5 Proven Tips for Selecting a Reputable Fulfillment & Shipping Service
After considering the many benefits of outsourcing fulfillment and shipping, you have decided to hand over the responsibility of moving your products to another company. Outsourcing fulfillment and shipping frees up more time for you and the team to handle other tasks. You also benefit from lower costs, as well as fewer fulfillment and shipping errors. The question is not whether your business should outsource fulfillment and shipping. Instead, the question is how does your business select the best company to move your products?
Here are five proven tips for selecting a reputable fulfillment and shipping service.
Shipping Speed
Early in the shipping war, Federal Express guaranteed some product orders could reach customers as fast as overnight. Amazon Prime has perfected its fulfillment and shipping system to make two-day delivery speeds the norm. Because of the new standards set for delivery speed, customers expect their orders to reach them as soon as the day after placing an order. At Complete Mailing and Printing, our team of fulfillment and shipping professionals has set one of the fastest delivery speeds in the industry.
Warehouse Location
One of the most important criteria that establishes delivery speeds for fulfillment and shipping orders concerns the location of the nearest warehouse to your business. To achieve super-fast delivery speed, you want to work with a company that has built a centrally located warehouse, preferably near major roads and highways. Centrally located warehouses translate into shorter shipping routes, which is a huge factor in getting customers the product they ordered on time.
Types of Features
The best fulfillment and shipping companies offer features that give them a competitive advantage. Advanced order fulfillment software should be highly organized and easy to learn. You want to confirm that the fulfillment and shipping company that you choose uses software that never encounters a glitch, as well as calculates accurate arrival times. A fulfillment and shipping company that offers digital printing services and customer mail services allows your company to take care of many of the logistical tasks in one convenient location.
Responsive Communication
You have several fulfillment companies to choose from when searching for the right partner. The search process might come down to a factor such as responsive communication. Your fulfillment and shipping partner should respond promptly to emails, as well as text and phone messages. This is an especially important factor when you receive word from an unsatisfied customer that a product order has not arrived in a timely manner. Responsive communication also is an indication of a fulfillment and shipping company’s commitment to transparency and visibility.
Cost
You have heard the timeless adage, “You get what you paid for.” The adage means that if you cut costs too much, you might end up with an inferior product or service. Cutting cost corners when selecting a fulfillment and shipping company can lead to delayed orders that upset customers. Cost is a factor when selecting a fulfillment and shipping company, but it should not be the only factor. Treat cost as a make-or-break factor after considering the other factors on our list.
What are the 6 Typical Steps Involved in Fulfillment & Shipping?
Customers expect their orders to arrive on time and in mint condition. To exceed customer expectations, the best fulfillment and shipping companies typically follow a series of the same steps. Although the steps remain the same, the level of execution among fulfillment and shipping companies is not the same. Issues such as weather, equipment malfunctions, and logistical errors committed by drivers differentiate performance. At Complete Mailing and Printing, we ensure the completion of the following six steps involved in Fulfillment and Shipping in a timely manner.
Receive Inventory
After a customer places an order, the fulfillment and shipping company receives the inventory from the manufacturer or a third-party vendor. Receiving inventory requires a shipping and fulfillment company to verify the condition of the inventory, as well as the quantity of the products shipped. The key is to confirm all of the products have arrived in a condition that exceeds customer expectations. For especially large orders, a fulfillment and shipping company lets the manufacturer or third-party vendor know about the reception of the orders.
Store Order
After sorting, labeling, and organizing inventory, the next step in the process involves moving products to short or long-term storage. Most fulfillment and shipping companies that move products to short-term storage hold the products for existing orders. They often conduct another inspection before the processing step for each order. For bulk orders, fulfillment and shipping companies ensure a large number of products are in stock to prevent shipping delays.
Process Order
This is the step in which advanced technology plays an important role in ensuring the accurate transfer of products. Automated technology used for an order processing management system works seamlessly with shopping cart features to select the right products for imminent shipment. A packing slip created by digital printing services or custom mailing services presents the details of an order that include product features and specifications,
Pick Products
The processing steps get products ready to be picked manually or by operating an automated system that scans barcodes. Some large fulfillment companies such as Amazon use warehouse robots in conjunction with employees to select and retrieve the products required for shipping. Members of picking teams are assigned specific roles during the picking step to choose the correct products. Workers must be aware of amounts, colors, and sizes when picking products.
Packing Products
The same group of workers used for packing products also completes the packing products step. Automated robots also play a role during the packing step to improve speed and efficiency. The types of packing materials used depend on the weight of the cargo, as well as how fragile the products are while in transit. For example, products constructed with at least some glass require packing materials that provide sufficient cushion.
Ship Order
Fulfillment and shipping companies either ship orders directly to customers or involve third-party vendors to handle larger orders. They send orders to customers via an airline, freight line, or postal carrier. One of the most important criteria for successfully completing the last step is to keep customers aware of the status of their orders. Another important shipping criterion is to follow the shipping requirements established by third-party carriers.
5 Expert Ways to Build a Better Business With Fulfillment & Shipping Services
You understand the benefits of outsourcing fulfillment & shipping to an established and highly-rated third party. Your business can decrease processing times, which increases the number of orders sent out each day. With less to do onsite, you free up employees to provide better customer service. The number of order errors decreases, as a company such as Complete Mailing & Printing works with the latest technology to ensure order accuracy. Finally, a reduction in operating costs combined with generating more revenue improves your bottom line.
Understanding the benefits of outsourcing fulfillment & shipping is one thing. It is quite another thing to implement strategies to reap the financial rewards of those benefits. Let’s take a look at five expert ways to build a better business with fulfillment and shipping services.
Warehouse
The warehouse model for fulfillment and shipping has been around as long as motorized vehicles. However, Amazon defined the long-term warehousing model by handling orders that help customers avoid paying costly fees. Fulfillment and shipping services provided by a third party can include long-term warehousing, which saves your company money, especially if it sells high-end products such as furniture and appliances.
Retail
One of the most common ways to build a better business with fulfillment and shipping services involves going through traditional retail outlets like Target and Walmart. Even the COVID pandemic could not destroy the traditional sales channel for businesses operating across every niche. Retail giants also provide other services, such as digital printing services and custom mailing services. A company such as Complete & Printing enforces strict shipping guidelines to ensure your products arrive at retail outlets on time and in the correct quantity.
eCommerce
When a consumer orders a product online, the consumer receives an estimated date of arrival. The estimated date of arrival is often accurate down to the day and even the time. Due to the explosive growth of online sales, many businesses rely on fulfillment and shipping services to deliver products in a timely manner. A shopping cart created online immediately processes a customer’s order by engaging with a warehouse management system (WMS). The WMS then manages the distribution of the product through every delivery point.
Multi-Channel
By working with a fulfillment and shipping business, you can access every sales channel that is available to consumers. Your business meets product demand through traditional channels like retail, as well as more cutting-edge sales channels like a subscription service. The ability to broaden your sales options helps your company grow sales by reaching consumers that you otherwise would not attract.
Subscription
This sales strategy also goes by the name of auto shipping service. Subscription box fulfillment ships out products on a regular schedule. For example, the subscription fulfillment and shipping model is how the Dollar Shave Club sends razors to signed-up customers once a month. Businesses that handle this type of fulfillment and shipping model must be experts at processing batch shipping orders.
5 Mailing and Printing Services That Will Enhance Your Business
Efficiency.
It is a word discussed by business owners to find ways to get more out of less, which is the longer version of saying increasing productivity. You have only a finite amount of time to get things done during each business day, which makes efficiency an important buzzword for your business. One way to wring more out of less involves outsourcing fulfillment & shipping responsibilities to a third party. With the help of Complete Mailing & Printing, outsourcing fulfillment & shipping allows your team members to focus on other tasks, such as promoting products and services to potential customers.
Another way to free up your time involves working with five mailing and printing services that will enhance your business.
Bulk Mailing
Bulk mailing operates on a simple economic principle: The more items that you mail, the lower the mailing cost of each item. Savvy business operators send out items such as brochures, letters, flyers, postcards, and business cards in large quantities to reap the savings of lower per-item costs. This is an especially beneficial service for businesses that announce grand opening sales in which items go out to everyone living within a certain distance. The key to optimizing the financial benefits of bulk mailing is to leverage the power of the other mailing & printing services on this list.
Digital Printing
Printing the correspondence sent out by your business puts a dent in your monthly budget, as well as takes a considerable amount of time. You can save both time and money by changing over to digital printing services. You can easily meet the demand for large printing orders by using digital technology to get the job done. Digital printing is an effective service to meet the demand for large printing orders, such as for flyers that promote an anniversary event held at your business.
Coding Accuracy Support System
Mailing large quantities of items like brochures and letters costs plenty of money in postage, even if you play it smart by utilizing bulk mailing services. The cost of postage rises much faster when a percentage of mailed items go to the wrong address. To reduce the number of mailed items sent to wrong addresses, an important tool called Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) automatically corrects wrong addresses. CASS is effective at eliminating duplicate addresses, such as when the owner of a home goes by two different names.
National Change of Address Database
Americans are a highly mobile population, with an estimated 20 percent of all residents in the United States moving each year. How does your business keep track of all the movement? The answer is by accessing the National Change of Address (NCOA) database. The NCOA database updates one time a week to identify the people and businesses that have moved a few blocks away or halfway across the country.
Advanced Graphic Design Tools
First impressions matter for your business the moment a customer walks through the front door. Making a first impression also matters for the items that you send out in the mail. Advanced graphic design tools turn ordinary mailed items into correspondence that immediately attracts the attention of recipients. Advanced graphic design tools can change an ordinary-looking business logo into a business logo that sticks in the minds of both regular and potential customers. The tools play an important role in enhancing the appearance of items that are part of your fulfillment & shipping program.
The ABCs of Successful Shipping Strategies
Learning requires successfully mastering building blocks. One of the first building blocks of learning involves mastering the ABCs, which helps young students form words and recognize letter patterns in books. For fulfillment & shipping, business owners and operators must master the ABCs of successful shipping strategies. One startling statistic makes it apparent why it is important to master the ABCs of successful shipping strategies.
Thirty-six percent of online customers abandon a purchase because of shipping costs.
Several factors determine shipping costs. The size and weight of the items shipped represent the most important factors for calculating shipping costs. Business owners and operators also have to account for packing materials, as well as the labor used to fulfill and ship orders. However, lowering shipping costs should be just one of several successful shipping strategies implemented by your company.
Outsource Fulfillment & Shipping
The ABCs of successful shipping strategies start with outsourcing fulfillment & shipping. Hiring a company such as Complete Mailing & Printing to take care of fulfillment and shipping responsibilities delivers several benefits.
First, you free up considerably more time to address other business challenges, such as deciding how to grow your loyal customer base. You no longer have to spend time organizing each fulfillment and shipping order. Second, you save money on printing and mailing costs. Although you pay a third party for fulfillment and shipping services, you save money by not wasting postage on sending mail to the wrong addresses. Third, outsourcing fulfillment & shipping streamlines your back-office management responsibilities.
Offer Varied Rates
One popular shipping strategy involves mixing it up by offering varied rates.
Live rates represent the standard for businesses calculating shipping rates. You offer shipping rates for the exact cost of different sizes, weights, and distances. If the third party handling your shipping services increases rates by 10 percent, your business automatically updates the shipping charges to account for the higher rate.
Table rates follow a set of criteria to calculate shipping charges. For example, one order might calculate shipping rates based on weight, but not size and destination. A table rate allows your business to account for the most volatile costs involved in shipping a particular product. You can offer a discount for shipping on any order that weighs fewer than 1,000 pounds.
Offering a flat rate is easy to calculate because your business charges the same amount regardless of any criteria. This type of shipping rate is used by businesses that outsource a majority of shipping orders to the same third party.
Offer Free Shipping
Offering free shipping does not seem to make good business sense. However, your customers love free shipping. Ninety-three percent of all consumers would buy more products if they received a free shipping service. You can add an incentive like providing free shipping for customer orders that exceed a certain value. Free shipping is not the right service to offer for some businesses, such as businesses that ship low-value orders to the same customers several times every month. Nonetheless, offering free shipping is a smart move for most businesses, especially businesses that ship high-value products.
Understand the ABCs of successful shipping strategies to increase sales and lower operating costs.
Seamless Delivery Solutions for Your Business Needs
If only there were more than 24 hours in a day. It seems to be a wish on the wish list of most business owners and operators.
Business owners and operators who run profitable organizations are typically skilled at time management. They delegate responsibilities to the appropriate team members, as well as define processes that need to become much more efficient. One process that many business owners streamline concerns fulfillment & shipping. During an era of historically major supply chain disruptions, it pays to have seamless delivery solutions for your business needs.
At Complete Mailing & Printing, we offer seamless delivery solutions for your business needs. Why do seamless delivery solutions for your business needs matter?
Eliminate Order Errors
What is one of the most frequently cited complaints found in online reviews left for businesses? The answer is customers complaining about receiving the wrong products or not receiving the right products at all. An understaffed business can make mistakes by sending the wrong product to the right customer or sending the correct product to the wrong customer. Outsourcing fulfillment & shipping helps your business eliminate order errors.
Enhanced Customer Service
Growing a loyal customer base is the ticket to increasing sales. Around 20 percent of your customers generate about 80 percent of your sales. The key to retaining customers is to provide them with superior service. A business such as Custom Mailing & Printing that specializes in fulfillment & shipping allows you to spend more time with customers to answer questions, as well as offer different types of services to meet their needs.
Faster Processing Times
Speed is a huge factor in providing seamless delivery decisions for your business needs. A business like Complete Mailing & Printing invests in the most advanced fulfillment and shipping software technology to ensure the timely delivery of products. Our cutting-edge logistics software takes the guessing game out of fulfillment & shipping, as well as allows you to deliver more products in less time. You also benefit from communication tools that immediately alert customers about delivery glitches.
How Does Outsourcing Fulfillment & Shipping Make Your Business More Money?
The primary goal of outsourcing fulfillment & shipping is to make your business more money. You can accomplish this primary goal in four ways.
First, outsourcing fulfillment & shipping frees up more of your time to grow sales. You get the time required to devise sales growth strategies, such as implementing email marketing campaigns. Second, outsourcing fulfillment & shipping decreases your costs by eliminating errors. Third, fewer mistakes during the distribution process build trust with your customers, which often translates into referrals to potential customers. Fourth, Complete Mailing & Printing operates a much more efficient back office system, which allows your business to spend less money on making technological improvements.
Increase sales and decrease costs today by outsourcing your fulfillment & shipping responsibilities with Complete Mailing & Printing. Be sure to ask for our digital printing services as well.