How to Choose an E-commerce Fulfillment Service

Gunjan thakurMarch 23, 2023

If you are reading this blog post, you will know that there are many challenges to running your own online store. One is to handle the storage, packaging, and shipping of products. 

If you’re a small business that sells from home, you can manage it yourself. However, when the number of orders increases and you want to significantly expand your inventory, it suddenly becomes a more important issue.

Whether you work alone or with an employee, the fulfillment process inevitably takes up a lot of time away from other, more important money-making tasks. 

Fortunately, many third-party solutions can handle the entire fulfillment process. That said, here we are going to look at how to choose an e-commerce development service.

There’s a lot of ground to cover, so grab a cup of java and jump right in!

When Should You Consider Participating in E-Commerce Fulfillment Services?

Before going any further, make sure you are in a position to benefit from e-commerce fulfillment services. 

Fulfillment, of course, is an ongoing cost, so you need to calculate whether your business is ready to shoulder this burden. 

The best indicator of whether using an e-commerce fulfillment service is worth your hard-earned cash is how many hours you spend each day packing and shipping products. But there comes a point where small businesses can no longer manage and the resulting fulfillment gets in the way of other essential tasks. Hiring a third-party fulfillment company at this stage is not an easy task. 

If you live in an inconvenient location and want to benefit from faster shipping to your customers, it may be a good idea to utilize a third-party fulfillment company. Maybe you have international customers, or you want to provide a superior customer experience with one-day shipping to most of your customers. In either case, hiring a third-party fulfillment company can be a solution. 

Another reason to consider third-party fulfillment is space. If you order bulk inventory and don’t have your own storage solution, consider finding a third party with access to a larger warehouse.

Finally, in some cases, partnering with an e-commerce fulfillment service may be the most cost-effective solution. For example, if you spend a lot on packaging, shipping, and delivery, it may be cheaper to utilize a third party. Third-party fulfillment providers usually have access to wholesale pricing and shipping discounts to lower costs overall.

Inventory-free e-commerce fulfillment service

This article mainly focuses on e-commerce fulfillment services for merchants who manage their own inventory. However, even new merchants who do not have stock can benefit from third-party fulfillment services.

Queue the dropshipping business model.

Dropshipping relies on third-party vendors to manufacture, store, pack, and ship products on behalf of the seller. When merchants work with a dropshipping provider, they select a product they wish to sell from a product catalog. Then, instead of investing in inventory upfront, sellers only pay for items after a customer places an order. 

When choosing a dropshipping provider, there are a few things to consider. The most important thing is product quality, seller reviews, and product variety. The dropshipping provider integrates with your chosen e-commerce platform and more.

How to Choose an E-commerce Fulfillment Service

Once you’ve decided that outsourcing your fulfillment is the right next step, it’s time to talk about what you should consider before closing the deal. So, here are some important tips for choosing the right e-commerce fulfillment company for your business.

Understanding business and customer needs

All e-commerce fulfillment services handle order fulfillment, but may have more complex requirements for the process.

So think carefully about what you and your clients need before choosing a fulfillment services partnership. For example, some companies offer end-to-end logistics with great flexibility. In contrast, other companies can only provide basic storage, picking, packing, and shipping.

That said, here are a few things that are useful or even essential for your business:

Return management

Returns are an important component of customer satisfaction. The truth is, returns are easy for 92% of consumers, and many will buy again if they wanted free return shipping. Unfortunately, we cannot completely eliminate the possibility of your item arriving damaged. So it’s important to set up some sort of return and refund system. 

The right third-party fulfillment service can help by reinserting non-defective returns into inventory and issuing replacements if needed. You can also organize pickup for returned items or provide shipping labels for returns. 

But not all e-commerce fulfillment services are like that! It’s also worth noting that the responsibilities taken by fulfillment providers for damaged or missing items vary. So please clarify these details before signing on the dotted line. Finally, if you’re going to process a refund, you’ll also want to know the estimated cost.

Inventory Management

Suppose you have a large and complex inventory and generate a large number of sales. In this case, you may also need Inventory management in your fulfillment services. In particular, we will keep an eye on inventory and update our website accordingly to notify you of limited or no availability. 

Top Tip:  If your provider doesn’t offer inventory management, it may integrate with a third-party inventory management tool, so keep that in mind when considering your options.

Custom product requirements

Not every order is as simple as picking one item off the shelf and sending it to the customer. Maybe you want to sell a product. kits or bundles that require fulfillment services to pack multiple items. 

For example, do products need to be cleaned regularly or stored in a refrigerated space? You may want your subscription box to be handled by a fulfillment service, or you may want to make yourself better known by using custom packaging or inserting a note card into the package. 

If you have unique needs, get in touch with potential partners to discuss what they can offer.

location considerations

Another key thing to consider when choosing an e-commerce fulfillment service is the location of your warehouse, where you can ship, and how quickly you can ship orders to your customers.

You’ll want to make sure most of your audience is covered by your delivery network.

Some logistics providers have warehouses in the United States and other locations around the world, allowing you to deliver faster to more locations. Additionally, some solutions can split inventory between these locations to cover larger areas.

quality first

Cost is an important consideration for any e-commerce merchant, especially if you are just starting to grow your business. But when it comes to cost, we urge you to prioritize quality over low price.

Remember, when you start outsourcing fulfillment, you’ll be relying on third parties for parts of your customer experience. So if something goes wrong, your customers will associate that negative experience with you. When your reputation is at stake, it’s more cost-effective in the long run to make mistakes as error-free as possible. 

Often for a small extra cost, you can use:

• Branded and high-quality packaging
• 24/7 customer support
• Bulk order support
• Guaranteed fast delivery times (even during busy periods)

technology and integration

As your business grows, fulfillment providers may not be the only third-party services you will work with. So you have data from multiple sources to bring together. Ideally, therefore, you should find an e-commerce fulfillment service that integrates with your existing technology stack.

May require integration with:

• accounting tools
• inventory management software
• shipping tracking tool
• Returns and Refunds Portal
• Sales channels you use

Undoubtedly, the most essential integration is an e-commerce store, so you can use a plugin or an app that makes syncing orders easy.

Another consideration is the technology provided by the fulfillment provider. For example, advanced e-commerce fulfillment services often provide dashboards with analytics on orders and inventory. Finding a partner with an intuitive dashboard makes the fulfillment process much easier. It can also give you better insight into your business operations/sales/marketing activities.

Recommendations for E-commerce Fulfillment Services

Now that you have a clearer idea of ​​what to look for, we want to introduce you to some of the most popular fulfillment solutions on the market.

ShipBob

ShipBob provides global e-commerce fulfillment. More than 7,000 businesses already rely on this support. It can fulfill orders from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and EU, and integrates with a variety of e-commerce platforms, including WooCommerce, Shopify, Amazon, eBay, and Squarespace.

Getting started with ShipBob is simple. First, integrate your store through the app, import your product catalog, and then send it. ShipBob Your Inventory. 

Key Features:

• Express 2-Day Delivery Across the USA
• We can create custom packaging for your products.
• End-to-end managed freight and inventory distribution programs are available.
• Omni fulfillment is possible. This means you can fulfill your sales across multiple channels, including online marketplaces.
• Provide wholesale order fulfillment 

price

If you’re curious about pricing, we offer the Shipbob Calculator. The Pricing page will help you get a rough idea of ​​what to expect. However, it is best to contact our team for an accurate quote. 

Shipmonk

Shipmonk not only ships across the US, but also has a warehouse in the UK. It’s good ShipBob, an omnichannel fulfillment solution that handles all aspects of fulfillment. The platform integrates with online marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Target, as well as various e-commerce platforms including It is widely applied to general industries such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce.

key features

• Facilitate custom packaging and gift messages
• Fulfill subscription boxes and crowdfunding orders
• There is a reporting suite that notifies you of stock shortages and tells you the total orders and shipped items.
• An automated billing portal allows customers to register issues and initiate returns.
• There are over 100 integrations.

price

A pricing calculator can be found on Shipmonk’s Homepage.

Pricing is based on the number of items shipped to your order. They use a tiered pick-and-pack fee that starts at $500 for the first item when fulfilling fewer than 3 orders per month. Then, all subsequent items within the same order will be charged $0.75. The more orders you place, the less you charge for picking fees.

If you want to add promotional inserts to your wish package, be prepared to pay $0.20 per insert. There is also a $2 fee per return processing. 

There is also a monthly storage fee, starting at $1 for small boxes and up to $25 for pallets.

Deliver

Deliverr is another US-based e-commerce fulfillment service. We have over 40 warehouses across the US and 95% of our US customers enjoy two-day delivery. The platform works with all major carriers: Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Instagram, Facebook, Walmart, and BigCommerce.

Setting up with Deliverr takes 5-10 days after signing up. 

key features

• If you choose expedited one-day delivery, you can display the expedited shipping tag. 
• Providing international transportation and freight forwarding solutions
• You can choose from the following value-added services: kitting, bagging, various packs, wet wipes, etc.

Price

Courier pricing is determined by the size of the product, starting at $4.15 for small items and $16.33 for oversized items. This cost includes product receiving, picking, packing, and order processing. 

There is also a storage cost of $0.75 per cubic foot per month, which increases to $2.40 during the holiday season from March to September. 

The faster one-day delivery (than standard delivery (3-4 days)) also costs extra. 

Conclusion: How to Choose an E-commerce Fulfillment Service

Quality, reliability, speed, and cost are often important considerations when choosing the right e-commerce fulfillment service for your business.

This article has introduced some of the most popular solutions that we believe are worth considering as part of our research. To recap, ShipBob and Deliverr are both great if you want to offer one-day delivery across the US. However, the former also offers custom packaging. Conversely, the latter is more transparent in the pricing and does not require a minimum order quantity. 

Alternatively, consider ShipMonk for shipping in the EU. It is also the best solution for fulfilling crowdfunding orders and subscription boxes.