What Is Fulfillment? 4 Reasons To Use An Order Fulfillment Service

What is fulfillment service?

Order fulfillment is a service offered by third-party fulfillment solution providers. Sll the stages of the fulfillment process, including picking, processing, packing and shipping are handled by the fulfillment center along with high modern technology. That means the sellers don’t have to keep products in stock, and physically fulfill the order in any way. Instead, the sellers sell their products and pass on the orders to a third-party fulfillment company whenever the orders have been placed. 

Outsourcing order fulfillment operation is an optimal solution for companies to balance business benefits and customer satisfaction as well as flexibly scale up business operations and minimize operation time and cost. Using fulfillment service allows you to focus on other aspects of your business and continue to grow rather than investing in the order fulfillment process.

4 reasons to use an order fulfillment service

1. Reduce operating costs and time

Renting inventory, acquiring technology infrastructures such as monitoring inventory to tracking shipments, payment processing to customer data security, hiring employees and purchasing packing supplies, etc require a huge financial investment. Working with an order fulfillment service provider is a budget solution for small business and eCommerce retailers.

In other words, everyone can focus on doing their specialties. Fulfillment companies will do their fulfilling process while sellers who are better at doing marketing and getting sales will do their speciality! Especially, with fulfillment service, you only have to pay for services you used.

2. Lower shipping costs and shorter delivery time

The discounts that an order fulfillment service can offer is a perk you should take advantage of. Many fulfillment centers have a contraction with national and global shipping companies resulting in bulk delivery discounts. Just a small savings per order will add up to big savings that can improve your bottom line efficiency or even cover the outsourcing cost.

Many fulfillment companies have locations across the countries to meet their increasing demand in fulfillment services allowing for better shipping rates because of location and delivery times. The amount of time shipping to international customers in those countries will always be shorter than shipping products from your own country.

On time and accurate delivery is one of the most essential aspects, if not critical, to retain and satisfy customers. A research stated that 69% of consumers are much less or less likely to shop with a retailer in the future if an item they purchased is not delivered within two days of the date promised.

3. Scale up your business

Outsourcing fulfillment services creates opportunities for businesses to scale up their businesses and customer network across the countries. Fulfillment process, supply chain management, global trade tariffs and other regulatory issues can be complex and daunting for SMEs to expand their business nationally or globally.

With its distribution networks and global expertise, modern machinery and highly qualified and experienced staff, fulfillment companies will help you business owners take your business to the next level and increase sales in new locations and markets, even selling on Amazon.

Read more: How To Start Selling Print On Demand On Amazon

4. Improve your customer service

Do you know that customer retention is always better than customer acquisition? 62.96% of consumers responded that the quality of customer service inspires their loyalty to a brand. Your customers not only buy your products, but they buy your service also. Great customer service increases your customers’ lifetime and boosts your revenue. This is one of the effective ways for small businesses to differentiate themselves among their competitors on the market.

Many fulfillment service providers like Gearment Fulfillment offer 24/7 support through email, freshchat, ticket issue, etc quickly supporting issues with your orders.

Read more: 4 Effective Ways To Build Customer Loyalty

The potential of fulfillment business model:

1. Global fulfillment market:

Fulfillment has been one of the fastest growing business models in the eCommerce industry. The rapid penetration of internet services and the resulting rise in the number of online shoppers is the major factor driving the demand for eCommerce fulfillment services worldwide.

Statistically, the global eCommerce fulfillment services market size is anticipated to reach USD 168.72 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 10% from 2021 to 2028. Customers have higher expectations regarding the shipping speed and delivery time, giving the fulfillment market a much bigger space to grow significantly amongst many other business models. Gearment, for instance, has been growing 20 times bigger during the first one-year pandemic while most of the world has experienced a panic due to the Covid-19!

Once the domestic market is too crowded and has no place for new sellers, the global market seems to be more potential and “fertile”. In developed countries such as the US, Europe, and UK, customers are more used to shopping online so the potential is more than anything else. The only thing you need to consider is to choose a trusted fulfillment company who has the best customer support services, the most competitive shipping and fulfillment speed. Gearment is one of the most dominant candidates having a good reputation in the industry!

2. Vietnam fulfillment market:

eCommerce or online business seems to be a business phenomenon that attracts 8x, 9x Vietnamese young people who are passionate about creativity and want to have a self-employed job. For small and medium-sized players, however, the costs of operation can often be inhibitive, increasingly turning to third-party logistics providers to boost their sales and build brand identity within Vietnam.

In fact, the market share of fulfillment in Vietnam is not as big as others, but many fulfillment companies are owning US-based warehouses and factories with modern technology manufacturing processes and experienced personnel like Gearment. 

Although Vietnam’s logistics industry is currently facing several challenges, Vietnam is still an ideal market for developing fulfillment service providers. So it’s important for SMEs to choose an appropriate fulfillment service provider to explore opportunities and expand sales networks in both local and international markets

How does Gearment Fulfillment work?

1. Design your merchandise and list products on eCommerce platforms

Whether you’re a Gearment Partner or a merchant on an eCommerce platform, designing your merchandise is always necessary. With the niches and products that you have chosen, you can upload your artwork on the variety of Gearment products and the mockup of the complete products is shown. This feature helps you do usability testing before fulfilling.

2. Wait for orders from your customers

The only thing you need to do is to wait for orders from your customers. Being prepared for your eCommerce stores with some marketing tips and tricks to drive traffic to your site is necessarily important!

3. Gearment receives your orders

When you get orders, you can import them to Gearment through several ways. Gearment has successfully developed the feature of sync order to help you import thousands of orders in just one minute!

Read more: Sync Order – Order Handling Just Got Easier

4. Gearment processes, packs and ships your orders

At this point, the fulfillment company like Gearment will probably handle the part of their specialties such as Processing, Customer Service, Packing, and Shipping everything directly to your customer under your brand. The real-time tracking should be published and notified the seller.

Using fulfillment services is a phenomenon in the technological era where you, as a seller, do not need to hold any inventory and operate any fulfilling processes. This is such a convenient business as everyone does their specialty. Most people who know about fulfillment can’t deny jumping into it since it is a low-risk business model but once you expertise, you can get a huge amount of revenue that you can never imagine!