Product fulfillment doesn’t have to be such a time-consuming task. When you outsource to product fulfillment houses, you get to hand off laborious duties, such as packaging, labeling and shipping your products. Some product fulfillment companies will even handle customer service and product returns. Whether you run a one-person e-commerce operation or a fast-growing business with dozens of employees, you can benefit from outsourcing product fulfillment. It allows you and your workforce to concentrate on boosting sales, developing new products and finding new customers.

Product fulfillment companies do the busy work for you. They:

1. Take orders. Many fulfillment houses offer 24-hour customer service where your clients can order products. E-commerce fulfillment services can sync up to your website and fill orders.
2. Warehouse your product. Instead of having to lease warehousing space for your product lines, product fulfillment companies store your products in their warehouse ready to go.
3. Pack and ship. Product fulfillment companies do the time-consuming process of packing orders and shipping them to customers.
4. Report progress. Most product fulfillment companies allow you to view orders and track shipments through a web-based portal.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

E-commerce fulfillment services

If you've established a successful e-commerce store, but don't have the staff to pack and ship orders or the space to store inventory, e-commerce fulfillment services are the answer.

I recommend: Webgistix is a good choice for small businesses. They guarantee 100 percent accuracy with each order, promise they will ship any order within 24 hours or its free and charge as little as $1.95 per order. Efullfillment Service offers e-commerce fulfillment services to e-commerce and eBay stores. They use real-time order transmittal through merchant service partners such as Yahoo! Merchant Solutions and UltraCart.

Product fulfillment houses

Product fulfillment houses are a lifesaver for manufacturers, distributors and retailers who don't have the resources to dedicate to mail order, customer service and shipping. Many of them take over the complete process of order fulfillment from taking the order by phone, filling the order and shipping it to the customer.

I recommend: CrossCountry Fulfillment provides 24-hour phone support to take orders, process payments, warehouse, pick, pack and ship orders from one centralized location. Access Business Group goes a step further than basic order fulfillment houses. They also provide contract manufacturing on personal care, cosmetics, health and nutritional products so that you can have your proprietary formulas and products made, filled and shipped from one location, cutting down on the logistics of moving your products between a factory and fulfillment company. Advantage Media Services offers returns processing and refurbishment services to complement their fulfillment services.

Literature fulfillment services

Whether you provide magazine subscriptions to your clients or you need to ship printed marketing materials to hundreds of customers, you know that filling literature requests can be cumbersome and time-consuming. Literature fulfillment services specialize in warehousing your literature and either filling requests or sending subscription orders out on a regular basis.

I recommend: If you regularly send out product videos or compact disks, Corporate Disk Company may be the solution for you. They provide full service media duplication services, printing, packaging, warehousing and distribution of your media products. Midpoint National offers literature fulfillment services, stocking your sales literature and allowing remote-based dealers and salespeople to place orders through a customized web-based portal. If your company publishes a subscription-based magazine, visit the Magazine Publishers of America website to search for fulfillment services.

Rebate fulfillment services

Many manufacturers and retailers offer mail-in rebates as a customer incentive to buy their products. But having the manpower to fulfill those rebates may be more trouble than it's worth. By outsourcing the process to rebate fulfillment services, you can ensure that customer rebates are processed promptly.

I recommend: Promotion Fulfillment Center handles rebate fulfillment services as well as other promotion fulfillment services, including sampling, sweepstakes and e-commerce. Archway Marketing Services' rebate fulfillment services include simple rebate programs, multiple verification step rebate programs and combined rebate programs.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Look for e-commerce fulfillment services that can sync up to your website and ship products as orders are placed. This makes the fulfillment process more efficient and reduces the chances for human error.
• •  When choosing the product fulfillment services that are best for your business, don't just think about shipping products to customers. Also decide what will happen if the customer needs to return the products. Will the fulfillment company provide return processing, re-shipping and refund services?
• •  Product fulfillment houses that offer real-time web-based reporting let you stay in control of customer service by keeping the checks and balances in-house even though you've outsourced the process.
• •  Small businesses should ask about product fulfillment minimums when looking for product fulfillment houses.
• •  Most product fulfillment services charge you per order rather than by retainer.
• •  Find out what guarantees product fulfillment companies provide, such as shipping times, lost shipment replacement and accuracy.