Types of Fulfillment

Fulfillment companies offer a wide variety of product or service specific fulfillment services. In this section, we examine a multitude of fulfillment service types, and take a quick glimpse at the behing the scenes processes involved in each of the different fulfillment service types.

eCommerce Fulfillment

This type of fulfillment relies heavily on proper integration and development. eCommerce fulfillment is not as difficult as many fulfillment houses may have you think it is. In fact, a good fulfillment company will have a number of ways for you to integrate your website with their fulfillment center such as: EDI Integration, email, call center integration, or something as simple as faxing orders. The level of complexity in eCommerce Fulfillment can be directly related to the number of orders you are processing per day. The more electronic or web based order's you take per day, the more sophisticated the form of integration you should take with your fulfillment company. EDI (or electronic data interchange) is the most complex, and in our opinion, should only be used in instances where you are receiving dozens of orders per day.

Gift or Gift Basket Fulfillment

This type of fulfillment is based around providing a few different services. The software system the fulfillment house uses to operate under this scenario is very important, as gift or gift basket fulfillment often requires some form of product or kit assembly. Hence order entry integration is of paramount importance. In wading through the sea of fulfillment companies, search for a company that specifically has kit assembly software. Otherwise, your company may be innundated with product returns and poor customer service and/or product reviews. Time is of the essence for the gift basket company. Any longer than a 3 day product turn around, even around the holidays, is excessive. American Shipping Centers provides the software, hardware, and timelyness to get the job done right.

Literature Fulfillment

This type of fulfillment can refer to a multitude of fulfillment categories in and of itself. There are fulfillment companies that can provide advertising based literature fulfillment. In other words, they will use their advantageous bulk shipping rates to broadcast print based advertisements to thousands of potential customers. Literature fulfillment can include inbound advertisement requests. Typically, customers will call in to request a brochure or catalog, and the fulfillment company will mail out the sales or help literature. For larger corporations, there may be new employee information packets that need to be mailed out, large scale notifications, or other important tasks.

Pick and Pack Fulfillment

Pick and Pack Fulfillment refers to the basic service the majority of fulfillment companies provide. Pick and pack fulfillment can be defined as the storage, selection, packaging, and shipping of a supplier's product to the end consumer.

P.O.P. or Display Fulfillment

Similar to Gift Fulfillment, point of purchase or display fulfillment will typically require some form of product or kit assembly. Displays that are more complex in nature can be produced quickly in mass quantities while a store or retail location may not have the know how or the man power to build the display on their end. Displays that are simplistic, yet sensitive to storage and handling also need special attention. For nationwide advertising campaigns, time is of the essence, as all displays in storage need to be quickly dispersed within just a few days of each other. This can include thousands of complex displays that need to be prepped and ready to ship over the course of a single week.