The A-Z of Fulfilment for your Ecommerce

When upscaling your business, you may decide to outsource particular operations in order to make time to concentrate on areas of the business that can be done by only you. A popular operation to outsource is fulfilment. Fulfilment houses can run the entire logistical side of your enterprise, storing your products for you, receiving orders from your online shop, and sending out the items to your customers – you don’t have to be involved with the nitty-gritty of packing and shipping in order to keep your customers happy.

The problem with outsourcing something which you’ve already been doing from the comfort of your home-office, or spare room, is that the professional ‘big boys’ seem to talk a different language, which can be a bit off-putting. It’s important that you consider all of your options when it comes to expanding your business, so we now have fulfilment company James & James to take you through the basics of professional fulfilment, and show you that it’s not that scary.

So, in the traditional order…….

A is for app – Many e-commerce companies now get a significant amount of sales through mobile apps. A good fulfilment house can link their system to your app, taking the order direct from your customer. Do you have an app to sell your product?

B is for Biscuits – fulfilment houses can store anything, including food items. We can store and despatch biscuits. Not going to lie to you; good fulfilment is also fuelled by biscuits!

C is for Carrier – this refers to the company which gets the package from the fulfilment house to the customer’s home. Some fulfilment houses have their own carriers, while others use one or more third-party carriers.

D is for Discreet – fulfilment houses know they are working for you, so will use plain labels or your branded labelling to make sure that the customer thinks you’ve sent the product yourselves.

E is for Ecommerce – online retailing. From nothing just a few years ago, it’s become ubiquitous very quickly. It’s why fulfilment houses exist. How many products have you bought online recently?

F is for First-in, First-Out (FIFO) – a way of working which makes sure the oldest products are shipped first, keeping your stock as fresh as possible.

G is for Global – ecommerce is worldwide and chances are, some of your customers will be based outside your country of operation. A good fulfilment house will have no problems in dealing with international deliveries for you.

H is for H-tape – This is simply a way of taping up boxes for optimal security while in transit.

I is for Intelligence – from our staff, to computers, to shelving itself, modern fulfilment houses make extensive use of intelligent technology to progressively improve delivery times and accuracy.

J is for JIT (Just in time) – A system where goods are delivered immediately before they are needed in order to minimise storage requirements. Relies on efficient links in the supply chain.

K is for KPI (Key Performance Indicator) – a measure or benchmark to assess the performance of ways of working, and seeing if new innovations have any impact. In fulfilment, we use delivery times, and packing accuracy as KPIs, and see if we can improve on them with new ways of working.

L is for LTL (Less Than Truckload) – a term for a part-truckload of goods. When you don’t have enough to fill an entire truck, companies can deal with LTLs by combining shipments.

M is for Multi-Channel Management – when you sell your product in more than one place – either online or in physical shops – you need to keep track of orders and stock levels. A multi-channel management system can integrate all your channels into one platform, which can then integrate with the fulfilment house.

N is for Notification – A good fulfilment management system will send you notifications so you can keep abreast of your business. You can get notified when a customer places an order, or a parcel is despatched, or when you’re running low on stock. Ask your fulfilment house what notifications they send out, and how.

O is for Order – an individual purchase by a customer. Each purchase, or basket of purchases, is called an order which is given a unique code and fulfilled by the fulfilment house.

P is for Picking and Packing – it’s what fulfilment houses do best. It’s a fiddly job but someone’s got to do it!

Q is for Quality – a mix of good stock rotation techniques, intelligent stock control system, and visual checks by fulfilment staff ensures your customer only gets a quality product. A fulfilment house will work with you to find the optimal storage and fulfilment option for your particular product.

R is for Returns Handling – when a customer returns a product, we can sort that out for you. We can also provide customer service help desks to handle queries from your clients on the phone on your behalf.

S is for Storage – something that fulfilment companies are good at. Fulfilment houses store and despatch millions of products a day. Have you seen the storage facility at Amazon Fulfilment? It’s a sight to behold

T is for Third-party Logistics – also known as 3PL, this is the term used for companies such as fulfilment houses which can look after the logistics side of your enterprise for you.

U is for UPI number – a unique parcel number assigned to each package so it can be tracked through the system.

V is for Vertical Integration – a common business term which explains the supply chain which takes a product from manufacture to delivery. This is companies working in an integrated way in a logical sequence. Fulfilment houses would generally belong to this type of system.

W is for Wave Picking – Where stock is picked and packed in regular, short periods for maximum efficiency. You don’t need to worry about how it’s done too much, but wave picking enables smoother operations, which should translate into good value and quicker delivery times for you and your products.

X is for XML – this is simply a computer language which can be used to create ecommerce sites and apps.

Y is for You – a fulfilment house will take your product, store it, and despatch it, but it’s still yours and our customer is you. Keeping your customers happy keeps you happy so we design our systems around doing the best for you and yours.

Z is for Zone Picking – another method of working where products are kept in different zones, and put together by delivery address in the packing area. It really is picking and packing products by zone.

So there you have it. Don’t be put off outsourcing an operation that could really enable you to expand your successful business. If you don’t understand something, ask. What’s the worst that could happen?