5 Things to Know About E-Fulfillment Services

In today’s economy, leading companies seamlessly integrate multiple supply chains to reliably get their products to customers. We offer a wide range of fulfillment services, making it easy to build a custom turnkey process that streamlines all your distribution and fulfillment needs. Stephen Gould can transform the way your business handles online orders.

No matter the size of your business, fulfillment can be a challenge. Handling fulfillment in house can be time-consuming and cost intensive. Customers today have come to expect fast shipping and constant tracking updates on their packages. As a result, many sellers have turned to e-fulfillment services for help.

Here are five key facts to know about e-fulfillment.

E-Fulfillment services simplify order processing

E-fulfillment consists of the people, processes, and technologies required to deliver a web-based order to a customer. Solid e-fulfillment services bring all of these pieces together, creating a positive customer experience at every touchpoint between an online sale and the customer’s receipt of goods.

In your organization, e-fulfillment service may consist of everything from an online checkout process to payment providers, order fulfillment management systems and other sales channels. E-fulfillment syncs up these services into a single turnkey process for you.

These services are also referred to as third party logistics (3PLs), or ‘pick and pack’ fulfillment services. Any business that wants to shift to a direct-to-consumer model should consider working with an e-fulfillment service.

E-Fulfillment saves time and money

E-fulfillment is a simple, turnkey alternative to:

Hiring employees to fulfill orders
Pausing your business to take a vacation
Renting warehouse space to store inventory
Investing in technology to efficiently pick, pack and ship inventory

Handling day-to-day logistics
Spending too much time fulfilling orders in virtual shopping carts, taking away time spent on marketing, customer service and customer experience

E-Fulfillment is crucial to a positive customer experience

Reliable fulfillment is one of the cornerstones for modern business selling direct-to-consumer. E-fulfillment gives you more control over the customer’s experience during the crucial waiting period between their purchase and the package’s arrival. Ultimately, it’s about establishing trust and instilling confidence in your customers.

Many order fulfillment issues can occur in the time between a placed order and when it’s shipped to the customer’s doorstep. These issues include:

Missing the order
Leaving items in a virtual shopping cart
Not having inventory to ship

Entering the wrong shipping address
Taking too long to ship
Damaged package upon arrival

It’s easy to make these mistakes when handling fulfillment on your own. When hit with a heavy influx of orders that were reserved in shopping carts, the potential for these issues can be heightened. E-fulfillment makes it possible to eliminate these common mistakes.

E-fulfillment services also help businesses provide a better customer experience by offering:

Fast shipping times
Well-packed items
Real-time delivery tracking

Consistent on-time delivery
Easy return processes

E-Fulfillment provides a competitive advantage

Any company with a reliable and consistent fulfillment service gains a competitive advantage in their market. You can use an e-fulfillment service to set yourself apart from your competitors.

Any business with one or more heavy competitors like Amazon will have customers compare their shipping times, delivery and costs with others. E-fulfillment services can help you optimize shipping times and prices that keep you competitive without stretching your business thin.

Not all e-fulfillment providers are equal

If you’ve decided to work with an e-fulfillment service, the next step is to find a provider that can tailor their services to the specific needs of your business. Researching and evaluating fulfillment centers can be difficult and time-consuming. Not all providers offer the same range of services with the same amount of customization.

Fortunately, Stephen Gould has you covered. With more than 1.5 million square feet of warehouse and logistics facilities around the world, we can get you closer to your customers.

We integrate with Amazon, EDI, SAP, and ShipStation to electronically receive orders for pick, pack, and ship services. In addition, we can setup API integration with a number of e-commerce platforms, including:

BigCommerce
Magento
Prestashop
Shift4Shop
Veeqo (Walmart)

Volusion
Weebly
Wix
WooCommerce

As part of our e-fulfillment services, we can also help certify your packaging as Amazon Frustration Free Packaging (FFP), by ensuring your packaging is recyclable and does not contain excess packaging materials, such as hard plastic clamshell casings, plastic bindings and wire ties.

Stephen Gould offers a full range of e-fulfillment services that can help you get your products to your customers with greater speed, savings, and efficiency. Connect your ecommerce store, send us your inventory, and let us fulfill your online sales.

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Fulfillment Services

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