Moving from in-house mailing fulfilment to an outsourcing service can be a difficult process, and a costly one if you choose the wrong company. The following tips will help you to shop efficiently for internet fulfilment services, and make the correct mailing fulfilment arrangements for your company.
- Know what you need before you start shopping: Get all your figures in order before you start contacting outsourcing companies. If you can’t provide exact figures, at least try to make an educated guess. You’ll need to know what the usual monthly order volume is, the average SKU per order, and the most popular shipping methods.
- Get your infrastructure in order: Find out what data formats your shopping cart software and accounting system use. Ideally, you will want to be able to send the mailing fulfilment company orders via a CSV or XML file. If your software doesn’t support those, then update the software, or get your developer to add support for those common file formats for you.
- Pick a location: If your goods are heavy, perishable, or time sensitive, then you’ll want your mailing fulfilment provider to be as close to your customers as possible.
- Optional Extras: This one won’t apply to all companies, but if you’re shipping a product that needs assembled, installed, or taken into the customer’s house, then you should investigate prices for those services too. If you don’t already offer an installation service for your product, you might be missing out on a good business opportunity.
- Ask questions: If there’s anything you aren’t sure about, ask. If the fulfilment company won’t answer your questions – as a prospective customer – then they probably won’t provide good support to your customers either.
Common Pitfalls
Once you have your shortlist of providers for your internet fulfilment services, it’s time to start thinking about contracts. It’s a good idea to take your time here, and to not sign anything until you’re certain that the contract is perfect. Common “gotchas” include:
- Long contracts that you can’t easily get out of if things go wrong.
- High storage fees, or per-pallet fees that assume a minimum of one pallet per SKU
- Excessive postage fees caused by poor packaging choices
- No gift-wrapping service
- Excessively narrow refund/compensation terms for late deliveries.
Ideally, you want a provider that has a range of packaging options, including gift-wrap. The provider should be willing to work with you to minimise your postage costs, and should be willing to consider using special packets that you provide if you want to ship unusually sized or shaped items.
Your company’s reputation depends on the quality of the companies that you outsource to, so don’t be shy about negotiating with a prospective mailing fulfilment provider to get them to offer a better returns policy. At the very least, you should ensure that they will ship replacements promptly (and for no extra charge) if they make a mistake. Don’t accept anything less.
This article was written by Amy Fowler on behalf of Hallmark Consumer Services who offer mailing and internet fulfilment services.
