The Amware Fulfillment & Logistics Blog

As one of the leading nutrition companies in the US, NeoLife, has seen its popularity soar as more Americans seek to adopt happier and healthier lives. The direct sales company’s growth has challenged its operations team to scale direct sales fulfillment capabilities to keep up.

Type the phrase “direct selling tips” into your favorite search engine and you’ll find a ton of articles on choosing the right product line, how to get started, how to boost sales and so on. What you won’t find is a ton of articles on order fulfillment – that underappreciated function that puts your products into your customers’ hands.

Direct Selling is one of the well-kept secrets of the U.S. economy. This huge industry, made up of direct selling companies like Amway, Avon, Herbalife, and Mary Kay, relies on direct fulfillment of orders to individual consumers, creating opportunities for fulfillment specialists.

If you’re a direct selling company, there are two easy ways to get in hot water this month. 

The first is to forget your spouse, mother, or significant other on Valentine’s Day.   The second is to neglect or underestimate the fulfillment portion of your business, especially now that the busy convention season has begun.

Last week we had a great couple of days at the Direct Selling Association's Annual Conference in Orlando. It's where leaders from the top direct selling companies gather to discuss strategies to grow and manage the business better.  What were the hot issues, at least in terms of direct sales fulfillment? Well, concerns seemed to center around 3 issues – scale, delivery time, and parcel cost reduction.

For direct selling companies whose model is dependent on party planners, you need a direct sales fulfillment capability that makes it fast and easy for party hosts to receive and distribute orders. Problems on the fulfillment side frustrate your sales consultants, frustrate their customers, and undermine selling efforts.

One of the biggest benefits of 3PL fulfillment services for a growing company is the ability to deploy a modular solution.

LEGO® blocks are probably the simplest example of modular design. There are many types of pieces that could be used to build your final structure, but every single piece fits together and can be added at any time.

When a business is getting off the ground, the fulfillment warehouse is not the prime concern. Bigger priorities include building demand, securing capital, and recruiting a top-notch team.

Fulfillment operations used to be pretty straightforward. Companies either sold primarily through retail/wholesale channels or they sold directly to the consumer. Warehouses were designed to serve that primary channel.

Is order fulfillment a core competency that you want to build within your growing e-Commerce organization? Often times as companies grow and mature they realize there is a lot more to having an efficient and effective supply chain than they originally anticipated. Many successful e-commerce and Direct Selling start-ups began with order processing in their basements and garages. As daily order volumes increase and SKU base