Fulfillment
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Benefits of Recruiting an Efficient Fulfillment Partner

When it comes to optimizing an existing supply chain framework, organizations must clearly emphasize on the fulfillment services. Moreover, fulfillment service providers also play a vital role when it comes to handling and improving the shipping logistics. While certain organizations opt for in-house fulfillment services, some prefer outsourcing majority of their work to experienced service providers which can also handle the basics of distribution.

While having a strategically situated fulfillment center comes in handy, fulfillment partners must also look to streamline and simplify the supply chain process. Moreover, an efficient service provider must also aim at improving the customer experience, across multiple channels. In the subsequent sections, we shall look at the topmost traits pertaining to a highly efficient fulfillment service provider while enlisting the most prior ones for improving productivity.

Better Order Management Framework

Organizations must have high expectations from their fulfillment partners and the ability to address order management should be at the top of the pecking order. The e-commerce fulfillment service provider should be able to pair all of its attributes with innovative technologies. That said, efficient order management must cater to multiple channels while being able to handle the nooks and crannies of product demand and order placements.

Inventory Management Capabilities

Every organization needs to be careful about the product inventory, spread across diverse marketing channels. Therefore, an efficient fulfillment partner must offer considerable levels of visibility for tracking real-time and continuous inventory-specific developments. This trait helps companies manage the supply chain in a better way.

Reporting in Real-Time

A functional fulfillment service provider must be able to report about e-commerce whereabouts in real-time. This, in turn, offers an expansive and detailed view of the inventory; thereby helping customers complete orders in a quick and seamless manner. Real-time reporting feature is probably the most underrated aspect of supply chain management and an efficient fulfillment service provider should bring the same to the fore.

 

Hassle-free Fulfillment Completion

A fulfillment service provider should at least be able to complete the tasks associated with fulfillment in a precise and seamless manner. A service provider that can cope up with the promotional sales and seasonal demands can be easily considered as bankable. However, it’s all about pairing services with advanced technologies, in order to achieve fulfillment perfection. Needless to say, an efficient fulfillment partner can improve the visibility of the concerned brand by rendering back-end expertise and other intuitive ideas.

Ability to Fix Warehouses

A fulfillment partner with considerable levels of expertise can help a warehouse with the designing elements. There are times when a non-scalable warehouse starts busting out at the seams courtesy lack of spaces and necessary adjustments. Fulfillment service providers handle the internal affairs by making the warehouses more conducive to work.

Handling Customer Relationships

Customer relationships are important, especially when e-commerce services are concerned. Fulfillment partners allow company owners to track the buyer journeys; therefore allowing them enough time and resources to personalize the service sets. This minimizes the number of complaints and helps improve productivity, almost immediately.

Can we do without Outsourcing Fulfillment Services?

Every fulfillment-specific requirement is usually handled by the 3PL service providers, as a part of an expansive package. However, small businesses usually do not have the financial backbone to invest in a third-party service provider and they usually resort to in-house options for addressing the requirements. If an unbiased consideration is taken into account, a fulfillment service provider with the above mentioned traits is necessary as the absence of the same can cause the sales volume to fluctuate and that too, regularly. Apart from that, companies without innovative fulfillment technologies are bound to experience order errors. In addition to that, an efficient fulfillment partner also eliminates the shipping, processing and product-specific errors.

Companies without reliable 3PL services also lack scalability i.e. the ability to adapt and innovate according to the market sentiments. An efficient fulfillment partner renders scalability to the organizations by streamlining the processes related to packaging, inventory control and shipping.

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Decoding the Basics of Retail Warehousing and Fulfillment

The retail industry is getting hugely benefited by ecommerce and major ripples are being felt by the concerned supply chain management systems. With the entire retail ecosystem getting updated, it’s only fitting that businesses start focusing more on warehousing and fulfillment solutions for skyrocketing productivity. Moreover, the retail ecosystem is also witnessing a paradigm shift with companies increasingly focusing on an Omni-Channel customer experience. In addition to that, increased focus on decentralized fulfillment and distributed warehousing solutions are some of the potent strategies which the retail industry is integrating within its framework.

Addressing the Concept of Retail Warehousing

Customers within the retail industry prefer availing their products from random channels without having to wait for the stock to arrive at specific locations. If the logistical aspect is concerned, the retail industry primarily requires an agile and dynamic warehousing plan to thrive. Inefficient logistics can cause some serious damage to productivity and reputation of a retail chain and it’s important that distributed warehousing becomes a norm in this sector.

However, it is important to get well versed with this concept before looking in to the technical details. Distributed warehousing solutions help customers by fulfilling their requirements without making them dependent on the store inventory. Unlike the traditional warehousing techniques where the stock needs to be picked up from the warehouses in case there is a demand at the stores, distributed warehousing allows fulfillment from almost anywhere.

While distributed warehousing is a highly innovative concept, its implementation within the retail sector requires higher levels of expertise. Majority of retail stores aren’t capable of handling critical ecommerce orders and therefore using them as portable warehouses, isn’t the best possible solution. In addition to that, stores managing fulfillment via distributed warehousing must also have the technological expertise to make things happen. Deploying a fully functional distributed warehousing module takes time and requires the concerned retailer to opt for BOT solutions.

Advantages of Distributed Warehousing in Retail

Now when we have addressed the premise and underlining issues related to Distributed Warehousing, it’s important to enlist the benefits of the same, especially for the retail sector. An efficient strategy minimizes the overall freight costs and renders higher levels of controllability to the shipments. The ecommerce landscape associated with retail can be improved with functional warehousing strategies on-board. Moreover, majority of sales occur online and Distributed Warehousing takes performance and productivity to a whole new level. One such example would be the aspect of same day shipping, adopted by some leading online retail chains. This innovation is possible only with functional warehousing techniques added into the scheme of things.

Fulfillment Solutions for the Retail Industry

While retail stores with sufficient levels of technological expertise can be used for addressing the warehousing requirements, the retail industry needs to be way more selective regarding the fulfillment solutions. Having a multi-channel partner for handling the fulfillment requirements is important, especially for the retail sector. Some of the important aspects which need to be taken care of include:

1.       Excellent Inventory Management

The fulfillment partners must be proactive and look to address the aspects of inventory management. While warehousing is a completely separate section, modern day fulfillment service providers are trained to handle certain aspects of the same. Inventory management, however, looks to maintain order accuracy by offering real-time stock monitoring.

2.       Seasonal Demands Covered

An exceptional fulfillment partner stays on top of the demands and helps improve the overall structure of a retail management plan. This includes accommodating periods of massive order volumes.

3.       Reporting Capabilities

An efficient fulfillment strategy is also capable of sending out real-time reports regarding the granular, retail-specific insights. This aspect is highly resourceful when it comes to adapting and even improving the varied warehouse processes.

Benefits of Omni-Channel Fulfillment Strategies

Fulfillment strategies pertaining to retail can improve the revenue model of an organization. In addition to that, warehouse productivity also gets a boost as the shipped inventory reaches the concerned customer base, without fail. Customer satisfaction levels increase and the brand perception also gets a much required boost.

Inference

The retail industry is evolving constantly and businesses can be seen emphasizing on the aspects of warehousing and fulfillment for improving their chance of growth, better sales and improved productivity.

Ecommerce Smart phone online shopping in woman hand. Shopping center in ba
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Sungistix: why we love E-commerce Fulfilment

There are many steps involved between receipt of an order and the final delivery of the product to the customer. Tracking inventory, repackaging, labelling, choosing a shipping service and tracking shipment are just few of key steps which need to be planned. These operations consume time and energy which are sparse in today’s business environment. Consider for example, choosing a shipping service. You have multiple shipping services providers with each one specializing in different aspect such as size of shipment, speed of delivery, location of delivery etc. You need to have tie ups with multiple shippers to be able to pick up the right one for each delivery. However, after having this tie up, someone in your organization needs to sit and choose the individual shipping provider for each individual delivery. You can imagine the kind of resources this activity can take. Now extrapolate to other fulfilment activities and you can perhaps visualize the scale and number of decisions that you need to take to ensure that your fulfilment operations are optimized. There is no need to elaborate that leakages in your fulfilment stream impact not only your bottom line, but also your brand perception. Imagine a holiday present reaching the customer after holidays because there was an error in choosing the right shipping provider. On top this, you need to do all this, while you continue to retain focus on marketing and managing your product/s.

 

This is where a Third-Party Logistics (and fulfilment) service provider such as Sungistix adds value to your e-commerce business. Fulfilment service providers, specialize in optimizing fulfilment processes. As this is their core area of operations, 3PL providers such as Sungistix derive the level of efficiencies that are seldom possible with in-house fulfilment services. Their extended relations with third parties (such as vendors and shippers) and in house capabilities provide e-commerce companies with Value added services which are at best costly to reproduce in house. Let’s quickly look at a few top benefits of partnering with 3PL’s like Sungistix.

 

Direct to customer, Drop – Ship fulfilment. Today retail customers are very demanding. They want a wide range of products to choose from, at lower costs and with faster delivery. One way to address these requirements is to make heavy investments in inventory and logistics. Another way is to opt for Direct to customer fulfilment, Here the vendor ships directly to your customer. This eliminates the retailers need to maintain inventory at the retailer’s end. It also reduces the transit time of the product and thus also reduces overall cost of the product. However, to work in this model, the retailer’s order must pass quickly to the right vendor, along with all the required packing and shipping details (including any promotional material that should be inserted in the packing) and then get the right shipper to pick up the product and deliver to the customer. This requires a high level of coordination and integration with multiple vendors, transporters and other suppliers in the chain. Managing these networks and integrations and keeping them updated can be a challenge in themselves. A 3PL provider such as Sungistix, provides Electronic data interface as a standard service and can integrate quickly with multiple vendors. Sungistix has existing relationships with multiple shipping providers which can be leveraged by the retailers to minimize their investments and maximize their reach. Sungistix operates on advanced and mature industry standard systems that not only integrate quickly with the systems of other suppliers, but also provide detailed tracking and reporting to the retailers about the status of their shipments and orders.

 

Multiple shipping service Providers. A good 3PL service provider should have network with multiple shipping service providers. The client should be able to choose the one which suits his needs best and the 3PL provider should then carry out transaction with the chosen shipper for that customer. An efficient 3PL provider would already be integrated with shippers and lets the client choose the shipper on the fly, as per his convenience. Sungistix has existing integrations with popular and well known shipping providers such as FedEx, USPS, UPS etc. It also has existing integration with foreign shippers such as Canadian Post. Retailers can leverage these existing relationships and integrations to choose the shipper that’s most effective for their needs.

 

Shopping Cart Integration. A 3PL provider should be able to pick up your order, right from where it originates, i.e. the shipping cart. Sungistix provides direct integration with most of the industry standard e-commerce shopping cart solutions. For other custom shopping cart solutions, Sungistix platform can be easily and quickly integrated with them for seamless flow of order details. From there the order is sent to the warehouse, which can also be the one operated by Sungistix, providing a seamless fulfilment experience. The order can also be broken down and sent directly to the vendors for fulfilment. Sungistix systems provide aggregated and detailed reporting for the status of every order received and processed. The systems are also integrated with the systems of shipping service providers to keep the track of the shipment.

 

Detailed Reporting. One of the issues that many retailers face with outsourcing fulfilment is the reduced visibility of the fulfilment operations. Since the operations are managed by third party, the information available is usually, at best, at the aggregate level. Sungistix provides detailed reporting that can be integrated with retailer’s systems. Information such as top selling SKUs, history of orders sorted by shipping method, shipping costs and other information is available to the clients. The granular data for each order is maintained in our systems and retailers have an interface to customize and aggregate the information as they prefer and that will be presented as a report at set periodic intervals. The retailer gets the maximum visibility into his fulfilment process, even though it is being managed by Sungistix. They can perform their own analytics, if they choose to, and derive the strategic information that’s most important to them.

 

For such and many other Value added services that Sungistix provides for e-commerce business, please Click here.