless to say, you should be creative in your ads if you want engagement. But once you do it right, you can enjoy the viewership from TikTok!

Final Thoughts

The joint project of Shopify and TikTok offers Shopify merchants a new opportunity and wider market for selling their products. If you’re on Shopify (or planning to sell on Shopify), it will be good to check out this new opportunity!

If you have a Shopify store, simply create a TikTok account, connect it to your Shopify, then begin selling!

Fulfill Your Products With Fulfillmen

If you need fulfillment services, Fulfillmen can help you with your business! If you are selling on Shopify, Fulfillmen offers Shopify integration so that Shopify merchants can directly integrate their fulfillment process with Fulfillmen!

If you want to learn more about our company, please feel free to contact us at:

Content Table

• What is E-Commerce Fulfillment
• What is a fulfillment centers
• How E-Commerce Fulfillments Works
• Should You Do E-Commerce Fulfillment By Yourself or Hire a Fulfillment Company

When people think about what makes e-commerce businesses successful, they usually credit it to things such as the best marketing strategy, very effective copywriting, a huge social media following or they sell the best products. But do you know what really makes an e-commerce business great? It’s mostly its outstanding eCommerce fulfillment services. So, if you want to make a successful e-commerce business, be sure to take care of your business’ fulfillment and shipping solution side! But first, what is e-commerce fulfillment? What Is A Fulfillment Center?

What Is E-Commerce Fulfillment?

E-commerce fulfillment is simply the process of getting your orders delivered to your customers. E-commerce fulfillment covers every aspect of the delivery process – from storing inventory and receiving and processing orders, all the way to packing items, shipping/transporting the goods, and delivering them to your customer’s shipping address.

You may not think about it, but if you’ve ever done the “old school” way of selling your products – if you’ve stored up items in your garage or spare room for inventory, packed your products, and delivered them to your customer’s house – you’ve already done fulfillment!

What Is A Fulfillment Center

A fulfillment facility is a physical place operated by a third-party logistics supplier (3PL) to satisfy a customer’s order, and deliver them directly to the client’s distribution address.

How E-Commerce Fulfillments Works

Although e-commerce fulfillment seems just one process, it encompasses plenty of processing – from product sourcing to last-mile delivery. Here’s how it works:

1. Product sourcing – this is where you order your product from a manufacturer. Product sourcing goes beyond just ordering your products, though; it involves canvassing the best manufacturer and ensuring the quality of the product before you order them, and so on.
2. Warehousing – Fulfillment companies will deliver to your designated warehouse once you order your products.
3. Storage management – Fulfillment centers will categorize and store your products and will await incoming orders once it is in the warehouse.
4. Order processing -The product will be ready for delivery once you order.
5. Packaging – The fulfillment centers will package your product. This is a great opportunity to boost your branding, so be creative in your packaging!
6. Shipping – The product will be shipped, from the warehouse to your customer’s shipping address once it is packed. (last-mile delivery).

Should You Do E-Commerce Fulfillment By Yourself or Hire a Fulfillment Company?

Generally, if you are just starting out, it’s always a good choice to do fulfillment by yourself. If you are serving, say, 20 orders per week, you can mostly do them by yourself – you can do the inventory, and packaging, and run your products to the post office for the delivery.

But once your business starts growing, it’s best to hire a fulfillment company to do the fulfillment for you. Aside from being able to process a larger volume of orders, fulfillment companies are also equipped to deal with the paperwork necessary for the delivery (i.e. customs clearance for international shipping)

If you are looking for a fulfillment company, you may want to check out Fulfillmen. Fulfillmen is a leading fulfillment company that provides quality fulfillment services to businesses with the mission to help them grow and succeed. We specialize in product sourcing, shipping, customs clearance, and more!

Content Table

• What is Amazon Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM)?
• Amazon FBM vs Amazon FBA
• How Amazon FBM Works
• Should You Do Amazon FBM?
• Final Thoughts

One of the ways for fulfilling orders is by what is called the “fulfillment by merchant” or FBM. It is no surprising why entrepreneurs would want to sell through Amazon. Amazon is by far the largest e-commerce store in the world. This means that selling through their platform gives you an opportunity to be potentially viewed by millions of customers worldwide.

If you are planning to sell through Amazon to take advantage of their huge market, you should learn a few things about their fulfillment process.

What is Amazon Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM)?

Amazon FBM is simply a fulfillment method where the Amazon seller is the one who does the fulfilling. He/she can do so either via their own resources or by having a third-party fulfillment service provider which will do the fulfillment for them.

Amazon FBM vs Amazon FBA

As mentioned earlier, in Amazon FBM, the seller is the one that’s responsible for the fulfillment of their orders, either by their own efforts or by having a fulfillment center to do the fulfillment for them. In Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon), the seller’s orders are fulfilled by Amazon itself. In Amazon FBA, the seller needs to deliver his/her products to an Amazon fulfillment center. Once a customer makes a purchase on his/her store, Amazon will do the fulfillment on their behalf.

How Amazon FBM Works

If you are interested in fulfilling via Amazon FBM, here’s how it works:

First, you sign up for an Amazon Seller Central account. Once you’ve set up your account, you can begin listing your products to the marketplace. When you receive an order, you’ll then fulfill the order by delivering it yourself or by having a third-party fulfillment center to do the shipping on your behalf (ask your fulfillment center to know how you’ll both coordinate on this). Then, simply be sure to deliver your products safely and on-time. And that’s it – that’s simply how Amazon FBM works!

Should You Do Amazon FBM?

Of course, the decision will totally depend on you. But to help you decide on whether Amazon FBA is for you or not, consider the following:

Pros

• It is less costly compared to Amazon FBA. When you go FBM, you’ll pay the minimum fees required of you by Amazon such as monthly subscription fees. On the other hand, if you choose FBA, you’ll need to pay for the added services provided for you such as their logistics, delivery, etc.
• Have better control on the fulfillment process. You’ll have more control in the fulfillment process when you fulfill by yourself than when going FBA. In FBA, you are dependent on Amazon’s delivery performance – and in the event that they went slower (or slower than you would like), you have no control over it. On the other hand, you can control your own fulfillment since you do it yourself or you get to choose which fulfillment center to work with.

Cons

• The responsibility of fulfillment is on you – if you don’t like the hassle of fulfillment, then FBM may not work well with you. The next option is to, of course, find a fulfillment company to do the work for you. Although it is still on you to look for a fulfillment company that will best serve your needs.
• You will not have an Amazon Prime badge – Your products will not be Prime-eligible if you choose FBM. One main benefit of Amazon Prime is that, because of its badge, it gets more traffic compared to non-Prime products.

Final Thoughts

Amazon Fulfillment by Merchant is a great choice if you want to have better control over your orders’ fulfillment process. If you need help on fulfilling your products, Fulfillmen can help you with that! We strive to help businesses grow by providing them with the best fulfillment services possible.

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