How to Find Your Best Order Fulfillment Partner

What do order fulfillment partners do for you? It really depends on your needs, so it’s important to work with a flexible partner who listens and reacts to your requirements accordingly.

When you start up your business, doing all the things is manageable. But as your sales grow it can become difficult or even impossible to keep up with marketing, sales, and operations. First let’s cover off why you’d want to outsource the operational parts to a fulfillment business and the benefits of it. Then we’ll share some tips on finding that partner.

Clone Yourself

As you’re scaling up, allocate the day-to-day order grind to a like-minded fulfillment team. In effect, you are cloning yourself. You’ve heard the phrase, “work on your business instead of in it?” Focus on your passion, leave the execution to your contracted ops team.

Speed is Key

It’s been proven that multi-tasking does not save time. In this world of instant everything, consumers expect quick responses and deliveries now. Can you keep on top of demand?

You can increase your turnaround time when your fulfillment partner is devoted to the tasks that you delegate to them. Concentrate your efforts on your product -- the thing that got you excited about your business in the first place. Now is your time to shine in marketing it, sales building and other vital areas of your business.

Time is Money

Your time is incredibly valuable. Can you measure the labour hours you put into fulfilling orders on your own? Liberate your schedule and trust the routine tasks of order picking to your fulfillment partner.

How to Find Your Best Order Fulfillment Partner

Do your research. Not all fulfillment partners are the right puzzle piece for your business, but rest assured there are great, reliable sources out there.

Prepare some questions before connecting with a few potential vendors who specialize in order fulfillment. Ask questions about what’s important to you:

• How frequently can they fulfill orders?
• Do they have a minimum order quality (MOQ) policy?
• How does billing work and what is the invoice frequency?
• What is their storage rate for your inventory?
• If any of your selling SKUs require bundling or assembly, ask the fulfillment business if they offer secondary co-packing services to perform these tasks for you.
• Are you selling a food or beverage item? Don’t forget to ask about whether they hold appropriate secondary packaging licensing.
• What other kinds of products do they store, or work with, in their facility? Your fulfillment partner should have a clean, organized warehouse to store your product.

Request a quote but don’t let the lowest price guide your decision. Understand all of the costs included in their price and whether there is true value in what you would pay for.

Order fulfillment is a true partnership. Keep in mind that the content -- but also the tone -- of the 3PL’s responses should help you gauge their interest level in working with you too. Do they come across in a friendly, communicative way? You want to enter into a relationship where you can find common ground and feel there is a vested interest in your success.

The benefits are real. Let your fulfillment partner do what they do best and free yourself to do the same.