Finding the right fulfillment center to support your ecommerce startup or crowdfunding campaign can give you an invaluable partner! Your trusty fulfillment center can be there for you during a crucial time for you and your customers – shipping time.
Most one-stop fulfillment centers connect directly with your favorite ecommerce platforms, give you access to useful software, store your inventory, package it to your specifications, and ship them for you. This leaves you free to do the things that matter most to your company, like promoting at events.
The issue is that not all fulfillment centers are created equal. Some of them are new and unreliable, with lost and stolen shipments and unexpected fees. To help you start your search for the perfect fulfillment center, I’ve compiled a list of a few companies that are known for offering a more personal service, have competitive features, and get mostly positive reviews.
1. Fulfillrite
Fulfillrite is an order fulfillment company based out of New Jersey, that has been running since 2009. This company takes a smaller, more hands on approach than some of the bigger fulfillment centers around. Fulfillrite has an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars on Google, with ten reviews so far. One happy customer, Ronak Patel, commented:
“These guys are amazing. They’ve handled our Kickstarter campaign with ease, and even after we came off the Kickstarter campaign, and began selling on our own online store, they continued to provide amazing service without any issues for us or our customers. Whenever we had any issues crop up with shipping providers, they were more than happy to help, and Joe was always quick to answer emails and calls. Phenomenal third-party fulfillment company; don’t think twice, just trust these guys with your fulfillment needs.”
How does Fulfillrite work, you might be wondering? It’s pretty easy. Fulfillrite’s order fulfillment software integrates with your ecommerce provider and gives you access to real time order and inventory updates. You send your inventory to their warehouse to be packed to your specifications (including customized logos and branding) and then shipped worldwide using the carrier of your choice.
Don’t worry if you aren’t sure what carrier is best for you! Fulfillrite’s Co-founder, Joe Brieger, and his team are very knowledgeable and have helped many crowdfunders and entrepreneurs find solutions that work for them.
Due to the variety of services that Fulfillrite offers, exact pricing is not listed on their website. You can request a quote here by filling out some basic information about yourself and your business, like your current shopping cart solution, storage space you need, monthly order volume, number of unique products (SKUs) you have, and whether or not you ship internationally.
As a full disclosure, Fulfillrite has sponsored some of our podcasts in the past. But, the reason we work with them is because we respect their company values and dedication to service.
2. Rakuten Super Logistics (formerly Webgistix)
Rakuten Super Logistics is a leader in ecommerce fulfillment that acquired Webgistix in 2013. Rakuten offers cloud based ecommerce fulfillment, promoting high accuracy at an affordable cost. They do this by running a network of 7 fulfillment centers and 5 shipping ports, where you get complete control over your inventory and personal customer service. They come pretty highly recommended on the internet, but they do have a few negative reviews.
Cgbshirts admits in a review on Shopify that they know several people who have been happy using RSL, but that for the second time they were disappointed by their service:
“At this point, I’m not sure how our business gets out of the mess that we’re in because of Rakuten Super Logistics. I have been operating ecommerce stores for well over 15 years so this isn’t my first experience with a fulfillment center, but never have I experienced a level of service so incredibly egregious with absolutely no explanation and no remedy/compensation for their complete failure to handle any aspect of our warehousing/fulfillment within any reasonable level of service.”
That comment was left in October 2015, and is the most recent negative review I could find. On the other hand, a satisfied user, Theme Develop, left a long review on Shopify on April 5 2016. This is the short version:
“We’ve been working with Rakuten Super Logistics for three amazing months; it’s probably the single most reliable node in our business flow. If you need a bulletproof fulfillment partner to automatically ship your orders quickly and correctly, RSL is the best choice you can make.”
When you have a large business like RSL, there are bound to be a few hiccups which could explain the discrepancy between some reviews. Rakuten Super Logistics still doesn’t have too many negative reviews and most customers seem to have a great experience with them. To request a quote from them, you can click here.
3. eFulfillment Service
The team at eFulfillment Service, which launched in 2001, prides themselves on being a simple and straightforward fulfillment center that has helped ecommerce owners, startups, and crowdfunding campaigns. They have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, and promise their customers affordable prices, friendly terms, and award winning customer service. If this sounds good to you, you can request a quote here.
eFulfillment Service offers its clients a list of advantages that many other fulfillment centers don’t offer. For example: no setup fees, integration fees, long term contracts, minimum order quantities, and more! As for how well they do in reviews, eFulfillment Service currently has 4 out of 5 stars on Yelp, with 7 reviews. One happy customer, David B. shared:
“I almost feel like I own the company and everyone there works for me. No better feeling than that nor something you could find anywhere else in this industry or otherwise. All my questions or concerns are pretty much answered immediately, respectfully and with precision. They even catered to some special requests that I needed to have done. You are missing out big time if you aren’t using them. My business has already tripled since I started using them to handle all my needs.”
This company also doesn’t have many negative reviews. Most of the negative feedback on their Yelp page comes from almost 5 years ago.
Conclusion
I chose these three fulfillment centers because they all stand out as being accurate, affordable, and having better customer service than the competition. These fulfillment centers go the extra mile to handle special requests from their customers, and even have logo and branding options that larger fulfillment companies don’t offer.
If you’re new to fulfillment and want to learn more, check out my post on typical fulfillment problems and how to stay clear of them.
Do you agree with this list? Feel free to share your experiences below!
