The Benefits Of Using An Order Fulfillment Service

By Rachael Gutierrez


Almost everyone has at one time placed an order online or by telephone. When they make their payment for whatever it is they are buying, they will usually receive their item within a couple of weeks. Most people assume that the company that they placed their order with will pick, pack and ship their item to them. What they don't know is that many of these companies use order fulfillment service companies to do this part of the work for them. For some companies, it is impossible to fulfill thousands of orders a day and the services of these companies are greatly appreciated.

Some companies simply cannot afford to hire the help that is needed to fill their customer's orders. Even if they could, it will be much more costly for them do to do than by just using the services of a fulfillment center. They are professionals at what they do and accurately satisfy customer expectations.

Any company that accepts orders via the Internet or telephone will want to consider using a fulfillment company. They will pick, pack and ship all of the orders. They will also handle customer service inquires and any returns. This gives a company more time to concentrate on their business strategies and not have to spend a great amount of time packing and shipping their orders.

After contacting and getting all of the information that they can from a provider, the first thing that a company will need to do is send in their first batch of inventory. Once it is received, it will be entered into the database and be ready to be filled. As items sell, a company will want to continually send in more of their inventory.

Staying up to date on inventory is never a problem as a company will be able to log in to their account and take a look at their inventory count of each item. This is great as a company will be able to tell when they should send in more inventory of a particular item before it runs out. As orders come in, a company does not have to do anything as the fulfillment center will intercept the orders and have all of the information that they need to get the orders out.

The costs associated with using these services are very cheap. It is true that there is a charge for each shipment that goes out and that there is also storage space costs, but compared to hiring employees, it is a real money saver. Although it is good to get all of the details of storage space costs and amounts will vary by each company, it is safe to assume that they will charge by each square foot that a companies items take up.

It may surprise some people that some of the largest companies in the world use fulfillment services. It would be impossible or customers to know as there are no signs that someone else did the picking, packing and shipping. This is why this service is so attractive to companies.

When using an order fulfillment service, a company can even choose to brand the boxes that are used for their orders. What this means is that their company name and logo will be displayed on their customer's packages. This is vital in having customers return for future purchases.




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