Pick & Pack: How fulfilrr handle your products in the warehouse
Wondering how you can be sure your products will reach the customer in time? Our efficient Pick and Pack warehouse operation ensures the right products get to the right people at the right time.
We’ll manage the whole pick & pack process for you
At fulfilrr, we’ll expertly guide you through the planning stage to achieve a smooth and efficient pick and pack operation – ensuring you have happy customers!
You can relax knowing our Customer Success Team is on hand at every stage of the process to help and support you whenever you need it.
At Pick stage
Picking is when we retrieve your products from storage and get them ready for packing.
To ensure speed of packing and dispatch, we replenish your product stock in pick face locations. This is decanted from bulk stock held on pallets in higher locations of the warehouse.
Typically, we’ll pick all of the products needed for daily shipments in one go so the packing team can efficiently pack the products for shipment.
For accuracy, we make the pick faces as simple as possible, usually with one product per location in the warehouse.
At Pack stage
This is when we build the packaging, wrapping, boxing and add suitable void fill to the box ready for shipment.
This can either be a bespoke process or you can choose from a range of generic packaging supplied directly from us.
If you supply your own custom branded packaging we ask that you always have sufficient packaging in stock for all your units of stock to prevent any delays in picking and shipping your products. We can help you with the right design of packaging to ensure transit damage is minimised and your customer receives the product in just the way you intended.
At each stage, we will document the process taking pictures and ensuring the right process is followed. While we try to keep the same staff working on your account, it’s inevitable that staff will take time off and we want to make sure that your service levels do not suffer.
I’m not sure how my products should be packaged?
No problem, our Customer Success Team is here to help you choose the right, most cost-effective option for your business.
Some products are already supplied in post ready cartons or wrapping that can be quickly shipped, but often it will be necessary to choose the most appropriate boxes and wrapping. This all requires careful advance planning.
We’ll advise on all the important aspects you need to consider, including:
- how your product will be shipped to our warehouse and then onto the customer – best considered at the design stage of your product
- labelling of products and if necessary placing in separate boxes or poly bags
- what type of packaging material you should use
- the size and weight of your product – this is an important factor in deciding the most effective option for you on the many different shipping tariffs available
- how the product is stored and then prepared for picking
What guidance do I need to give to my manufacturers on transit packaging?
Reducing the cost of delivery to fulfilrr’s warehouses
Packaging design
Minimising handling of goods
Maximising profits
The cost of picking, packing and shipping extra items with an order drops incrementally as the size of an order increases. So the great news is that shipping more can bring significant reductions in the cost of each item we pick.
Our Customer Success Team will help you understand the reduction in costs of picking extra products while maintaining the best carrier parcels in both size and weight.
What about quality checking my deliveries?
Managing goods of various sizes from multiple suppliers
Whether you’re sending small parcels or 40-foot containers, we will smoothly manage this process for you.
We receive goods in multiple ways and can generally cope with any delivery, but we ask you to give us as much notice and visibility of inbound items as possible.
Of course, sometimes containers and other shipments are subject to last minute delays, but in general, the more information we have the better we can prepare for your products.
As we book your goods in, we like to move quickly to put your product away, into the right location, storage, for picking or a bulk delivery straight to your customer.
Your product does not need to be barcoded, as long as we have clear labels. We can put your product away and get it ready to be picked and shipped. This keeps your cost low and avoids the time required to manage barcoding.
What size of product line is best?
Having a broad range of products is great for your customers and helps maximise search engine rankings, but it can also mean that some products sell less well than others.
Having a lot of products can also impact the efficiency of operations across your pick locations, as our team will have to walk further and take longer to pick the product. You will also need to use more of our prime storage. Getting the balance right is important to avoid costs of excess and obsolete inventory, extra warehouse storage and financing costs for your inventory.
Our Client Success Team will help you work through the costs and benefits of your product selection and will use the reporting from our Order Management System to guide you about the right balance for your product line.
Forecasting your inventory and packaging requirements helps you save money
Getting an accurate forecast for the sales of your products is something that takes a lot of time and you need a healthy mix of science and ‘gut feel’ over new product launches.
If you have mature products with several months or years of sales, a statistical approach to a forecast can be made, tempered with your experience and details of your marketing plans.
For new products or seasonal items, this is much harder to get through. We believe it’s important to develop forecasts with a range of options, from success to failure so you can act on sales and market data very quickly with price and marketing actions.
Promoting your brand in your parcels
Reward loyalty
The delivery of your product to your customer represents a great opportunity to reward loyalty and promote your brand, through the inclusion of promotional material and special offers.
Plus, you can gain even more business by encouraging customers to refer their friends and family.
Increase customer satisfaction
We can include standard promotional items or special offers in your delivery that are tailored for each customer, let us know what you would like to do and we can provide this service for you.
We also offer bespoke printing services so that you can include personalised literature with your deliveries that create a really positive experience for your customer. Our Customer Success Team will talk you through the options and see what’s best for you and your customers.
How do I get the most from my subscription service?
Subscription services can be highly beneficial as they usually mean increased customer loyalty and a level of order prediction that allows for a more efficient fulfilment.
Some of our clients offer a subscription model to their customers. In these cases, we are able to build efficient pick pack and ship operations around repeated and known volumes of their products.
It also means enhanced supply chain planning with re-supply of goods. Retention of customers and high customer service levels are key for this model of business.
Our customer Success Team will guide you in how to get the best out of this business model.
Do I need to barcode my products?
No. As long as your products are clear to distinguish for our picking teams, we’re happy to take your product without barcodes and this will help to keep your costs low.
If you require specific product labelling and barcoding, this can be arranged and your Client Manager will be happy to discuss the options for you on how to achieve this.
Where possible it’s best to arrange labelling and barcoding at the point of manufacture as this is often the cheapest and easiest solution.
What’s my cost of outsourcing? Use our quick online quote form
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