Take Advantage of Low Shipping Rates & Discounts:

When dealing with high-volume ecommerce fulfillment, finding low shipping rates and discounts will further help reduce fulfillment costs. Compile a list of fulfillment companies and look for a third-party logistics (3PL) company that offers a variety of shipping options (it’s good to have choices). Distinguished fulfillment houses will allow their clients to take advantage of their shipping partnerships so their clients can save time, money, and gain a competitive edge online.

If shipping large, lightweight packages keep an eye out for dimensional weight discounts. Seek out order fulfillment companies that pass along DIM weight savings to their clients—these kinds of shipping discounts can really add up. 

Learn more about dimensional weight shipping and how you could save using a fulfillment company like eFulfillment Service to ship your light, bulky packages.

Customer Service Designed for High-Volume:

Having access to dependable, knowledgeable customer service is a must since high-volume order fulfillment has unique needs. You shouldn’t have to pay for onboarding or start up. And the people who help you at the start should be very knowledgable.

Look for a both a customer service team and an assigned client care and onboarding representative at your fulfillment center. Why both? For onboarding, and strategy, you’ll need a dedicated customer service representative that’s familiar with you and your business. You’ll spend less time explaining yourself and they’ll be better at anticipating and taking care of your needs each time you reach out for help. When issues are simple, a ready customer service team that is ready to answer your questions will save time, and keep your customers happy.

Make sure to look for a fulfillment company that uses technology to raise your support needs to a team of experts, tracks your satisfaction and responds quickly. Time is of the essence—whether you have a technical problem, an order that needs to be expedited, or have customers waiting for resolution—slow customer service response times are costly and bad for business.

Look For High Accuracy Rates:

It’s important to find a 3rd-party fulfillment partner that’s accurate because even small percentages of problems can cost a lot—especially when dealing with high-volume ecommerce fulfillment. The two most important areas of accuracy are inventory control and order picking. 

Shrinkage and inaccurate inventory management contribute to lost sales. Your high-volumes contribute to your higher profit margins, while also requiring more manufacturing time. You need accurate inventory counts to know when to pull the trigger for manufacturing new inventory, so you’re never out of stock and you never miss a sale. 

A top ecommerce fulfillment companies will have high accuracy rates and work hard to ensure online orders are picked, packed, and shipped correctly to customers. When exploring third-party fulfillment companies, investigate their record of work and know their policies. Will they charge you for shipping to replace a mis-shipped order? Will you pay a second pick and pack fee to correct an order?

Always look for fulfillment companies that offer service guarantees and are transparent about how they handle mistakes.

Hint: the best fulfillment companies are up front about how they operate and will fix their mistakes to make it right for their clients.

Seek Out Experienced People With Dependable Technology:

Inventory management can be extremely challenging and demanding when it comes to high-volume ecommerce fulfillment. Whether you’re growing from low-volume sales to high-volume sales or you’re already shipping out 1,000s of orders per day, it’s imperative to find a partner that has knowledgeable employees and easy-to-use technology that can reliably manage inventory to ensure an efficient, smooth order fulfillment process.

Finding a flexible fulfillment center that knows how to handle overflow replenishment is also important. You need a 3PL ecommerce fulfillment partner that recognizes when your bin is low and gets it refilled in a timely manner. Or, if you’re selling larger products that run out quickly, you need a fulfillment center that is flexible enough to place your overflow products nearby so they can be replenished quickly to help minimize delays.

At eFulfillment Service, we’ve developed and enhanced our proprietary Fulfillment Control Panel in house for more than two decades, and we integrate easily with more than 40 shopping carts and marketplaces. Learn more about our technology and discover why many online sellers put their trust in us.

High-Volume Order Pricing is Specific To Your Needs:

How much do fulfillment centers charge? What are fulfillment costs? These are questions that need to be answered before choosing a partner and the answers vary by fulfillment business. Consider doing fulfillment cost comparisons and research the type of 3PL pricing model different fulfillment centers use (i.e. what 3PL fees and rates they charge clients, which include pick and pack fees, kitting fees, storage, shipping, etc.). 

It’s helpful to understand all aspects of fulfillment pricing including invoice minimums and how they could impact your business. For instance, some fulfillment centers set invoice minimums that require clients to meet a minimum dollar amount each month and when they don’t, they’re expected to pay the difference. For some high-volume ecommerce fulfillment clients that’s not a problem, but for others who may only average 500 orders per month, those invoice minimums may still present a costly problem.

Knowing what hidden warehousing and fulfillment costs are out there and keeping an eye for them will allow you to make an informed decision when choosing to outsource fulfillment. Consider a company with no hidden fees and no order minimums, like eFulfillment Service, that knows how to handle high-volume ecommerce fulfillment (https://www.efulfillmentservice.com/high-volume-fulfillment/) in a cost effective way.