Top 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Choosing a Fulfillment Partner

Let’s face it, deciding what to do about your company’s fulfillment can be a very difficult task. And many small business owners don’t know a whole lot about fulfillment to begin with. Over our 7 year history, we’ve seen thousands of small businesses struggle with the entire decision making process…from whether or not to outsource to which outsourced company to choose. Unfortunately, far too often we’ve seen small businesses make decisions based upon fiction instead of fact.

Famous Last Words #5: “Fulfillment is easy – anyone can do good.”

We certainly agree, at first glance, fulfillment seems really easy.  However, there are so many variables at play, from ensuring proper items have been picked and packaged to selecting the correct shipping service level to integrating with various shopping carts, among many, many others. Fulfillment can be quite complicated, and it’s easy to make mistakes. There are quite a few companies that don’t perform at the highest of levels, so be on the lookout for indicators of success. Do they measure their success rates? How often do they have an inaccurate shipment?

Words of Wisdom: “Not all fulfillment companies are created equal.”

Famous Last Words #4: “Their website said they’re good, so they must be.”

Checking out fulfillment company’s websites can be a great starting place for finding out crucial information that can help you make a great decision. But you can’t believe everything that you read! Your job is to delve deeper – finding out from customers what their experiences have been working with them. Check to see if they have a Better Business Bureau report, talk to their customers, and make sure that they’re willing to memorialize their promises into their contract with you. Oh, and be very careful of websites that claim to rank fulfillment companies. We found that most of these companies aren’t doing what they say – rather, they’re giving the top rankings to the companies that offer the most money for that position…not the company that has the least complaints or does the best job!

Words of Wisdom: “Don’t take what anyone says as gospel truth…dive deeper yourself to find out the full truth.”

Famous Last Words #3: “I can’t afford fulfillment.”

So many companies make the mistake of not outsourcing because they believe that they can’t afford the costs of outsourcing with a fulfillment company. Small business owners look at the storage costs and the order fulfillment fees and decide to keep doing it themselves…despite the fact that it means they’ll be either doing the shipping themselves or spending a great deal of time overseeing the process. They simply don’t appropriately understand the “time value of money.” Simply put, you always have to value how well your time is spent. In this case, are you better off slapping shipping labels on packages, or out there closing deals and marketing for your company so that you can grow? You may be losing a great deal of money by spending your time on tasks that are easily outsourced instead of revenue generating tasks for your business.

Words of Wisdom: “Instead of thinking ‘I can’t afford fulfillment,’ you might be better off thinking ‘I can’t afford not to outsource my fulfillment.”

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