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3PL, E-commerce marketing, Ecommerce, Help & FAQ, Order fulfillment Jul 11,2022

Easyship VS SFC Service : Which Is Your Best E-business Fulfillment Partner?

As e-commerce fulfilment plays an important role in cross-border e-commerce business, new order fulfillment options are emerging almost every day. However, the only thing that e-commerce sellers care about is whether their orders can be delivered intactly to the buyer at an affordable price. Therefore, they generally entrust third-party order fulfillment companies to help them choose the best options. 

When it comes to China order fulfillment centers, you may think of Easyship and SFC Service, both of which are excellent ecommerce fulfillment & shipping solution providers. Since each has its own strengths, this article will analyze their services in detail to help you make the right choice.

Comparison content:

I. Basic Information of Easyship and SFC Service.

II. Comparsion of Major Fulfillment Services.

  1. China Warehousing Service
  2. Inventory Management
  3. Packaging Services
  4. System Supports
  5. Global Shipping Services
  6. Brand Tracking Page
  7. Customer Support

III. Price Comparsion of Easyship and SFC Service

IV. Choose Easyship or SFC Service as Your E-business Fulfillment Partner?

I. Basic Information of Easyship and SFC Service.

1.Easyship

Easyship, founded in 2014, is a all-in-one shipping platform for global eCommerce. It acts as a bridge that connects sellers and marketplaces to couriers. The company has a multinational team with offices in Europe, the United States and Asia. Easyship can connect your online store, pick and pack your orders, and ship them to your customres.

2. SFC Service

SFC Service, founded in 2007, is a leading tech-powered cross-border e-commerce fulfillment company in China.  SFC Service offers warehousing, picking and packing, kitting & assembly and the end-to-end global logistics services for over 100,000 cross-border ecommerce sellers, crowdfunding creators and dropshipping businessmen.  At present, SFC Service develops 60+ logistics channels, and its global logistic service covers 220+ regions worldwide. With the one-on-one help of a professional customer manager, every sellers can get a custom solution.

II. Comparsion of Major Fulfillment Services.

1. China Warehousing Service

  1. Location

SFC Service’s warehousing centers are located in Mainland China (Shenzhen and Yiwu), while Easyship’s warehouse is located in Hong Kong, China. So you have more warehouse address options in SFC, and you can shorten your shipping distance and shipping costs by choosing the nearest warehouse.

2. Warehousing management

Both Easyship and SFC Service provides warehousing management services for their customers. They all support API integration, stock allocation, stock alerts, and cusom packaging. The only difference is that SFC can provide free value-added services such as quality inspection and bundling services.

3. Response time

SFC Service’s China warehouses are self-owned so it can directly responds to customer needs. While Easyship’s warehouse is provided by a third party company, which requires multi-party connection and long time customer response.

4. Warehousing fees

Most fulfillment centers charge storage costs according to the storage area on a daily basis, and Eayship is the one take this way to charge their customers. SFC Service provides 30 days free warehousing services (storing and SKU management) for new customers, and provides competitive price for customers who need to extend the warehousing time.

2. Inventory Management

Both Easyship and SFC Service have rich experiences in inventory management. You can connect your online store with Easyship’s or SFC Service’s system, which will auto sync all your orders. You can manage all your operations from a central dashboard — even with stores and suppliers in different locations. Inventory levels are automatically updated and you can get timely inventory alerts to avoid inventory shortages.

3. Packaging Services

SFC Service can custom packaging to delight customers and help entrepreneurs develop their brands.

  1.Various packaging materials

SFC Service provides unbranded packaging boxes, bubble film, corner guards, packaging tape, etc. For some fragile products, we will recommend reinforced packing.

2. Transparent packaging fees

There are no hidden fees, and you can view the detailed cost of storage, picking and shipping in SFC system. SFC Service can custom brand packaging, and there are no minimum order quantity requirements. In addition, it provides ancillary and simple product assembly and other value-added services.

Above all, Easyship has no packaging service, so you have to pack products bu yourself. Although Easyship provides useful packing guidance to help you, it is not as convenient as SFC Service.

4. System Supports

Both Easyship and SFC Service provide a simple, intuitive and efficient transportation software interface. Easyship’s system is simpler and easier to operate. SFC Service’s system has too many functions, so it is very complicated.

Both of them offer proprietary software that simplifies order management by replacing the complex forms common in manual systems with simple automation features.

5. Global Shipping Services

SFC Service covers more than 200 countries and regions, including emerging markets and remote areas, with DDP/DDU services and customs clearance services. While Easyship only covers six countries: the US, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and the UK. The logistics options of SFC are very limited (only express, post, SF), while SFC Service has a variety of logistics options.

In addition, Easyship is limited to one country per user account. If you plan to ship from more than one starting point, you need to create an account for each starting point. SFC Service, on the other hand, only needs to register an account to ship around the world.

6. Brand Tracking Page

Both Easyship and SFC Service offer customers customize tracking pages to match their brand. By this way, customers can track their packages under your brand, which in some degree will improve your brand awareness and brand reputation.

SFC Service also provides customers with a simple copy and paste template to implement order tracking widgets anywhere on their website. This will allow entrepreneurs to quickly check order status with a single click. Your customers will never have a reason to leave your site to double-check their order!

7. Customer support

Both Easyship and SFC Service offer exceptional and thoughtful customer service to entrepreneurs, the customer service teams answer questions and provide assistance 24/7 hours.

Easyship runs a comprehensive knowledge base, which covers all the topics to start your businesses. If you encounter a problem that is not included in the help center, you can submit the a request form. But Easyship does not provide customers with any means to contact them directly for urgent enquiries, so it will take a while for you to get a response. While their support teams are often helpful, the waiting time is too long.

SFC Service has real-time chat and one-on-one customer support. Each customer is assigned a personal manager when they sign up, so you can be assured of a quick, relevant and practical response when you encounter a problem. No need to worry about daily logistics management operations. The customer can refer the problem to the account manager, who takes care of the details while the customer focuses on business.

III. Price Comparsion of Easyship and SFC Service

1. Storage Costs

SFC Service storage costs are cheaper. There is no minimum consumption limit and deposit limit of Easyship. It provides free pickuping services for its customers. The 30 days free warehouse rental fee and SKU management fee are friendly to sellers, which greatly reduces the cost of fulfillment.

2. Which One Is Cheaper?

On the whole, SFC Service is cheaper than Easyship since entrepreneurs who ship more than 500 orders per month in Easyship shall pay an offer of $29 every month for the subscription plan, while SFC Service’s custom fulfillment solutions are free of charge.

In addition, Easyship’s customer support service charges by tier on a monthly basis, while SFC Service charges based on actual products and actual days.

IV. Choose Easyship or SFC Service as Your E-business Fulfillment Partner?

Both Easyship and SFC Service are satisfactory functional platforms. Easyship offers a variety of integrations and benefits for first-time users, making it an attractive fulfillment solution. But SFC Service offers more services and has wide coverage of more than 200 countries. SFC’s fulfillment services are richer and cheaper. SFC Service will be a better fulfillment partner in China based on its services and fees.


by Winnie
3PL, Ecommerce Mar 9,2022

Impacts On Order Fulfillment Shipped From China To Europe by 2022 Russian Invasion

Recent days, the world’s eyes have been attracted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since the sudden outbreak of Russian invasion not only brought serious impact to Russia’s and Ukraine’s economy, politics and culture, but also to the European economy. What’s worse, the mutual sanction between the big powers bring fatal shocks to product fulfillment shipping from China to Europe, and the air transportation in particular. Then we will reveal the impacts of order fulfillment shipping from China to Europe under Russia-Ukraine war (impacts on air transportation).

2022 Russian Invasion Of Ukraine

I. Why Is Product FulfillmentShipping From China to Europe Affect By Russia-Ukraine War?

From the outbreak of Ukraine crisis in 2014 to the 2022 Russia-Ukraine war, the fundamental reason is the eastward expansion of NATO. If Ukraine joins NATO, Russia will lose its last barrier. So when it comes to Ukraine’s entering into NATO, Russia will not back down. The Russia-Ukraine war strained the relations between Russia and European countries, and affected all aspects of Europe to a certain extent.  

Under the impact of the COVID-19 in the past 1-2 years, Europe adopted loose monetary policies and inflation soared. The Russia-Ukraine crisis led to further increases in food prices and international energy prices, which intensified the inflationary pressure in Europe and the United States. The outbreak of the 2022 Russia-Ukraine war affected the security and stability of European region, make a heavy blow to consumer consumption and business investment confidence in European countries, and causing the European economy fall into recession.

As a result, the purchasing power of the European people decreased, the order fulfillment  shipping from China to Europe decreased, and the logistics solutions provides order fulfillment reduced. In addition, the continuous war hinders the logistics channel and distribution speed, and the delivery time was prolonged. After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, major countries imposed severe economic and financial sanctions on each other, restricting the import and export of crude oil and other resources, and prohibiting flight routes from sanctioned countries, making order fulfillment to Europe difficult.

Russian-Ukrainian war

II. How Did Russian Invasion Impact Product Fulfillment Shipping From China to Europe?

1.Less Orders Are Shipping From China to Europe

As the Inflation surged in Europe, and the Russia-Ukraine war has affected the security and stability of Europe regions, so the overall purchasing power of the European people has been slightly affected. Besides, flights shipping from China to Europe that routed through Ukraine have been detoured, and the delivery time is prolonged, so there orders shipping from China to Europe reduced.

2. Freight Rates Rise In Order Fulfillment Shipping From China to Europe

Affected by the Russia-Ukraine war, European countries, the United States and other countries imposed corresponding economic sanctions on Russia, restricting Russia’s export of oil, natural gas and other energy raw materials. As one of the world’s major energy exporters, the energy export restriction lad to the rise in European energy prices, and European logistics costs will rise accordingly. Brent crude is now increased 42% from around $70 in December 2020 to around $100 in February 2022, it’s estimated that the freight rates will be increased in near.

In addition, some flights were temporarily canceled due to the COVID-19, the amount of export Nucleic acid kits has occupied most of the market space, leading to the shortage of flights, and the air freight rate rose frequently.

3. Delivery Time Of Order Fulfillment Shipping From China to Europe Are Unsteady

Since the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine, the sojourn time of flights transferred in Europe increased by 43%, further suggests that the war had done massive disruption to Order Fulfillment Shipping From China to Europe. The order fulfillment has frequently been interrupted by the war, such as the sojourn time in European ports seeing a 25% increase for exports, and the sojourn time of transshipment cargo increased 43% in particular. 

III. How Did SFC Respond To The Impacts on China Fulfillment Shipping from China To Europe?

SFC is one of the largest China fulfillment centers, it has 15+ years experience in the cross-border e-commerce logistics industry, thus forming a sound order fulfillment system and accumulating rich experience in emergency response. It developed 60+ logistics lines and its business scope covers 220+ countries and regions around the world. Then how did SFC respond to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on order fulfillment shipping from China to Europe?

 At the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine War, SFC predicted the impact of the war on order fulfillment shipping from China to Europe in advance and took corresponding measures. During the Conflict between Russia and Ukraine, SFC informed the potential impact of the conflict and promoted the logistics route taking off from Hong Kong, with a small orders transferred in Russia. Due to the fast shipping time of SFC shipping from China to Europe, there are fewer orders on the way. In-transit orders mainly take off from Hong Kong and will not be affected due to different routes. For the upcoming orders, SFC has immediately informed customers and provided flight transfer plans. For the flights that transfer in Russia before, diversion can be changed to ensure the delivery rate and delivery time.

 With a large number of routes, SFC can provide customized logistics solutions and packaging solutions according to customers’ budgets, so it can solve customers’ worries about the rising freight costs.

In a word, the Russia-Ukraine war will bring shocks to order fulfillment shipping from China to Europe, but it will not have a great impact on the normal transportation of SFC fulfillment center. To get SFC’s logistics solutions, please click: https://www.sendfromchina.com/get-a-quote to get a free quote.

by Winnie
3PL, Ecommerce, Order fulfillment Jan 28,2022

Best Dropshipping Guide to Dropshipping Operation.

I. What Is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a model that sellers can rely on dropshipping platform, 3PL providers or factories to fulfill their orders generated on their e-commerce site. In the whole process of dropshipping, sellers only need establish an e-commerce platform using Shopify, BigCommerce or WooCommerce, acquire traffic and orders from channels such as Facebook ads, Google SEO and TikTo, and then turn over orders to dropshipping platforms such as AliExpress, 3PL providers such as Spocket, CJDropshipping and SFC. These dropshipping services providers will fulfill the orders.

Dropshipping Guide

II. Why Is Dropshipping So Popular?

1. Economical

Traditional e-commerce model is faced with challenges, and the cost to attract customers is getting more expensive. Thus, many traditional e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba and Pinduoduo are transformed into social e-commerce to reduce their cost.

Dropshipping, as a kind of social e-commerce, mainly attract customers through the social media. It has no limitation to order sizes and can be delivered once an order is placed. Thus sellers can save a large number of warehousing fees since there is no need to stock products in advance.

2. Convenient

Sellers need not pick & pack and ship products by themselves, they only need a computer or mobile phone to manage their website and traffic, and deal with orders and after-sale services. The dropshipping process is so convenient that sellers have more free time, hence many people turn to dropshipping.

Dropshipping Fulfillment Services

III. How To Start Your Dropshipping?

1. Establishing Your Own E-commerce Websites

If you are a cross-border e-commerce new starter, it is recommended to establish your e-commerce website by using Shopify, since Shopify has a plug named Oberlo dropshiping , with which you can manage your website easily.

If you are not a cross-border e-commerce new starter, you can establish your e-commerce website by using Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce. WooCommerce and BigCommerce are more complicated to operate, you need grasp some some knowledge of website operation to backup and manage your website data, and sometimes you even need spend money to ask a technician for help.

Oberlo dropshiping

2. Directing Traffic To Your Website

After you establish the website, you should takes measures to direct traffic to your website. If your website has no traffic, it will not generate orders. Generally, playing Facebook ads, Google ads and TikTok is helpful, some other people also promoting their website and products in facebook group.

3. Suppply Chain

Sellers generally start with Shopify+Aliexpress. They may choose best dropshipping products from Aliexpress due to the cheap price of the products, and use some plugs to help them manage the website. For example, Shopify Oberlo droppshiping plug can integrate Shopify with Aliexpress, and upload your products in Aliexpress easily in your website, and sync their inventory information into Shopify. Automizely 1688 Dropshipping categorized products that can be shipped directly from the United States, greatly shortened your time to find best dropshipping products. In addition, sellers can also find personal supplier to provide the best dropshipping products.

Shopify Oberlo droppshiping

IV. How To Achieve Perfect Dropshipping Fulfillment?

After the products are sourced, many dropshippers choose a 3PL provider to fulfill the dropshipping orders since choosing 3PL provider to fulfill the dropshipping orders can improve operational efficiency, release cost pressure, and improve fulfillment efficiency. Then how to choose a 3PL provider to achieve perfect dropshipping fulfillment?

Actually, a perfect dropshipping fulfillment comprises of 4 parts. Firstly, strong packing. Using strong material to pack the order can reduce order deficiency rate. Secondly, fast shipping time. When an order is placed, the customer is eager to receive the order. Hence perfect dropshipping fulfillment has high requirements for shipping time. Thirdly, real-time tracking. If the order can be tracked, the customer will make sure they are not cheated and be patient to expect the order. Fourthly, high cost performance. Fast shipping time always means high cost, but sometimes it is not suitable for cheap product.  

It is worth mentioning that, many E-commerce sellers are still sourcing products from China, dropshipping from AliExpress, 1688, Oberla etc., then fulfilling orders with the help of China fulfillment center to complete picking& packing and shipping. As the shipping route is quite long, so sellers care much about perfect dropshipping fulfillment. To find a perfect dropshipping fulfillment center in China, you must know SFC.

SFC is one of the largest Order Fulfillment Center and Dropshipping Fulfillment Center in China, it has warehouse in Huizhou and Yiwu. As is known to all, Shenzhen is one of the “biggest manufacturing and transporting hubs of the world”, and Yiwu is the “Supermarket of the World”, the superior geographical position of SFC’s fulfillment center not only improves SFC’s China fulfillment efficiency, but also accumulates rich experiences in handling all kinds of e-commerce difficulties. What’s more, SFC provides safe warehouse, customized picking & packing services, quick shipping and real-time tracking services, thus improving pick & pack efficiency, minimizing errors and triggering good reviews.

Best China fulfillment center

If you are a dropshipper, you can choose SFC to achieve perfect dropshipping fulfillment sent from China. To get a free quote, you can click: https://www.sendfromchina.com/get-a-quote to get a free quote.

by Winnie
3PL, Order fulfillment Jan 19,2022

SFC-Best China Order Fulfillment Center Sending from China to Brazil

I. Briefly Introduction of Brazilian E-commerce Market

In recent years, the E-commerce market in Latin America has developed vigorously. Brazil, as the largest economy in Latin America, recorded historic booming especially. According to the statistics revealed by Brazilian E-commerce Association (ABComm), the sales amount of Brazilian e-commerce platforms rose 68% in 2020 as compared to 2019, and the online shopping transactions across the country exceed 300 million, showing a rapid development in e-commerce. 

China Logistic to Brazil

As is shown in relevant researches, more than half of the top 10 e-commerce platforms in Latin America were based in Brazil, including Mercadolibre, Americanas, Submarino, Shoptime, Casas Bahia, Extra, Netshoes. Among which, MercadoLibre sells all kind of products. Americanas sells consumer and media electronics, appliances, furniture, beauty products and toys. Linio offers multiple payment options, telephone customer service, free returns and fast shipping. Submarino sells electronics, books, clothing, accessories, beauty products and beverages. Shoptime sells household, beauty and personal care products. Casas Bahia sells furniture and household appliances. Extra mainly sells consumer electronics, home appliances and other products. Netshoes sells sports shoes, clothing and equipment. Although these platforms sell different products, they all seek cooperation with Chinese suppliers due to order booming.

Top 10 e-commerce platforms in Latin America

SFC, as one of the largest order fulfillment center in China, has order fulfillment center in shenzhen and Yiwu. As is known to all, Shenzhen is one of the “biggest manufacturing and transporting hubs of the world”, and Yiwu is the “Supermarket of the World”, the superior geographical position of SFC’s fulfillment center not only improves SFC’s China fulfillment efficiency, but also embraces huge opportunities. Hence, SFC researched on Brazilian market, Brazilian logistics market, and sought to fulfill China logistics to brazil.

II. SFC China Logistics to Brazil

SFC formed two special lanes to ship from China to Brazil, supporting goods of different categories and sizes. Details of the channels are as follows:

1.STEXPTHPH

A. Introduction:

STEXPTHPH is a special line that can receive general goods products, which is developed by SFC by integrating superior air transportation resources and overseas local logistics companies. The channel is completed by using Daily flight as the first flight + Brazil local logistics as the terminal flight, thus greatly improving the delivery rate and services.

B.Advantages:

  1. Fast customs clearance: B2C commercial customs clearance,
  2. Priority of low-value products: provide POD signature services
  3. Excellent customer service: reduce the extra cost
  4. Shipping time:13-18working days
sfc China order fulfillment

2. STEXPTH

A. Introduction:

STEXPTH is a special line that can receive general goods, internal electricity and power distribution products. It is completed by using Hong Kong/mainland air freight as the first flight + Brazil local logistics  as the terminal flight. It has competitive delivery rate, correct deliver time and favorable price.

B.Advantages:

  1. First flight by air and terminal flight delivered by local Postal/express
  2. Whole-process order tracked services: make your orders’ track clear
  3. Accepting General goods, built-in battery, supporting battery
  4. Shipping time:13-18 working days

If you have orders shipped from China to Brazil, you can try SFC’s China logistics to brazil by choosing SFC as your shipping agent to fulfill your orders. 

What’s more, SFC’s business scope covers e-comerce and crowdfunding, providing warehousing, pick&pack and deliver services. It cooperates with over 50 international shipping partners, serving more than 100,000 customers and dispatching 500,000 packages every day. It can help ship your products from China to 200+ countries and regions with a low price and high delivery rate. So if you need a shipping agent to fulfill your global shipping services, you can log in the official website to get a free quote.

by Winnie
3PL Dec 24,2021

5 Tips to Fulfill Perfect China 3PL Services

If you are engaged in import and export work, then the word 3PL must not be strange to you. Actually, most people don’t know too much about 3PL except 3PL definition, so that’s why I am writing this article. Today, I will reveal the secrets of 3PL and introduce 5 tips for you to fulfill perfect China 3PL services.   

China Fulfillment Center
What is 3PL and 3PL Services?

3PL is the abbreviation of third-party logistics, some times people also called it TPL. 3PL is a way that organizers use third-party businesses to outsource elements of its distribution, warehousing, and fulfillment services in logistics and supply chain management. What’s more, 3PL targets particular functions within supply management, such as warehousing, transportation, or raw material provision.

With the development of 3PL, there emerges 3PL providers. 3PL providers include freight forwarders, courier companies, and other companies integrating & offering subcontracted logistics and transportation services. 3PL providers make custom warehousing service, custom picking and packing service and custom shipping service according to the customers’ requests. The above custom services provided by 3PL providers are called 3PL services.

order fulfillment services
What’s the Condition of China 3PL Services?

Although the history of China 3PL is short, China 3PL Services is booming in these years since China is the largest manufacturer and exporter in the world. The market size of China reaches to RMB649.9 billion in 2010, RMB124.1 billion in 2017 and even RMB1.6 trillion in 2020, thus constantly narrowing its gap with developed countries.

Despite of these achievements, China 3PL Services are faced with a lot of challenges. Firstly, the market of China 3PL Services is highly fragmented. There are more than 15,000 3PL providers in China, but not a single company can occupy more than 2% market share. Secondly, warehousing management is disorder. As the amount of products stored in the warehouse is large, hence it’s difficult for China 3PL providers to update the product information and record the track of the product. Thirdly, logistics channels are not smooth. The customers are from every corner of the world, but the logistics can not reach to every corner, thus it’s important to update the logistics routes.

China Warehouse
How to Perfect your China 3PL Services?

Firstly, improve your warehousing management. For most organizers, the stock price and the storage safety are the greatest concerns. To improve your warehousing management, you can introduce advanced automatic processing system, which can help sync, pick and pack and real-time track your orders, thus saving your time and manpower costs.

Secondly, provide custom order fulfillment services. Since different organizer has different products, order sizes and requests, providing custom order fulfillment services will not only expand your target customers, but also improve customers’ satisfaction.

Thirdly, provide solid and custom pick and pack services. As global shipping is a long distance travel, packages may be damaged during the transportation, so solid packing is essential to reduce package damage. Providing customized packaging services and formulating custom packing solutions for your customers according to the product characteristics and budget will not only earn you a good reputation, but also improve customers’ satisfactions.

Fourthly, enrich your logistics channel. As your business scope is expanded, you shall extended you destination countries and regions, and enrich the channels you can choose. Multi-logistics solutions will give your customers more choice, and they are more tend to choose you as their 3PL supplier.

Fifthly, improve your customer services. A whole 3PL services shall start from the consultant of customers, and ends with sound after-sale services. Sound customer services will help you find more potential customers and get positive feedback. Enjoy a good reputation will do good to your business expansion.

The above five tips are concluded from most successful 3PL services cases, i hope it can be useful for your business.

by Winnie
3PL Dec 26,2019

What is 3pl and how it fulfills orders ?

Whether you’re an e-commerce & crowdfunding business owner, when you decide to begin, order fulfillment is an integral part of your business. As your career progresses, you gradually find it difficult to handle the work of order fulfillment in-house and you prefer to spend more time and vigor to expand market and products but not fulfillment. Based on this, you will need to shift in strategy on fulfillment, and most companies chose to outsource order fulfillment to a 3PL (third party logistic) company.

If you’re within the same situation and need professional support, it’s essential to know these 3PL pieces of information.

  1. What is 3PL?
  2. How 3PL work to fulfill orders?

What is 3pl?

3PL, (abbreviated as Third-party logistics, or TPL) is the outsourcing of the e-commerce fulfillment process, including storing, fulfillment, global shipping, and value-added service.

These are the basic functions of 3PL, but not the major mission of the e-commerce and crowdfunding business.

Besides, 3PL can be scaled and customized to customers’ needs, based on market conditions, to meet the demands and delivery service requirements for their products.

More than that, in order to improve fulfillment efficient, some 3PL providers will utilize a fully automatic machine and warehouse ERP system to fulfill orders speedily.

If you want to understand how the importance of 3PL in e-commerce, the following data can answer:

  • The market for 3PLs providers exploded following the birth and exponential growth of e-commerce. Most Fortune 500 (86%) companies and 96% of the Fortune 100 use services like these.
  • The global 3PL market reached $75 billion in 2014 and grew to $157 billion in the US
  • Demand growth for 3PL services in the US (7.4% YoY) outpaced the growth of the US economy in 2014.

How 3PL works to fulfill orders?

Based on the definition of 3PL, you’ll have an interest within the way of 3PL to fulfill orders, especially if you’re considering working with a 3PL company or your first contact with 3pl.

First of all, you don’t have to think that the fulfillment process is mysterious; actually, you cannot tell the huge difference from in-home until you understand the 3pl fulfillment process, and you’ll determine if you would like to use 3pl.

Now, SFC reveals to you the 3PL fulfillment service and process.

Warehouse: storing & inventory management

Storing & Inventory management

Fulfilling orders on time is predicated on the sufficient inventory in its warehouse, which is the same for in-home fulfillment or 3pl. But it’s vital to have enough space to store inventory meet your growing inventory need, use the tools and system to keep your stock safe and monitor stock levels. In this respect, the 3pl obviously has the advantage

For example, SFC has more than over 40,000m³ storage space in Shenzhen (China), which can store hundreds of times stock than your home warehouse and meet your product line and order volume growing.

And then, with the help of advanced Warehouse Management System (WMS), SFC keep the accuracy of inventory is higher than 99%, allows you to monitor stock levels and replenish the stock in time to prevent the shortage and sync real-time inventory with your online store.

Receiving

Backing to the starting point, the premise of storing and inventory management is to receive inventory.

In a 3PL warehouse, the “receiving” means that it accepts your stocks and stores it. Each 3PL has its own processes for receiving. For SFC, it is more likely to use tools to achieve, which can maximize efficiency and yet minimize errors.

Filling out an ASN before sending inventory to SFC China warehouse and SFC will know what products and quantities to expect, staying organized and timely with receiving and warehousing.

After receiving, the following work will also be carried out smoothly, such as inspecting, labeling, and storing.

Fulfillment: Pick, Pack, Shipping

Picking

When an order is placed on an online store, picking & packing process then takes place in a warehouse.

But how long does it usually take to go from placing an order to picking and packing?

Choosing to batch upload your received orders manually usually takes 1-2 days because you need to accumulate a certain amount of orders first, which will affect your delivery time.

How does 3PL usually do? They support API integration with your e-commerce platforms. It can help the 3PL system accept new orders quickly and response in time. For example, with SFC, orders can be synchronized to the system within 0.5h in their China warehouse.

In addition, the speed of picking &packing is also one of the benefits of 3PL.

Different 3PL have different capabilities of picking and packing; not all 3PL is fast and accurate in this respect. It is important to work with 3PL that is standardized, streamlined, and have sufficient automation equipment to improve speed and reduce errors.

Packing

After items picking is completed, it’s time to get them securely packed for shipping. The packing materials used will depend on the product’s properties, your preference, and 3PL capability.

Basic packing materials including:

  • Unbranded boxes,
  • bubble wraps,
  • Polybags
  • Corner protectors,
  • Packing tapes, etc.

Most 3PLs will charge packaging as a separate item, but the charging rate is different.

In the packing process, some 3PLs will select the most appropriate type of packing materials to keep the parcel light and small, which can help low the shipping costs.

It should be noted that logistics companies usually determine the shipping price of a package based on size and weight. Therefore, it is very important to choose the right packing materials to reduce the logistics cost.

Besides, if you want your brand logo to be visible, please make sure your 3PL partner can meet your demand for customized packing or value-added services, such as custom boxes and marketing inserts.

Shipping

With these preparations completed, the next step is shipping. Considering the cost, product pricing, and marketing strategy, you may choose the cheapest mode of transportation, or the safe, fast, but expensive model, or something in between.

No matter how you choose, most 3PL companies can meet your needs at the most affordable price possible. The reason for this is that 3PL usually have many carrier partners who have different shipping speed and service advantage, such as EUB, DHL, FEDEX. Similarly, 3PL can win more favorable prices through large orders.

The professional 3pl can do even better.

For example, if you want to send parcels to customers in Europe faster, but don’t want to pay for expensive delivery. Neither express delivery nor EUB is a good option. At this point, you can choose dedicated lines designed by 3PL.

A dedicated line is a logistics line developed by integrating express delivery, customs clearance companies and local high-quality logistics resources, which has the dual advantages of price and speed. This is a test of 3pl’s logistics resources and strength.

by Winnie
3PL, Order fulfillment Jul 9,2019

7 questions to ask about using 3PL fulfillment services

For ecommerce business, in-house fulfillment or outsourcing to a 3pl fulfillment, there is no one right way to proceed the fulfillment process, since it depends on sellers’ unique needs and what they are willing to take on.

Generally, there are several questions you can ask yourself whether you need a 3pl fulfillment services.

What’s 3PL fulfillment services?

Third party logistics (abbreviated as 3PL) fulfillment is part of supply chain management that involves storing inventory in a warehouse, packing and delivering orders.

7 questions to ask about using a 3PL fulfillment services

  • How many SKUs do you have?

The quantity of SKUs or unique products you hold will influence your bottom line. Say you are using a long tail strategy and have many products, in this case, if you choose to outsource to a 3pl, you will be charged a relative huge storage space fee for warehousing your products, especially if your products are turning over slowly. On the other hand, if you hold a small number of SKUs, then using a 3pl fulfillment service will save you on fulfillment infrastructures and facilities if you do in-house fulfillment and future less expense on shipping fee by leveraging 3pl fulfillment company order volume advantage.

  • How would you like to optimize your shipments according to customers’ destinations

Facilities for storing inventory and shipping orders are important, not just in terms of space, but also in terms of their location and proximity to your shipping destination. For a company looking for growth, the value of third-party logistics is not only in being able to expand across the country, but also in being able to send more packages than it does internally.

The nationwide 3pl fulfillment service allows you to deliver packages at amazon-like speeds to your customers, reducing shipping time and the areas you will ship to. The less the zones, the lower the freight. While these costs appear to be incremental at the order level, they increase over time.

  • What does your brand growth plan look like?

Is your order volume consistent monthly, seasonal, or increasing over time? The requirements you experience and anticipate will affect your shipping and processing strategies because you want to ensure that the warehouse space you choose is not too large or too small. Will you expand so fast that you will soon transcend the new space? Or will you never fully expand to the full warehouse and risk overpaying by square footage?

Third-party logistics provides a safety net for any peak season demand, no matter planned or unplanned, so you don’t have to worry about fulfilling orders on time or having to lay off workers at the end of the peak season. Considering any short-term sales and fulfilling products on a long-term basis can help you make the right decision.

  • Have in-house fulfillment distracted you?

A good 3pl should always be your good partner to help you stay in the know without having you pay more attention to your order fulfillment implementation. Generally, a dedicated account manager will be assigned to answer your questions responsively at your deck and is always be one step ahead of you. For a business with incremental order volume, this kind of support will really avoid you be distracted from the core business——to attract more customers.

  • What do you need for your return procedure?

When it comes to the return process, some 3pl providers will offer different options such as processing returns and exchanges themselves or getting the packages back to senders. Since the complexity of your return process also affects your fulfillment strategies, if your return review procedure is very involved, you may want to partner with a 3pl fulfillment company handling your return management.

  • What’s the total fulfillment cost?

While there are many variables in calculating shipping fees, the handling can be more complex based on the ways 3pl fulfillment company charges. No to mention that the value-added services (like kitting and assembly) they charge and other customizations. So it can be tough to make an apples-to-apples comparison between internal fulfillment and 3pl fulfillment.

For internal fulfillment costs, you need to add up the monthly operating costs (including warehouse labor, rent, and packaging supplies) (for example, $20,000), and then divide this number by the average monthly shipping volume (10,000), with a handling cost of $2 per order. While this is a very simple calculation, you’ll see how it affects your margin: if the customer spends $60 before taxes, the shipping cost is $10, and your order handling cost is $2 per order, then the order’s total internal fulfillment cost is $12, or 20% of the average order value. How does this compare with different third-party logistics?

  • Do you want to manage fulfillment yourself?

As consumers, we like the speed with which amazon delivers orders, but as a business, it’s hard to meet those expectations. If you can’t complete orders at that speed and deliver packages so diligently, your customer experience will suffer. Many brands are finding that the transition over fulfillment helps them refocus on internal work and allows their teams to devote themselves to other fast-growing parts of the business, thus making better use of their time.

by Winnie

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