Comments on: Fulfillment Companies Ease the Shipping Burden for Ecommerce Companies

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By: Kenney @ Work From Home Blog

Kenney @ Work From Home Blog — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:09:11 +0000

Great article. You hit home on some many topics. I am looking for a fulfillment place too. My wife and I split time between here and Canada…

…and it’s hard to keep up with fulfillment sometimes for my wife. It’s just a hassle. Anyway thanks for the info.

Kenney

By: Outsourcing – Hiring Out to Save Time and Money | Miva Merchant Ecommerce Blog

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:09:35 +0000

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By: Tracey

Tracey — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:00:21 +0000

As a family member of Glynn’s , I can speak for all of us when I say Thank God for Alternative Logistics! Before she used the fullfillment center we never saw her. As her business grew she became invisible at family functions and holiday get togethers. She never had time for anything except work and more work. I realize that all small businesses do not need a fullfillment center but I would highly recomend it if you seem to be seeing less and less of the outside world. The staff at http://altlog.net are a terrific group of people and keep Glynn’s job where it should be, building up her business. They have helped lockpickshop. com grow into a bigger and better company and have given our family Glynn back!

By: Chuck Lasker

Chuck Lasker — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:48:01 +0000

A nicely balanced article. Every other article I’ve read on the subject has a background agenda, usually written by a fulfillment company representative.

Your article is well-written, too. Website Magazine could use you…

By: Susan Petracco

Susan Petracco — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 19:17:23 +0000

John,

Thank you for taking the time to comment and outline your costs. One thing I neglected to mention is that we just finished a custom Miva Merchant 5 module for a client who is using your services – and a business that was well suited to outsourced fulfullment due to the fact that they are small items in terms of storage space, often sold in bulk, and not at all fragile or in need ot special care.

Susan

By: John Lindberg

John Lindberg — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:56:59 +0000

Thanks for mentioning EFULFILLMENT SERVICE in your article even though Mad Cat’s ship volume wasn’t high enough to make the numbers work when they started out.

As you mentioned in your article the dollar value of the average sale makes a big difference in the fulfillment outsourcing decision plus the net ratio of monthly fulfillment fees to storage costs.

For us, you can figure on $1.85 per order plus $.40 per item plus postal or discounted UPS reimbursement for the fulfillment cost. The typical storage cost works out to $69.95 per month plus $16.00 per 4×4x4 pallet or a per item storage fee based on the same per pallet rate.

This means you have to avoid a situation where you are storing a lot of merchandise, but order volume is very low.

A good rule of thumb is you need at least 100 orders a month if you have less than 50 SKUs that takes up two or fewer pallets. We have about 360 clients and the average works out to about 150 to 175 orders a month–some a lot more and some a lot less.

There are a couple of other cost factors to think about which is a free carton or jiffy mailer is provided for every order plus we share our UPS discount with our clients—if you have a lot of orders per month, these two freebies really add up.

As you pointed out in your article, the most important thing about outsourcing fulfillment is the fact that the ecommerce merchant can focus 100% of their attention on sales…that is the biggest payoff in the whole process.

John Lindberg – President
EFULFILLMENT SERVICE

By: Susan Petracco

Susan Petracco — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:47:18 +0000

Jeremy, thanks for posting the reference. Having good providers in Canada is definitely a bonus!

By: Jeremy Kern

Jeremy Kern — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 04:41:23 +0000

Excellent article. You’re right in saying that it’s not for every company. But it does help the small business owners that would benefit more from expanding their business than packing boxes all day.

I see that you’ve recommended a few U.S examples. I’ve had good experiences with one in Canada called Primebin Solutions. So, if anyone’s looking to expand to Canada, they’re worth looking into!

Here’s there site:
http://www.primebin.com