There are a lot of pick and pack services to choose from. Asking these initial questions will help you build your shortlist.
Find out more about Asendia's pick and pack services
Your business is your baby and letting someone else take control of part of it is always a nerve-wracking experience. No doubt it’s been difficult enough training someone to look after things like picking, packing and shipping in-house, but what if it’s now time to outsource your pick and pack to another company?
Of course, there will be some key questions you’d like to ask any company you’re about to hand any part of your business over to, but when it comes to order fulfilment, you need to be sure who you choose really will treat your products with care.
There will of course be some general things to consider with whoever you talk to about pick and pack services.
- Can they easily integrate with, eshopworld, Shopify, Magento, Big Commerce or the ecommerce platform you use?
- Will they be able to give pick and pack your orders from marketplaces too?
- Can they get you deep discounts on shipping in the UK and overseas?
- Who do they currently work with?
- What quality certifications do they have (ISO 9001? Warehouse Management Association?)
- How does their returns process work?
Additionally, when it comes to picking and packing, the key question that you absolutely need a “yes” to is:
- Can you visit their facilities and meet the people who’ll look after your stock and train them in how you like your products packed and shipped?
Being able to show first-hand how to package and ship your products is fundamental if you’re going to have the peace of mind things are being done your way.
While the fulfilment service is bringing you massive benefits in account management, IT and systems integration, storage and international expertise if you’re selling overseas, much of this won’t matter to your customers.
All your customers will care about is how quickly their order is delivered, if it gets them safely and if it creates a ‘wow’ moment when they open it.
Training a fulfilment centre’s employees to understand how a product is packed safely, if anything else needs to be added to the package (and where it’s placed), if you need specific materials to be used, and if the outside of the packaging needs branding or something else that makes your business stand out, is vital.
They are after all an extension of your team. Just like when you trained your first employee (or yourself!) to pick and pack your orders, you now have a team in another location doing the same for you. Training them to do it properly is key to making sure any change in your fulfilment is seamless.
There may be times when a company may not be able to do what is needed to handle picking and packing of specialist products. They may need specialist handling and if your employees are already fully trained to do that then outsourcing may be more costly that it’s worth.
All this will be found out though during your research and you may be able to save yourself a lot of time by asking if you can train those who will be picking and packing your orders.
If the answer is “yes”, you’re off to a good start.
Top tip: Shipping is usually going to be the priciest part of order fulfilment, so ensure you are shortlisting suppliers that are competitive when pick and pack costs and shipping costs are added together. A supplier that is 20% more expensive on fulfilment but could save you 10% on shipping is likely to be considerably cheaper than a supplier that is 20% cheaper for fulfilment but 10% more for shipping.
Asendia's pick and pack services
With two fulfilment centres in the UK (Bedford and Southampton) Asendia has helped many small and large stores optimise their picking, packing, shipping and returns processes.
We can provide you with our pick and pack service prices within a useful spreadsheet that allows you to adjust order volumes, inventory, etc. to see how your costs might change as your business grows.
Find out more about our pick and pack services
Request our order fulfilment pricing calculator
