White Paper Outsourcing Fulfillment Guide
Find out what you need to know before deciding to outsource order fulfillment
One of our most popular resources, this guide is designed to help you select an outsourced fulfillment partner. It presents a systematic approach to business growth and order fulfillment and covers all the factors to consider before deciding to outsource shipping and logistics. In order to help you make an informed decision, the Shipwire Outsourcing Fulfillment Guide also includes a comprehensive list comparing the pros and cons of working with a third party logistics provider.
- White Paper
- 12 pages
Read an excerpt
Introduction
In this guide you will find guidance to help you select an outsourced shipping partner to help you grow your business.
It will help you approach your shipping business systematically and understand pros and cons of outsourced shipping.
This guide is to help, regardless of whether you chose Shipwire for your fulfillment.
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What is Order Fulfillment?
Most generally, the process after a buyer order has cleared payment. Taking the products, packaging them for shipment and getting the correct package to the buyer in a timely manner.
As your business grows you may find that this process becomes incredibly time-consuming, costly, as well as distracting when you want to focus on growing sales. This is where outsourced order fulfillment services start to look compelling.
In a nutshell, outsourced order fulfillment is defined as storing your inventory in a third-party warehouse (3PL or third-party logistics) where you route your orders for processing. This outsourced fulfillment provider will take your order then pick, pack, and ship the order to your customers in a way that you define.
Other options come into play when you want to make order fulfillment as cost-effective as possible. For example, geographically optimizing your inventory placement to lower shipping costs and fulfilling international orders. We’ll get into some of these considerations shortly.
- White Paper
- 12 pages
