In a climate of worldwide triple dip recession, it may come as a surprise that e-commerce sales have continued to skyrocket. Only three countries,UK,Germany and France accounted for 71% of total European online sales in 2012. With everyone clambering to get involved in e-commerce the real question is – what do you do after the e-commerce website is developed?
When selecting a fulfilment provider for your e-business operation, you need a partner who provides physical fulfilment services such as Pick, Pack and Dispatch as well as managed inventory services such as automated reporting.
E-fulfilment is direct to customer fulfilment of web orders. Orders are received from the customer webshop either via automated email, FTP or API. The fulfilment partner uploads the order data, picks the products, packages the orders, generates the consignment labels and dispatches the orders via per agreed delivery service mail, courier, consolidated vehicle or dedicated vehicle (we call this service PP&D – pick, pack & dispatch). At Cellpak, we offer a broad range of bespoke fulfilment options, including bulk delivery to third party storage, high volume multi-item B2B orders, replenishing retail outlets with products and POS materials. We also handle individual single item B2C retail orders received via web, email, and phone or interfaced EPOS/CRM.
The Product Inventory is received by the fulfilment partner, configured and kitted as required and then packaged. Pre-packaged products are then held in stock by the fulfilment partner. Reporting is sent to the customer, listing order details that have been received and fulfilled, (this can be by automated email, FTP or API). For courier delivery services, a white label-tracking page can be provided to handle ‘where is my order’ (WISMO) requests. Some fulfilment partners, such as Cellpak provide a customer portal to give real-time view of orders and inventory.
Your fulfilment partner must have robust systems in place to guarantee order accuracy and be able to handle complex requirements such as differing pack sizes and packaging per order, plus personalisation and customisation of labels, inserts and supporting documentation based on their next destination.
Any e-fulfilment provider relationship should be underpinned by a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that contains agreed actions and responses to all potential business critical factors.
Cellpak is a creative provider of end-to-end packaging and fulfilment solutions, specifically tailored to Card and Device. We have an expert understanding of branding, print, packaging, mobile and personal technology supply chains, direct mail, contract packing, multi-channel e-fulfilment, warehousing & logistics.
We can quickly develop highly effective and competitive bespoke solutions to support your business and positively impact your bottom line. We pride ourselves on creativity and innovation. We are known for responsive and accurate service delivery and a friendly ‘can do’ attitude.
We call it delivering intelligent capability.