There are five different categories of fulfillment software that can make your Kickstarter order fulfillment much easier:
- Inventory Management
- Warehouse Management
- Transportation Management
- Vendor Management
- Labor Management.
Of course, if you’re new to fulfillment or you’re a small start-up without the warehousing and facilities to run your own fulfillment operation, learning to use these solutions can be overwhelming and unnecessary. Don’t worry, there are also many all-in-one options available where they do most of the work for you – you just need to choose which one is right for your project.
When deciding between the all-in-one and DIY software options, ask yourself:
“Does my team have the expertise to do fulfillment ourselves?”
“Will the service pay for itself through increased efficiency and things like cheaper shipping rates?”
Once you make your decision and narrow your preferences down to a few platforms, you’ll be ready to start asking for quotes, since most of them are industry and volume specific.
All-in-One Options
1. Amplifier
Amplifier is a one-stop fulfillment solution that lets you integrate your suppliers, use their 90,000 sq. ft. warehouse, ship your goods and they’ll even make products for you and help with customer support!
Amplifier gives you a convenient way to sell t-shirts, hoodies, totes, posters, mugs, iPhone cases and more without holding inventory. It’s perfect for creators who want to offer lower reward tiers in addition to their main ones. Best if all, Amplifier integrates with your favorite ecommerce platforms, like: Shopify, WooCommerce, Bigcommerce, Magento and Gumroad.
2. Fulfillrite
Fulfillrite is an ecommerce order fulfillment company that prides themselves on offering customers fast shipping, transparent pricing, and dedicated support.
They also integrate with many popular ecommerce platforms, including: Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, Celery, BackerKit, Bigcommerce, eBay, Amazon, and more!
One of the great things about Fulfillrite is their passion for helping smaller startups and creators of crowdfunding campaigns figure out fulfillment issues. Some of the other services that Fulfillrite offers are return processing, inventory storage, and T-shirt printing.
3. Floship
Floship is a global ecommerce platform that is known for its fast and cost-effective worldwide shipping services. They focus in excellence when it comes to hiring the right couriers and integrating with the best ecommerce platforms and order management systems.
They also have a conveniently located warehouse in Hong Kong – the world’s largest air freight hub.
4. Acutrack
Acutrack offers complete, on-demand fulfillment solutions. They specialize in producing and fulfilling CD, DVD, USB, and Book rewards. What’s great about Acutrack is that there are little to no inventory commitments (unlike some companies that can have large minimum order quantities)!
Like any top fulfillment platform, Acutrack lets you integrate with leading ecommerce platforms like Amazon, WooCommerce, 3dcart, Shopify, Bigcommerce, and more. They also have a blog on Kickstarter fulfillment and have worked with crowdfunding campaigns.
5. Simple Global
Simple Global is another platform that specializes in global ecommerce fulfillment. One of the cool things about Simple Global is that they can save you time by taking over some of your merchandising tasks – making it easier for you to go global by listing and managing your products internationally on your behalf (this includes things like translations and converting currencies). Their staff deals with packaging and shipping in their warehouse, giving you not only an all-in-one solution but also some peace of mind.
DIY Software Options
6. BackerKit
BackerKit is one of the most crowdfunding-oriented services on this list. They give you the specific tools you need to deal with all aspects of your Kickstarter campaign, including backer surveys, answering questions, add-ons and pre-orders, customer management, and automated shipping.
BackerKit focuses mainly on Games, Design & Tech, and Film & Video projects, with many users stating that BackerKit helped them save time and money during the fulfillment process.
You can use code CROWDCRUX for a discount.
7. Fishbowl
Fishbowl is an inventory management system for QuickBooks. With Fishbowl’s software you can automate your manufacturing, avoid stock outs and overstocks, and automatically reorder materials (to name a few features). You can try Fishbowl for free for 14 days. In addition to QuickBooks, Fishbowl integrates with Amazon, eBay, Dropbox, Magento, FedEx, Shopify, UPS, and more. Customers say the program is user friendly and that Fishbowl has very responsive customer service.
8. Freightview
Freightview’s freight management software helps you save time and money on freight shipping by giving you direct rates for all of the carriers and brokers you use. You can look at all of your offers on one website and when you pick one, Freightview schedules the pickup for you. This system also helps with shipping labels, tracking shipments, reports and analytics, and more. Freightview offers a 30-day trial for new users.
9. Systems Logic Software: Wireless Warehouse in a Box
Wireless Warehouse in a Box is a warehouse management system with 85% mobile capacity – meaning you can accurately keep track of your inventory from the palm of your hand! System Logic Software integrates with QuickBooks and NetSuite, and is recognized for their award winning customer support.
System Logic Software’s connections give you the tools you need to manage your warehouse as efficiently as possible, including cloud-connected inventory so you and your customers can always see what’s available.
10. U Route
U Route is an easy to use transportation management system. This web-based SaaS platform helps tighten the connection between shippers and carriers. U Route can make your fulfillment process easier by giving you a way to keep track of your contracted transportation providers and rates in one place. They also provide you with other tools like analytics, bid capabilities and direct e-carrier management. U Route offers a 30-day trial during which they try to prove to customers that they can save them at least 10% of their transportation costs.
11. Lead Commerce
Lead Commerce offers inventory, warehouse, and order management software all in one place – with an emphasis on small business. Their easy to use web management lets you keep track of customers, warehouses, inventory, orders and shipping making your entire business more efficient. Lead Commerce also offers a free trial and has several integrations, including: Square, FedEx, and UPS.
Conclusion
Choosing the right fulfillment solution or tools to use depends entirely on the type of project that you are running. You will have to decide whether your operation is small enough (or you have enough space and experience) to handle fulfillment on your own, or whether you should outsource some, or all of the work.
To learn more about self-fulfillment vs. outsourced fulfillment, check out this CrowdCrux post.
