So you’ve started a small, product-based company and have chosen Shopify to build your online business.
This is extremely exciting, but also involves a ton of labor. And to make matters more intense, you might be doing it all by yourself.
As your business grows, order fulfillment can become overwhelming quicker than you may expect. Luckily, you can outsource your order fulfillment to free up your schedule and focus on what’s most important: continuing the growth of your business.
In today’s post, I want to suggest some tools and services that can assist you in the fulfillment process for your Shopify store.
Picking the right services and fulfillment providers to meet your needs can give you an invaluable partner, and catapult the expansion of your business.
So let’s get started!
Fulfillrite
Fulfillrite is a staple recommendation here at Crowdcrux because they are one of the best fulfillment providers out there. I know the founders well, and can vouch that the team will do everything they can to meet your needs.
When it comes to order fulfillment, Fulfillrite delivers results. Their services include same-day shipping and real-time order & inventory tracking, taking the guesswork out of order fulfillment. When you hand over the fulfillment portion of your business to Fulfillrite, the heavy-lifting is done for you; so you can get back to the parts of the business that you love.
Fulfillrite can help you to:
- Save valuable time and resources on fulfilling orders
- Automate, simplify, and scale your business with ease
- Spend less on shipping
- Increase your bottom line
- Seamlessly integrate software with your shopify store
- Receive volume discounts on shipping rates for major carriers
- Automate order & inventory tracking
When it comes to order fulfillment for your Shopify store, Fulfillrite is a no-brainer. Get in touch with them today to get started.
efulfillment Service
efulfillment Service offers simple, affordable pricing to take care of your order while you focus on running your Shopify store. The company prides themselves on providing accurate, on-time orders, easy-to access technology, and friendly service.
They’re a family-owned business, which is always an attractive benefit; especially if you are a family-owned business yourself. They also offer a great order fulfillment pricing model, where they walk you through how to calculate costs for fulfilling your order as you scale (a process that can be rather complicated without the right help).
efulfillment Service is known as one of the most attentive fulfillment services in the industry today. If you are looking to feel confident in the relationship you have with your fulfillment provider for your Shopify store, they might be for you.
ShipBob
Shipbob easily integrates with your Shopify store, and is one of the top fulfillment services for businesses that serve major U.S metropolitan areas. In fact, Shipbob offers same-day delivery for orders placed in Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Dallas, and Chicago.
Obviously, this is a huge advantage. ShipBob’s strategic proximity to merchants and consumers in the United State’s largest cities help to separate it from the pack. Similar to Amazon, ShipBob also offers two-day shipping anywhere within the continental U.S. at an affordable cost.
ShipBob boasts many accolades, including:
- 99.95% accuracy rate in fulfilling orders
- 3,600+ ecommerce businesses they partner with
- 99.89% on-time order shipping
- Increase of average order value by 97%
- 13% increase in cost savings to your bottom line
- Reduction of cart abandonment by 18%
Clearly, Shipbob is an industry leader when it comes to efficient, money-saving order fulfillment. If you are looking to work with a larger company, Shipbob should certainly be on your radar.
Hiring an In-House Order Fulfillment Manager
Perhaps your business isn’t shipping enough orders to outsource to an order fulfillment provider, or maybe you just aren’t ready to relinquish this crucial task to the hands of another company.
A great strategy can be the hiring of an in-house fulfillment manager.
It’s important, however, to add a trusted individual with experience in order fulfillment to your team. Keep in mind that if you want to keep order fulfillment in-house, you will have to:
- Consider purchasing warehouse space
- Employ and train staff
- Buy equipment
- Invest in the right software
- Pay for insurance
Obviously, this can be a tall task; especially if you are a small business with a tight budget. But for some Shopify store owners, this can be the most comfortable route. You should engage in extensive research and weigh all the options before committing to in-house fulfillment.
Easyship
Easyship is a leading cloud-based shipping software empowering merchants like yourself to scale globally. If your small business is looking to go international, Easyship is a great company to pair with.
With EasyShip, boosting revenue by selling worldwide is seamless. Easyship does the hard work by integrating with leading international couriers, leaving you to focus on the development of your product.
EasyShip also calculates tax and duty costs all while taking care of the paperwork for smooth customs clearance and delivery. You can learn more about how Easyship handles customs clearance here. If it’s time to take your Shopify store global, get in contact with Easyship!
Use ‘Print On Demand’ Services
Print on demand is a low-risk fulfillment model that is great for selling custom materials, books, and more. With print on demand, you don’t have to hold your own inventory, which can save you a lot of money.
Shopify has a great list of print on demand companies that they recommend, all of which are free to start up with. If you are an artist or author looking to minimize risk and sell your products as they are ordered, print on demand is likely going to be the best option for you.
To learn more about this type of service, Shopify does a great job of explaining it and how it can work for your business here.
I personally use print on demand for products of my own, like my books. I’ve found it to be a great way to sell them without the stress of storing them in a warehouse (or my apartment!)
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)
As with most products and services on the planet today: Amazon can provide fulfillment services for you. If you are looking for a highly reputable way to sell your Shopify items on the Amazon platform, FBA is worth investigating.
Fees for selling your product on Amazon will be determined by size and weight. The smaller your item, the better. You probably aren’t going to want to sell a washing machine on FBA, but it could be a great option for your custom pens.
With FBA, you store your products in Amazon fulfillment centers. That means they pick, pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products with no sweat off your back. So if you’d like to make Jeff Bezos just a little bit richer, FBA could be the route for you!
Conclusion
Conducting research to discover what tools and services can best serve your company’s order fulfillment needs is very important, and I hope that this article was a good place to start.
Remember, every company will have different needs. You should consider what order fulfillment is best for you, and recognize that the making the right partnerships and fostering trust is key.
Overwhelmed by all the work that goes into setting up an eCommerce store? Check out our free eCommerce/Shopify checklist. It lists everything you need to know to get your store up and running.
I have a ton of great content surrounding order fulfillment and other topics pertaining to start-ups. You can check out my Youtube Channel and Podcast for more killer content!
