What is third party fulfilment / what is e-commerce fulfilment?
3PL stands for ‘third party fulfilment’.
This is also referred to as e-commerce fulfilment, dropshipping, pick/pack and online retail fulfilment.
They all mean the same thing; a company, organisation or brand is selling products online, either through their own website, usually through a webstore such as Shopify, or through a platform such as Amazon or eBay.
Rather than hold all their stock themselves, and dispatch each individual order to each customer, they use a fulfilment provider (like us!) to hold their stock in a secure warehousing facility, receive their customer orders through an online integration, and dispatch those products directly to their customer.
What services do you offer as well as dropshipping and direct fulfilment?
Our aim is to provide a complete start to finish business support service for our clients.
We offer a range of services, all tailored exactly to our client’s requirements.
These services include:
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Simple storage: we provide storage on a weekly, monthly or longer term basis and can store individual boxes, through to large bulk palletised stock
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Fulfilment services: whether dispatching occasional orders to a marketplace depot, shipping bulk orders to your trade customers, or sending out individual products to direct customers, we can manage any size stock and any size of order, no matter how small or large
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Branding services: as well as storage and fulfilment services, we also provide a workwear and PPE supply service as well as custom design and printing
How much does using an e-commerce fulfilment service cost?
Cost is always the number one question – and our answer is, as much or as little as you need it to!
We can provide a simple, low-cost option to help your online store flourish. Shipping orders costs as little as £1 per order, and we can hold small quantities of stock at a ‘per carton’ or ‘per pallet’ rate depending on how long you’d like us to look after your stock for.
If your requirements are more specific, you’d like your orders specially packaged or assembled, or you sell unusual size or shaped items with more complex delivery or storage requirements, just give us a call or pop us an email and we’d be delighted to give you a completely no obligation quote – we promise never to spam you!
What happens if my customer returns an order to my e-commerce fulfilment provider?
No biggie. Customers change their mind and order the wrong thing from time to time.
We can decide at the outset how you would like to manage returns; we can accept these back at our warehouse, scan them back into stock if the item is exactly as it was dispatched, or keep returns set aside for you to take a look at as you require.
What postage options are available for sending parcels out to my customers?
Some clients like us to organise their postage for them, others have their own courier or postal accounts and like us to use their account for their shipping.
We are happy with either option, whichever suits you best! If you would like us to organise the postage, just let us know what services you offer on your store (24-hour, 48-hour, 1st & 2nd class etc) and we will provide you with a price per parcel so you know exactly what it will cost.
If you have your own account already, no problem; we integrate with your postal or courier provider and all your packages are sent out on your account so you can continue to deal directly with your postage provider.
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