The Best E-Commerce Fulfillment Services UK
An online shopping cart and catalog is only the first step to ecommerce retail success. Once the customer buys, you need to get them their goods quickly and efficiently. This is where fulfillment services come in and we take a closer look at the top ten players.
The frontend of your web store may be virtual and only available in the cloud infrastructure of your website hosting provider, but the products you sell there are strictly available in the physical world. This means that as your business grows, you need to store inventory, ship and replenish them. This is where e-commerce fulfillment services become almost mandatory. E-commerce fulfillment services accept product shipments from you or your manufacturers, we log in, store, package and then ship. We usually ship them via FedEx, UPS, USPS, or another shipping service.
E-commerce fulfillment services, often referred to as 3PL (short for “third party logistics”), have been used for years by managing product distribution and fulfillment for large retail businesses and small mail order companies. While the services discussed here offer the same services, they differ from traditional 3PLs in that they concentrate on providing fulfillment services for e-commerce retailers.
Items You Will Pay For
Products you will pay for using an e-commerce fulfillment service can save you a large amount of time, effort, and cost – especially if you’re selling more than a few products a month. However, there are many factors to consider when choosing an e-commerce fulfillment service. Also, there are numerous separate costs, some of which are difficult to estimate. Your final costs will depend on the e-commerce fulfillment provider’s policies and resources, as well as your company’s specific needs. Before you start researching e-commerce fulfillment services, you should determine exactly why you need them. What kind of product will you ship? Is the product fragile, heavy or big? How many products will you ship per month and to what locations? What types of shipping options do you intend to offer your customers? The best way to compare prices is to decide what features your business will need, and then have a conversation with every e-commerce fulfillment service you are considering.
Basic Fees and Added Costs
E-commerce fulfillment companies usually start with basic fees for services that include picking (accepting and managing inventory at the warehouse), storage, picking and packaging (the process of selecting and packaging products for each order), and shipping. Billing can vary based on how many posts you have per month. Ecommerce fulfillment UK pricing companies that ship more products per month can expect a discount in prices. Then there will be additional costs depending on your company’s specific needs. These costs include insurance covering breakage and other issues, special packaging (for fragile, heavy, or large orders), branded boxes, grouping products into “kits” (for example, if you sell gift assortments), inventory management, expedited shipping options, and miscellaneous other costs.
An important factor to consider when choosing an e-commerce fulfillment service is the number and location of storage facilities. As most ecommerce retailers now compete with Amazon Prime, customers now expect to receive their orders quickly, preferably within two days. The more repositories your e-fulfillment service has access to, the more shipping options you have and the faster your product can reach your customers – without having to pay two-day or overnight shipping charges. For example, if you find that most of your customers live in California or New York, you can set up to store most of your inventory near these areas. If you suddenly find that you are selling large quantities of products in Chicago or Minneapolis, you may want to move some of your inventory warehouses to the Midwest. While there will be an extra shipping charge to move your inventory, it can be worth it for both lower shipping costs and more satisfied customers.
Professional Certifications provided by the 3PL provider is not only for ease of use, but also for what types of data it collects, what it can display and how it can display, and how well it can export this data or other e-commerce management the vehicles whose features you use.
Amazon FBA Prep UK
Many industries have certification programs in which professionals are enrolled to become certified in their field. While there are some certifications you can look for when choosing an e-commerce fulfillment service, there is no single body that oversees these facilities (other than federal agencies that oversees food storage, prescription drugs, and other regulated products). However, there are several independent organizations that support the facilities or the people who run them. Three of these organizations are the American Purchasing Association, the International Warehouse Logistics Association (IWLA), and the Storage Education and Research Council (WERC).
Basic Security Protocols
Security is also a concern when it comes to choosing an e-commerce fulfillment service. You want to make sure they have basic security protocols for the security of your inventory. This doesn’t just mean having secure login and video streaming. You want to know how your inventory is tracked from truck to warehouse and then packaged and shipped. These days, the ability to track every step of the way using video, UPC codes, or a combination of these can be extremely helpful. Some e-commerce fulfillment services also allow you to review their facilities.
Annual or Monthly Contracts
Make sure you are not contractually bound by an e-commerce fulfillment service that you are not satisfied with. Many e-commerce fulfillment services offer their services monthly so that you can continue in case of a problem, especially with smaller vendors. Some will offer this up to a certain point.
For example, if you are moving several thousand items a month, you need an annual contract. If your e-commerce fulfillment service insists on a contract, make sure the contract includes a reasonable cancellation policy.
Real-Time Customer Support
One of the biggest advantages that a good e-commerce fulfillment service can provide to an online retailer is instant access to information in your inventory through excellent customer support. This access is provided through web-based software. The feature set can vary greatly, but there should be some basic knowledge you can use. To start with, real-time access should be given to how much inventory you have in each repository of the service. You should know when products arrive from the manufacturer, when orders reach destination, when orders are packed and shipped, and what is done with them throughout the journey.
