The Amware Fulfillment & Logistics Blog

What’s the first thing customers see when your products arrive at their doorsteps? The fulfillment packaging.

Is it unique, or does it stand out in some way? If not, you’re missing an important opportunity to reinforce the value of your brand in your buyers’ minds.

When choosing a third-party logistics (3PL) partner to handle your order fulfillment, you probably consider factors like the company’s experience, technology, warehouse capacity and locations. But do you give any thought to its fulfillment warehouse customer service?

Predicting costs is an essential part of any business function. For fulfillment, however, predicting costs can be tricky because of the large number of variables involved.

Looking for new ways to reduce parcel freight costs? If you’re not already using the following strategies, then you are missing out on the best ways to whittle down the 75% of overhead that your firm funnels into outbound parcel costs every year.  Check our our eBook on parcel cost reduction.

A successful ad campaign and a couple of good PR placements cause a hockey stick rise in demand and revenue. Life is good. But then a cell phone rings at the quarterly “we hit our numbers” meeting and the CFO suddenly trades his champagne glass for a cup of coffee.  

It’s the warehouse. 

Whether you’re looking to outsource fulfillment for the first time or you’ve had a logistics partner before, fulfillment services contracts can be confusing and intimidating. Many logistics providers begin with a boilerplate contract, but as you go into negotiations you will find that the contract with your order fulfillment services provider actually has many variables that can be adjusted based on your needs.

If your company sells its products online, there’s an important question that you need to ask yourself: can customers buy your products – or very similar products – from other eTailers? If the answer is ‘yes,’ you need to look for ways to get a leg up on those competitors.

Many online sellers find eCommerce returns management difficult to handle. Most eCommerce order fulfillment operations focus on getting products out the door and into the hands of customers without much consideration for what happens when a customer sends the order back. In many distribution centers, returns get piled into unused corners of the loading dock or warehouse until someone has time to process them, but this

3PL ecommerce fulfillment is like a belt in a pair of pants. You don’t need to buy new pants whenever your weight fluctuates – your belt is there to keep your pants fitting nicely as your weight decreases or increases. The same holds true with fulfillment. As your business grows, you don’t necessarily need to invest in more or bigger warehouses or worry about adding and managing staff to handle this growth. There are 3PL

Have you watched any exciting unboxing videos lately? 

Most people look at the creative packaging jobs and think:  “Ooh, cool presentation!” Here at Amware, we’re thinking:

• “How long did that take to pack?”
• “Has the customer thought about how much all of those packaging extras cost?”
• (And most important of all) “Did the eTailer get a good return on its investment for all of that effort?”