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Grow Your Health and Beauty Business with e-Commerce Fulfillment

Long before the days of the internet, it was tradition for many to go to retail beauty counters when they needed to refill or refresh their stash of beauty products. Individual experts would come to your aid to determine what products are best for you based on a variety of factors given to them. It has become increasingly obvious that e-commerce health and beauty services are on the rise, and customers are saying goodbye to brick and mortar retail stores. Hence, an increased need for third party logistics (3PL) fulfillment. Fulco Fulfillment, Inc. located in Dover, NJ is here to help your newly revamped health and beauty business grow.

Are you ready to grow your health and beauty business?

In the beginning, it may appear feasible to do your own fulfillment services. Your business probably sold products only on one platform, and shipping was possible to do from your living room. However, as you grow, so will your reach, and the audience of people who discover your product won’t be local anymore. If you begin to notice a trend of people ordering in far off locations, then it is important to take that into consideration for your fulfillment growth strategy.

If your successful e-commerce health and beauty company is growing, it may be time to upgrade your fulfillment process. With current demand and trends pushing e-commerce ever forward, it is entirely possible to grow your company at a larger scale through partnering with a fulfillment expert.

Grow your health and beauty business by focusing on marketing and sales, and let FFI manage your inventory, pick, pack, and ship your product.

If there is an increase in orders, it’s time to upgrade fulfillment.

Customer satisfaction, shipping quickly, and staying within budget are the most important factors to consider when taking this leap. If order volume is increasing, it’s probably time to outsource fulfillment to a 3PL.

You will be relieved to know your customers can place an order, and choose their method of shipment through your favorite e-commerce shopping cart. FFI’s order management system integrates seamlessly with many shopping carts: Magento, WooCommerce, and Shopify — just to name a few. You will have 24/7 private web access to your inventory. You can use the web portal to establish access rights for users, set product or budget allocations, manage inventory, and generate reports that allow you to analyze ordering data. Working with FFI frees you up to build your business by marketing, selling, and handling your accounting needs. Partnering with a 3PL like Fulco makes sense since we’re able to offer our clients discounted shipping supplies and freight.

Growing isn’t easy, but FFI is here to help.

To begin, we provide your e-commerce company a transfer plan. It specifically details every step you need to take to get your inventory to Fulco Fulfillment in order to get up and running quickly. We assign a dedicated Customer Service Representative team to your account. Your team are professionals who understand your business and can address urgent needs immediately. Our managers are kept posted on your account and individual needs on a daily basis.

It’s time to upgrade your health and beauty e-commerce business.

It is clear that the newest and coolest health and beauty companies are choosing to take a different type of route in order to build their businesses. Turning into a direct-to-consumer (D2C) through the power of e-commerce is the direction in which the industry is moving.

Simply put, a business that is trying to break into the e-commerce space and thrive will be unable to perform all the tasks listed above successfully—unless they choose to partner with a 3PL like Fulco Fulfillment, Inc. Our established team has over 50 years of combined fulfillment experience. We will be able to guide you through the upscaling process and allow your company to keep up with the growing trends in the health and beauty industry. Contact FFI to help your e-commerce business continue growing.

Four Ways to Handle Order Fulfillment for E-commerce

When you store goods, pick orders, pack orders, and ship your products to your buyers, you are taking part in the act of order fulfillment. If you are an e-commerce business, then order fulfillment is an important, central function that you must focus on. You could handle fulfillment business on your own, but outsourcing to a fulfillment partner will prove to be an efficient, cost-effective operation that will be perfect for growing your business.

Let’s begin by talking about the order fulfillment process, and discuss some options you can take part in.

What is Order Fulfillment?

The term order fulfillment refers to all of the activities that are involved in shipping products to customers. Talking in the form of a workflow, order fulfillment begins with receiving the shipments, sorting stock, then locating inventory for efficient picking. Afterwards, as orders arrive, products are picked, checked for accuracy, packed correctly, and finally labeled for shipping.

Different Ways to Handle Order Fulfillment

Order fulfillment is truly a simple logistical process, but it can also prove to be a time-consuming and labor intensive one. Many of the new and growing e-commerce businesses find that order fulfillment can keep them so busy that it proves hard to perform other necessary tasks such as marketing, product scouting, and website maintenance.

You can go about your order fulfillment in a variety of ways, but here are the four most prominent ways of doing so as an e-commerce business.

In-House Order Fulfillment
You can manage a warehousing and shipping operation in your own facility using your own staff. Many merchants found success fulfilling orders themselves. However, many have also realized they are spending too much time handling order fulfillment to the point where they can’t leave their house without a label printer.
Outsource Your Fulfillment Needs
Your business can use order fulfillment centers like Fulco Fulfillment Inc., a larger-scale Third Party Logistics (3PL) company. We store, stock, pack and ship orders for you. The fastest way to speed up order fulfillment is to outsource it to professionals.
Drop Shipping
Use drop ship suppliers who will ship orders directly to your customers when ordered, and bill you only for the products that you sell.
Hybrid Order Fulfillment Solution
Using a hybrid solution that combines a few — or possibly all — of the above order fulfillment options is a popular solution for a growing business.

The Elements of an Order Fulfillment Operation

When you are selling your products online, you need to have a solid understanding of the order fulfillment process. Knowing how it all works is an essential part of keeping your costs low, whether shipping daily from your own warehouse, or handing it over to a fulfillment partner like Fulco Fulfillment Inc.

Order fulfillment and shipping operations need some important elements to work properly.

A location to receive, organize, and store products that ship

An order fulfillment operation will need organized product storage to make the process work. Make sure to organize your space with shelves, bins, bags, stacked boxes, or whatever is best to keep your products organized and handy for a fast picking process. This area is also known as the “quick pack area” or “flow shelves.”

A place to prepare and pack your orders for the shipping process

Often known as a packing station, this area can be anything from a series of tables/workstations in a warehouse environment to a stockroom counter. Overall, it is a place where packing materials (boxes, mailers, tape, fill and wrap, etc.) are kept and easily accessed.
No matter what the setup is, your picked items are checked for accuracy against a packing slip with the customer’s order details, or with a barcode scanning machine. After these items are checked, they are packed for shipment.

Shipping boxes or mailers

The packaging needs to be reviewed to determine the most efficient box or mailer when handling order fulfillment. FFI will help you choose a carton that will keep your product safe and the rate will be the lowest freight price.

Packing materials

Things such as packing peanuts, foam sheets, air pillows, bubble wrap, kraft paper, and plain newsprint are amongst the most common materials that are used to protect products as well as fill the voids in shipping boxes. After the type of packing material is decided, you will need a way to seal boxes and mailers. A good amount of envelopes and mailers are self-sealing. However, for boxes, you will need to use a strong packing tape and a good dispenser.

Invoices and/or packing slips

Having a printed invoice or packing slip that shows all the items that have been ordered is useful as a checklist for pulling out orders and checking for accuracy. A major difference between these two things is that invoices include prices, while packing slips do not. Whichever you use, you can print them from your e-commerce platform’s order manager or from a back-end order management software system.

A way to create and print shipping labels

The last order fulfillment step is printing shipping labels for packed boxes. For this you can use carrier websites, carrier-specific shipping software, or perhaps something like shipping rate comparison software that will let you find the best price for each shipment. Most of these sites and software support all types of printers: laser, inkjet, or thermal label printers.

An Order Fulfillment E-Commerce Partner is Crucial

Handling order fulfillment and its process is just as important as the sale itself. Retailers don’t want to hurt their reputation and sales if their products arrive late or packages go missing. To learn more about order fulfillment, fill out our contact form or give us a call at 973-361-1700. We will be more than happy to help you find the perfect order fulfillment solution that serves your business.

Fulco Fulfillment Inc. (FFI) Promotes Marcello to Director of Operations

Fulco Fulfillment Inc. is delighted to announce the promotion of Anthony Marcello to Director of Operations.

Over the past year, Anthony has achieved great things as FFI’s Quality Assurance Supervisor. He contributed to streamlining the warehouse’s efficiencies and continuing to organize operations. Anthony utilized his excellent record of customer relations, has taken on additional responsibility, and worked extra hours and weekends to meet deadlines. Now he will bring his knowledge and experience to directing our fulfillment operations.

With the retirement of Warren Hawthorne, and his many years of fulfillment experience, the role opened up and Anthony has been preparing to step up as Director of Operations. This position will allow him to use his strengths to plan and monitor day-to-day running of the business and work closely with Tony and Jennifer to meet company objectives. Anthony will not only develop long term operations strategies but supervise employees, interact with transportation and logistics service providers, and communicate with customers.

Anthony’s management will ensure FFI continues to be productive by managing its procedures and coaching its people.

More information about Anthony Marcello is available at the company’s About Us page.

Trends in Warehousing and Distribution

The role of third-party logistics companies has been shifting against the backdrop of steady disruption and game-changing technology. Leading warehouse and distribution centers like Fulco Fulfillment Inc (FFI) have seen consistent trends in 5 distinct areas:

Supply Chain Integration
Outsourced Delivery Services
Sustainability in Warehouse and Distribution Services
The Amazon Effect
E-commerce Will Accelerate

Supply Chain Integration

Improved Communication

Technology improves many logistical tasks. The goal is to determine how best to utilize technological advancements to simplify and streamline the communication process. There are several Warehouse Management Solutions that utilize API electronic data exchanges to improve communication and increase transparency.

Proactive fulfillment centers and 3PLs understand the importance of having the best communication platforms available. These platforms support customers by providing real-time updates on order fulfillment, package tracking, inventory levels, historical data, and more.

Warehouse and distribution centers will look to leverage integration to build value-added services within their fundamental workflows and software. It is possible to integrate picking and packing using barcode scanning technology which communicates directly to shipping software. This reduces the costs and eliminates lost time and inevitable errors. API integrations automate order fulfillment workflows leading to improved communication. Supply chain integration through data sharing encourages visibility, transparency, and accountability by all parties involved.

Outsourced Delivery Services

Focusing on Core Competencies

The power of third-party delivery services is basically an opportunity for warehousing and distribution centers to deliver products to customers using independent contractors. This outsourcing eliminates the responsibility of maintaining a fleet of trucks and all the additional costs that incurs. While several 3PLs and fulfillment centers are expanding their fulfillment and distribution platforms to smaller, regionally focused networks, hiring and building their in-house delivery network takes time and money. To ensure they can efficiently deliver to customers, many warehouse and distribution centers are contracting delivery services.

Packaging Supplies Will Go Green

Customers Reduce Their Impact on the Environment

To be eco-friendly, 3PLs have been integrating environmentally-conscious practices into their operations. Optimization of packaging supplies has become an imperative eco-conscious strategy for shippers.

The 3PLs are working with new ways of designing and producing their products, attempting to lessen their carbon and environmental footprint, while simultaneously saving on costs. Consumers rate sustainability as important and will select companies that support green initiatives. Trends have shown an overall shift among the broad customer base today towards a more eco-aware business model.

Green packaging has brought a wave of new eco-friendly alternatives to traditional packaging materials. Here at FFI, we see a rise in biodegradable packing peanuts, corrugated bubble wrap, and air pillows made of recycled materials.

There are many packaging options available to the environmentally conscious business.

The Amazon Effect

Warehouse and Distribution Centers to the Rescue

“The Amazon Effect,” which has ushered in the expectation of rapid delivery with minimum effort and the desire for a seamless order experience, is one that every customer has the right to expect. The dominance that Amazon has on the U.S. e-commerce space isn’t without its pitfalls. Amazon sellers have had to find alternative shipping options, relying on warehouse and distribution services like FFI to prepare their goods for Fulfillment by Amazon and allow them to live up to their brand promise. This meant developing closer relationships with their outside fulfillment team; warehouse and distribution centers rescued them.

We can expect to see more brands turning from basic service providers to more comprehensive fulfillment partners. The latter will offer a wider range of services and take the time to understand individual businesses, which puts them in a better position to bend to the needs of that brand and help it to scale more effectively.

E-commerce Will Accelerate

E-commerce has created a world in which consumers can shop almost anywhere, anytime. Supply chain integration can enable quicker response times to consumer requests.

This increase in demand will continue to put pressure on warehouse technology. We’ve already seen shipping times grow at major e-commerce retailers, and the postal service burdened as smaller retailers try to pivot to online. Additionally, this will result in an increased demand for warehouse space that will likely result in more refurbishment of older buildings. Being able to build and flex warehouse capacity to support customer demand is a strength FFI offers our customers.

Stay Prepared with Fulco Fulfillment Inc.

Understanding the shifts in the e-commerce landscape will set you up for success. Get ahead of the warehouse and distribution trends before they get ahead of you! FFI can help you with all of your warehousing and distribution needs. Call 973.361.1700 or fill out our contact form.

Warehousing and Distribution for the Holiday Season

The most wonderful time of the year is upon us, but with all those holly jolly times, make sure your 3PL service can handle increased capacity. Holiday fulfillment can make or break your e-commerce business. Great holiday fulfillment is the key to great holiday sales. Already high customer expectations are rightfully higher around the holidays since everyone wants their gift to arrive on time. Standards for expedited turnaround are higher than ever; customers just do not tolerate a backordered inventory. This year especially, we are faced with even more challenges and lots of unknowns due to the coronavirus pandemic. It has reshaped the way consumers shop, increasing online and e-commerce sales. Retailers and e-commerce companies solve this bottleneck by working with a third party logistics company to help them take a load off their busy holiday season. Your holiday fulfillment operations are the key to success during this busy time, and a good partner can make your holiday fulfillment operations run smoothly.

Fulco Fulfillment Inc. is the 3PL service to provide the extra value you need all season long.

Your space may slowly be getting filled with stacked boxes reaching the ceiling in places like your office, hallways, and dare I say it, even your bathroom. When you choose to outsource your holiday warehousing and distribution to give you a safer workspace, that is not at risk of boxes collapsing on top of you and becoming an episode of Hoarders along with the extra staff that is needed so you don’t have to do any heavy lifting yourself. Once partnered with a 3PL service like Fulco Fulfillment Inc. for the big holiday rush that is ahead, then you will be free to order exactly what you are looking for right when you need it without any fear of where you will have to fit it in your cramped space. Maintaining accurate and up-to-date inventory only works when customers are notified of low inventory levels in a timely manner. You need to provide e-commerce customers information quickly to protect them from getting frustrated during a joyful time, so customer service response time is paramount.

On Demand Storage Space

Juggling storage space at this time of year is the worst, but after you have teamed up with a 3PL like Fulco Fulfillment Inc., you are quite literally renting out the space you need only when you need it.

Seasonal Demand

The hiring period during the holidays can be frustrating and highly competitive, but with a 3PL service like FFI by your side, you don’t have to worry about seasonal help. Rather than hiring your own people, you can rely on your 3PL service for some assistance for however long you need it and only when you need it. This ability can save your business a ton of both time and money since the warehouse staff is already trained and experienced at fulfillment, distributions, and pick & pack demands. When it comes to warehousing, e-commerce is continuously the driving force of growth. Planning for surge events like the holidays ensures there is space available. Utilizing past data and analyzing sales history provides insights that will help things run more smoothly. The historical data allows your fulfillment center to plan ahead to have enough staff on hand to anticipate the peaks and troughs of seasonal demand.

Accurate and Up-to-date Inventory

3PL’s like Fulco Fulfillment Inc. use a computerized system that is able to check products in and out of the inventory which provides you with a real-time inventory tracking system to make sure none of the products in the warehouse are out of place. You will not have to struggle with backordering when your company knows the precise moment to restock product.

Customer Service Response Time

During the holiday rush there will always be a few issues in order fulfillment. What is important is how customer service resolves the issues and how quickly. Fulco Fulfillment’s client service managers are extremely reliable and responsive when our customers contact us with questions, requests for assistance, or problems. Every one of our clients has their own dedicated client service support person to pick up the phone and call because customer experience needs to sit at the forefront. Our online order management systems (OMS) provide updates via email throughout the lifecycle of the order so that the customer is kept up to date with the progress of their order. This increases the confidence the customer has with their fulfillment company.

Looking for a 3PL Provider in NJ?

Do you think you will be stuffed with business this holiday season? It may be time to call a reliable 3PL service today, like Fulco Fulfillment Inc. located in Dover, NJ. With our help, we will guarantee that your holiday season will be headache free. Money will be saved, space will be freed, and you will be left feeling merry and bright! Give us a call at 973.361.1700 to discuss your needs.

Technological Factors to Consider When Choosing a Fulfillment Center

When considering outsourcing a fulfillment center, companies search for a technologically compatible fulfillment partner. They want a company that can deliver seamless and integrated fulfillment, logistics, and supply chain solutions. Technology allows all of this to happen in a cohesive manner and allows customers to view and interface with data online. Fulco Fulfillment, Inc. (FFI) is a leader in e-commerce fulfillment. We support our customers’ online visibility with control and easy-to-use technologies by aligning our technical services to meet their business objectives.

FFI delivers a powerful suite of solutions including:

real-time reporting with live access to data
custom distribution wireless scanning solutions
easy e-commerce integration options

Real Time Custom Reporting For Fulfillment and Access to Data

Around the clock access to real-time data is an essential part of fulfillment. At FFI, customer reports can be automatically exported from our order management system and forwarded to the relevant decision maker. Accessible reporting captures data and allows users a password-protected login to view classic reports and data sheets, including:

Order Reports
Product Reports
Offer Reports
Shipping Reports
Territory Client Structure Reports
Product History Reports
Products Shipped
and much more

Empower your sales and marketing team while maintaining control over brand assets

Without the proper tools, managing sales force logistics can be extremely challenging. FFI enables literature fulfillment customers to automate the decision making associated with collateral distribution while limiting the need for manual review of orders. Sales and marketing managers can automatically control/limit recipients’ access to products. They can set-up product-specific and budget-based controls. Order limits can be set by access levels and approval management is available for rush/expedited shipments or even restricted products.

For fulfillment clients, peace of mind is having a partner with a state-of-the-art warehouse management system which includes inventory email alerts and lot code / serial tracking capabilities. While product version / lot tracking products may be modified or changed over time, these changes are easily tracked by a Version ID—giving clients the ability to define versions and set parameters in the OMS which dictate how versions are handled.

E-commerce Integrations for Inventory and Warehousing

As a warehousing, inventory, and order management company, we’ve learned through working with e-commerce customers that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to data transfers. One thing is for certain though: there are better ways to transfer and share data between systems other than entering it by hand. For example, CSV (comma-separated values) files are one way. A CSV is a universal file type that many systems support and merchants feel comfortable managing when it comes to exporting and importing text files of their data between systems.

Ease of integration is an important benefit for companies outsourcing fulfillment.

Indeed, some systems require CSV as an alternative to an API or a direct database connection because file-based integration allows data to be passed between different databases or operating systems, without necessarily connecting directly to them.

And since CSVs are plain-text files, it’s easy for a web developer or other members of the team to create, view, and validate the data as a spreadsheet. All you need is a header row at the top and subsequent rows of data, which can be manipulated and easily shared across different systems.

There are several cases where transfer via CSV order files has proven very useful. However, APIs have emerged as a newer way for two systems to communicate or integrate with each other. APIs are a great solution for many use-cases, but they are not the only solution. There are several cases where a transfer via flat files has proven very useful, as well.

API Systems Integration

An API (Application Program Interface) is a set of code that allows two software programs to communicate with each other, creating a streamlined and paperless flow of goods from receiving to shipping. Using code, an API spells out a standard, predictable way for a developer to write a program requesting services from another system or application.

Veracore, FFI’s order management system, integrates with numerous platforms via real-time API or batch mode order integrations with both web-based and legacy platforms. For example, Veracore’s shopping cart and marketplace integrations include: Amazon.com; Ultracart, BigCommerce, Shopify, Volusion, Magento, and WooCommerce.

As an alternate option, FFI also partners with DropStream. This partnership allows FFI to provide our e-commerce customers with automated integrations to over 60 e-commerce systems, including online shopping carts, marketplaces, and ERPs. DropStream allows our customers to be totally connected to these integrations and automated order fulfillment workflows. E-commerce orders are imported directly into our Warehouse Management System (WMS), and tracking numbers are exported directly to our e-commerce client’s online shopping cart.

In summary, e-commerce customers can receive orders via three different ways:

shopping cart integration
upload an order file (CSV)
manual order entry

Custom Distribution Wireless Scanning Solutions for Order Fulfillment

With time-saving mobile barcode readers, accuracy and streamlined shipping of e-commerce purchases are greatly improved. Barcode scanning verification and wireless scanning pick-and-pack services read a pre-printed SKU (stock keeping unit) or barcode appearing on each inventoried product. Each product is given a unique SKU which helps minimize errors and automatically updates the inventory system as goods are shipped. This eliminates manual changes and physical counts which waste valuable production time. For e-commerce clients, the real-time updates from the scanner to the order management system (OMS) helps them maintain real-time visibility and a more accurate inventory.

Choose a Fulfillment Provider that You are Technologically Compatible With

Fulco Fulfillment, Inc., works with e-commerce businesses of every size, with a wide variety of product profiles and pick-and-pack demands. We’re used to handling difficult circumstances and exceeding expectations by helping our clients fulfill their client promises and delivery demands. To learn more, contact us.

Why a Third-party Logistics (3PL) Provider Makes Great Sense For Your Business

There are many reasons why your order fulfillment, warehousing and shipping needs may be best served by working with a third-party logistics provider (3PL). A 3PL provider can seamlessly scale to your supply chain demands by handling assembly needs, distribution, warehousing, outsourcing of supplies, order management system integration, fulfillment, inventory management, and shipping and tracking. By using a 3PL you can come closer to streamlining your entire fulfillment chain and utilizing warehousing space at our facility to clear valuable warehousing space at your facility to accommodate more revenue generating business activities.

Among the many key benefits of working with a 3PL is scalability. As your business grows and as your products gain greater distribution in the marketplace, you need a logistics partner that can ramp up services quickly when needed, and scale down when busy seasons subside. In the logistics and supply chain management business, many organizations outsource to a third-party logistics provider to take advantage of numerous elements of their services. Based on client needs, a 3PL can provide a single service to support the supply chain or deliver a bundle of services that can manage the entire process start to finish.

Understanding the 3PL Order Fulfillment Process

The 3PL order fulfillment process includes receiving, storing, picking and packing the order, shipping services and returns. Some 3PL companies also provide other logistics services referred to as value-added services: These include Amazon FBA prep services, kitting and specialty packaging and others. A 3PL provider will allow companies to leverage large networks of resources so they can develop a complete solution for this process.

Receiving

Pallet loaded receipts, UPS/FedEx/USPS small packages or floor-loaded containers are physically received at the warehouse and all material arrives with a packing list. Product IDs, quantities and descriptions are entered into the order management system (OMS) by the 3PL’s client service manager. A receiving report notification is automatically generated via email so all parties involved in the process are made aware of receipt.

Storage

Products are stored on flow shelves for ease of picking and any overflow is stored on full pallets. Storage combines bulk, racked and high-velocity pick areas for efficient storage and picking.

Picking and Packing

After orders are received and entered into the order management system a pick slip is generated. This indicates the products’ location so the picker can easily pick the order and pack it into the appropriately sized carton. A packing slip is also packed into the carton to indicate the contents before a label is applied with shipping information.

Shipping

Your 3PL should look for the best shipping rates on every package that leaves the warehouse. This requires them to be aware of the best current rates from all carriers including FedEx, UPS, USPS or LTL freight.

Returns

Returns can be a hassle if you don’t have the capacity or order management system in place to handle items ordered by mistake, damaged during the shipping process, or other various reasons. Handling returns with ease should be part of your part of your 3PL’s process and an important part of the customer experience.

Taking Advantage of value-added 3PL services

Kitting and Assembly

Kitting and assembly are often required for distributions that a client may have. You can rely on a 3PL such as Fulco Fulfillment, Inc. to execute and manage the kitting flawlessly.

Specialty Packaging

Your 3PL is experienced in dealing with a variety of packages, so they can help you save money through their established network of material suppliers. They know how to make your package secure and make sure the contents are protected during shipping.

Amazon FBA Prep Services

Is your business selling on Amazon? Fulco Fulfillment are specialists in dealing with confusing Amazon processes and can walk you through best practices and make sure you are meeting all of the FBA requirements.

A 3PL like Fulco Fulfillment, Inc. will Save your Organization Time & Money

Many forward-thinking companies realize the benefits of outsourcing to a 3PL. By not spending money on extra square footage and warehousing, and by investing in a partnership with a reliable 3PL they can expect to save money. Having more space in your office building is another benefit of a 3PL. Overflow storage kept at a 3PL warehouse eliminates office clutter and chaos. Outsourcing to a 3PL can mean significant benefits for a business as it grows and faces more complex supply-chain management and logistics challenges. This partnership eliminates the need to buy or rent warehouse space. Without this partnership and continued company growth, internal costs would continue to escalate including order management system, equipment costs, employee insurance, etc.

Save Time

Time consuming events that can be eliminated, including: packing boxes, arranging logistics, LTL and transportation, setting up technologies and hiring additional labor can free your organization up so you can focus more time on your core business.

As your business expands, managing the supply chain can become difficult and costly. Mistakes made in logistics can damage the customer experience, stunt your business’ growth, and eat into your profits. That’s why it’s important to select a 3PL partner with outstanding references and a substantial track record of success.

Making the most of Peak Seasons

If holiday or other peak seasons are your busiest and most important times of the year, a 3PL provider can manage the processes seamlessly so you can maximize profits during your peak seasons. Regardless of when that peak season occurs, taking orders, picking them, packing them, and shipping them can be extremely time consuming, especially while trying to run your business as a whole. The stress of keeping on top of shipments, along with everything else, can really put a damper on your business. The easiest, and most efficient, way to get through the peak season rush is with a 3PL provider. Preparing for this in advance, and understanding why a 3PL provider is so important, will put your business ahead of the game, and it will allow you to get everything in order before the holiday seasons really begin.

Fulco Fulfillment, Inc. Helps Business Succeed Year-round

While it might feel strange relinquishing control of the fulfillment process to an outside company, by working with an experienced 3PL such as Fulco Fulfillment, Inc. you can leave all the operational details to us, freeing you up to focus more on other aspects of your supply chain and your core business goals. Let’s discuss your logistics needs. Our warehouse is conveniently located in Northern New Jersey near major highways easily accessible from New England to the Mid-Atlantic. To learn more, call 973.361.1700 or request a quote by filling out the contact form.

A Fulfillment Center in NJ Combining Fulfillment, Warehousing and Distribution for Efficiency and Cost Savings

Outsourcing your fulfillment, warehousing and distribution operations to Fulco Fulfillment, a fulfillment center in NJ, relieves the pressures associated with setting up a multifunctional system of your own. That’s why many CPG and OTC companies, online retailers and specialty suppliers choose Fulco Fulfillment for their fulfillment, warehousing and distributions needs. Our management and experienced customer service teams know which questions to ask to quickly learn about your business. Whether your business is a Fortune 500 company or a start-up, our fulfillment center in NJ can solve whatever challenges your business has when it comes to fulfillment, warehousing and distribution.

How can outsourcing to a fulfillment center in NJ benefit your business?

Fulco Fulfillment Inc. has provided fulfillment services to customers in a wide variety of industries since 2001. We offer a comprehensive blend of supply chain logistics services which include proven expertise in warehousing, distributions and transportation management. We can receive your online fulfillment order and consolidate and streamline your fulfillment and shipping processes in order to:

Reduce fulfillment, warehousing and distribution operational costs
Improve inventory control
Track your operations and avoid problems

Our fulfillment clients benefit from the robust reporting that our Order Management System (OMS) offers. In addition to this, our knowledgeable team of fulfillment experts will track your inventory from the receipt to the distribution through the pick ‘n’ pack process and all the way to shipping.

Reduce fulfillment, warehousing and distribution operational costs NOW

The most obvious benefit that drives lower costs is that every aspect of your fulfillment is professionally handled under one roof. Our fulfillment center in NJ has over 148,000-square-feet of warehouse space in Dover NJ, which is centrally located to points throughout the mid-Atlantic and New England with easy access to Routes 80, 287, 46, and Route 10.

At first glance switching to a new center can seem costly, but the cost savings of having everything in one place far outweighs the costs associated with finding your own storage and fulfillment space, leasing and maintaining your automation equipment, and hiring and managing staff, to name a few.

Improve Inventory Control

Many retailers and large businesses have separate inventory-tracking systems in their fulfillment and distribution centers as well as their physical store locations. This data generally does not synchronize correctly or as fast as management would like, which can make tracking your inventory levels in real time extremely difficult. This can frustrate your team as well as your customers. Fulco Fulfillment’s state of the art Order Management System offers you improved inventory management capabilities. You’ll know at a glance where your inventory stands and how it’s moving off the shelves. This can help you avoid overstocks as well as shortages so you can make on the spot adjustments to meet product demand.

Furthermore, there is no more effective support system for your sales force than Fulco Fulfillment. As our valued customer, you can set the allotments by product or budget and set restrictions as necessary. Alerts are triggered automatically when your inventory is below the established minimum levels. All alerts are sent straight to you when your supplies are reaching low levels so that you can be sure all of your products will be in stock and ready to ship as they are ordered either by your sales team or direct by your customers.

Track your operations and avoid problems

When your fulfillment, warehousing and distribution is managed at a single facility, you will have an all-encompassing view of the entire operation and be immediately able to pinpoint potential issues and resolve them before they become a bigger problem. For instance, if your fulfillment operation is currently in the middle of an unexpected influx of orders, you will be able to easily move workers from the distribution side to help the fulfillment team. On the other hand, if your physical stores begin to experience a shortage of inventory you can move the product from the fulfillment side to the distribution area to alleviate the shift.

Bring it all together … Bring it to Fulco Fulfillment Inc, a fulfillment center in NJ

In order to be successful in the competitive e-commerce space in the Northeast, retailers need a trusted fulfillment center in NJ. We are incredibly flexible and can manage inventory for everything from pharmaceutical sample programs to online consumer purchases. Combining your fulfillment and distribution operations into one centralized location may be your best opportunity to control costs, inventory management capabilities, facility locations, future growth and staffing needs.

Trust Fulco Fulfillment Inc. We want to help support your organization so you can produce record results. And, no matter how large you may grow, we’re ready to scale along with you. To learn more, give us a call at 973-361-1700 or fill out our form and we’ll contact you.

Managing Sales Force Logistics Programs

When trying to attract new customers while keeping hold of any current ones, successful businesses provide different sales collateral to both potential customers and sales representatives, this can include but is not limited to brochures, kits, point-of-purchase aids and sample product.

Fulco Fulfillment Inc. is an expert in sales force logistics which is the process of distributing the sales collateral of a company to wherever it may be needed while at the same time adhering to the various company protocols which govern the limitations and approval requirements of these items.

Challenges

You have most likely seen a variety of different sales collateral wherever you go, this can include things such as a the goodie bag given at a dentist’s office, filled with dental products, paint samples at a Home Depot or a brochure seen at the counter in a convenience store, but all sales collateral shares the following things in common.

Costly production
Control of distribution in order to maintain a balance between keeping costs from getting out of hand while using material properly and efficiently.
Detailed feedback is important so that their effectiveness in helping to capture sales can be measured and, based on results, objectives can be set for their future use.
Distribution may also be legally regulated like when dealing with pharmaceutical samples and depending on locality those constraints can vary.

Solutions

There are a variety of solutions to overcome many of these challenges and in order to tackle sales force logistics properly then it is valuable to follow some of the following procedures.

Control and limit recipients

This includes simply limiting who receives the collateral by practicing control over shipping addresses. Fulco Fulfillment Inc’s Order Management System allows client to set restrictions so this doesn’t need to be a manual process.

A good example of this is having the capability to restrict shipments to only defined addresses within a sales representative’s address book instead of sending collateral to all the addresses you have available to you.

Using restrictions can limit where and or to whom any sale representative will send the valuable collateral. Restrictions can also be predefined for promising prospects or current clients.

Product Specific Controls

Product Specific controls is what limits collateral item’s availability during ordering using different user or market specific controls.

For example, while browsing a nationwide restaurant chain’s website for store managers, a store manager is able to view, and order only those particular market available for his particular geographic market and not other items available elsewhere. Or, an insurance company’s salesmen are able to order collateral materials unavailable to at-large brokers.

Cost Control

Cost control is limiting the amount of collateral that is available for order for the sake of limiting the all-inclusive costs.

Quantity limitations can be quite difficult to set up especially when things such as distribution channels are not handled uniformly. Setting up quantity limitations do commonly include specifying a limit to how much is distributed and using budget constraints.

Sales representatives are more often than not allocated different budgets for ordering things such as collateral premiums or merchandise, budgets that have limitations that can be understood and can help decide how to best employ others during a sales representative efforts. Cost control will help a sale representative understand that the moment budgets run out either the ordering stops completely or ordering can only continue with approval. Budget limits are assigned in order to control sales collateral expenses.

Flexibility

Having flexibility means that no matter how constraints are defined, a sales force logistics program must have the capacity to anticipate any exceptions that may occur to them.

That is, it must be able to communicate, accept and process, when deemed necessary, ad-hoc requests for collateral that exceed established limitations. As an example of when such flexibility is important: a salesman has exhausted his collateral “budget,” but has prospect who wants a sample product. The Sales Forces Logistics program must be able to (via email) inform his manager of this in a timely way and enable the manager to override existing constraints and authorize the collateral to be released and shipped promptly to the salesman/prospect.

Self-Direction

To have a sales forces logistics program with self-direction it should allow sales representatives to review along with manage their own allocated collateral accounts.

Throughout self-direction a sale representative can handle collateral distributions and their associated costs directly and when necessary permit them to either petition for authorization to go past the budget or pay any excessive expenses all on their own (usually by billing a credit card).

Order Limitations

Sales Forces Logistics programs should have order limitations, for the sake of the fulfillment provider, of the number of collateral orders that is shipped to destinations within a desired time period, for example a quarterly time period.

Putting down limits helps control and keep down any costs during the distribution of sales collateral by preventing any rogue sale reps who may order excessive quantities of material for any “personal reasons”.

Approval Management

During approval management requests such a exceeding an allotted budget must receive more than one approval.

Sales force logistics programs should be capable of notifying sales representative that multiple approvals are required in order for his request to be fulfilled. Following that authorizers must be alerted for permission to go over the budget and lastly enabling the sales representative to keep track of the status and overall outcome of the specified collateral order.

Brand managers may need to approve any product that is overseen by them and collateral orders may require the approval as well as the partial approval of several different brand managers. Sales force logistics teams must be capable of handling these types of requests and thankfully Fulco Fulfillment Inc. is capable and experienced to handle all of this.

Outsourcing Fulfillment Transition Planning

There may come a point in time when you get sick of using your basement, garage or spare bedroom as a means to organize your product and fulfillment, Fulco Fulfillment wants to make that transition process as seamless as it could possibly be when you outsource your fulfillment. As your business grows, it is important to keep up to date with deliveries or else the business could begin to lose credibility and no one wants to see that happen.

Outsourcing and moving your product to a larger fulfillment facility such as Fulco Fulfillment Inc. would be an optimal move to continue shipping products without any interruption of service. Transitions, however are not as easy of a process as it might appear to be for each business is unique and requires different methods of delivery, storage, etc. In order to begin this transition process, it’s important to understand and think about what would be best for your small business.

Understanding the Logistics Profile

Transitioning begins with planning and in order to accomplish that meetings must be scheduled to talk about what the appropriate requirements are for the product and how a fulfillment warehouse such as Fulco Fulfillment Inc. can provide those requirements to you through our operational processes. If necessary compromises may need to be made in order to fulfill the appropriate requirements for your business. Transitioning to a larger facility may throw what you may know about delivering and storing your products out the window but that is what makes these meetings so important so that in the end you feel more at ease about spreading your product far and wide. Here are some things that should be considered throughout the meetings:

Service levels required
Sources of inventory and replenishment lead times
Special product handling requirements:
- Environmental requirements
- Fragile
- Liquid
- Hazmat
- Weights and dimensions
- Expiration dates
- Serial number control
- Subscription handling
Channel support:
- Amazon
- Big box selling (EDI and routing guides)
- Small box retail
- Selling online or on multiple online platforms
- Controlling inventory availability across channels
The more obvious discussions:
- Order volumes, line item volumes
- Seasonality
- Number of SKU’s and SKU churn
- Who will handle customer service and returns
- Packaging and assembly requirements
- International shipping

In order to make your meeting as effective as possible, think about the points listed above so that your company and a fulfillment company such as Fulco Fulfillment Inc. can reach a proper agreement that makes everyone happy in the end.

Systems integration

In order for the transition process of outsourcing fulfillment to begin it is imperative that both your methods of delivery whether it is manually or through an ecommerce service can communicate with Fulco Fulfillment Inc. quickly and flawlessly. Without any method of communication to Fulco Fulfillment’s it would impossible for your small business to get the orders out on time and without fail. Becoming familiar with how your business is able to relay product information will be important when beginning the transition process so you will know how to keep track of the items going in and out of the fulfillment warehouse on a daily basis.

A strategy for shipping is also important when beginning the transition process of outsourcing fulfillment. If your business has a policy for 2-3 day shipping for example then that is something the fulfillment warehouse should know right away in order to properly organize orders that will need to be shipped. Let the fulfillment warehouse know about carriers to use, strategies for international shipping and etc.

The transition process and outsourcing fulfillment can only start once you are certain your existing systems incorporated already at your business can be properly moved over to a warehouse like Fulco Fulfillment Inc.

Make sure any customers, carriers, suppliers and vendors know about the new location of the warehouse you move to otherwise you’ll be left with a lot of angry individuals.

Moving day

Something to keep in mind once the day to move actually arrives is to move the product in your current location in pieces or specifically halves. While moving it is important to keep shipping from the old location until all of the product is moved successfully to the new warehouse. Moving in parts will be able to give you some insurance in case there are any issues that may arise during the move process. The better you plan, the more likely the transition process will go as smooth as possible without issue and with Fulco Fulfillment Inc. at your side transitioning will be as stress free as possible for the sake of your business.