What is Fulfillment?

| Thursday, September 8, 2011
By George Serra


What is fulfillment? It is the total process of caring for the customer and delivering the product. However, meaning of what is fulfillment for customers has changed with the globalization of clientele, and the emphasis on speed and adaption. Let's explore how technology has changed product fulfillment, as well as how fulfillment houses can help your business.

What else is involved in answering what is fulfillment? It depends on the type of business you have. If you have an e-commerce outfit, your physical site is probably less developed. You need someone to handle customer order placement, warehouse to shipment, customer service and customer returns. You may need to relay data to sales teams, or check to make sure you have enough inventories for the month. These are all needed functions once your business starts to expand. You need to ensure your business will grow unhindered by having the right infrastructure in place.

These days, fulfillment houses have an integrated IT solution that allows them to keep track of everything in the warehouse, every order placed, and all deliveries scheduled with the click of a button. It is called management information systems, and this has helped many businesses to streamline. Many business models rely on this method of software to make sure fulfillment goes smoothly.

In fact, some businesses take running smooth fulfillment to the next level. Some companies have fulfillment processes are so smooth, a new business model for business-to-consumer can take place. Called Just-in-time manufacturing, retailers such as Dell can drastically reduce warehouse inventory, and products are made to order in the factory. Because their system is so fine-tuned, they hardly have any inventory if they choose it. Made to order products are put together only when consumers place orders. While this type of fulfillment capability is not always available to small businesses, or startups, we can use fulfillment houses to implement more efficient procedures in fulfillment.

By using a fulfillment house, there is no need to recruit in house talent, set up a separate warehouse and distribution facility, or lose money with misplaced orders. You want to find the best outsourcing for what is fulfillment. It is best to shop around and find the fulfillment house with the best management team. Check their track record. A consultant team often comes along with any fulfillment warehouse service. These are just some methods for knowing that the fulfillment house is good for your company.

You can lose out or gain a lot of income by partnering with the right fulfillment center. To answer what is fulfillment for the right services, negotiate special rates with your fulfillment house. If you have a lot of volume, perhaps you can have a special bulk rate. If you need a lot of physical space to keep inventory, you can negotiate that too. The fulfillment house should be flexible for where you are in your business growth. It should help you to constantly grow without being hindered by back end processes. Make sure the management team is playing for the long term.




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