What does a fulfilment company do?
A fulfilment company can save you a lot of time, money and effort as a web shop. But what does a fulfilment company actually do and what can such a company do for your web shop? We are going to explain it to you by answering the following questions about a fulfilment company:
- What is a fulfilment company?
- What services does a fulfilment company offer?
- Is a fulfilment company the same as an e-fulfilment company?
- How do I choose the right fulfilment company for my online store?
What is a fulfillment company?
A fulfilment company is a company that deals with the logistic process surrounding the processing and handling of orders. For example, for a web shop. We call this logistic process for a webshop e-fulfilment or webshop logistics.
Outsourcing Fulfilment?
Would you like to outsource your webshop logistics to a fulfilment company? Ask Active Ants about the possibilities, without any obligation!
What services does a fulfilment company offer?
A fulfilment company like Active Ants offers various services to make your work as a web shop owner easier. This starts long before the orders come in and does not stop after your products have been dispatched.
Receiving (Goods-in) and storing
As a fulfilment company, we receive your goods directly from the supplier or manufacturer. We check these goods carefully and store them in our warehouse. Ready to order. Thanks to our inventory management system, which is linked to your website, we can switch quickly when orders come in. So you no longer need your own warehouse for your stock. Our system also allows you to keep track of your stock and adjust it both automatically and manually (if necessary).
Order picking & packing
When the orders come in, the order pickers of the fulfilment company start collecting and sorting the products. At Active Ants, this involves more than 450 employees and 200 robots that work day and night. As an extra service, a photo (Basketpic) is made of all products that have been picked, which can be sent to the consumer.
Once the order has been picked, the product still has to be packed and prepared for shipping. The package must be provided with a packing slip and an address label. The packaging is your web shop's calling card. At Active Ants you can therefore also personalise the packaging to match the look and feel of your company.
Shipping
As a fulfilment company we also ensure that the package is sent to the customer as quickly as possible. Active Ants offers various delivery options. Usually a package will be delivered to the customer within one day. It is even possible to deliver a parcel the same day. Also called same day delivery. Thanks to good partnerships with delivery services, your customers can enjoy their purchases in no time.
Customer service & returns processing
In addition to the services mentioned above, Active Ants as a fulfilment company offers some interesting extra services. For example, you can also outsource customer service and returns handling to us. We inspect the returns and the customer receives a replacement product or is automatically refunded. Returned products in good condition are put back into our inventory for future orders.
Is a fulfilment company the same as an e-fulfilment company?
Yes and no. There are fulfilment companies who, in addition to web shops, also provide logistics services for shops or other physical businesses. However, there are also fulfilment companies that only deal with the logistics for web shops. Such a company that only deals with webshop logistics is also called an e-fulfilment company. An e-fulfilment company is therefore a fulfilment company, but a fulfilment company is not necessarily an e-fulfilment company.
Active Ants is such an e-fulfilment company. We only deal with logistics services for web shops. Plus a number of additional services especially for web shops.
How do I choose the right fulfilment company for my webshop?
A good fulfilment company contributes to the success of a web shop. But how do you determine which fulfilment company suits your webshop best? The UK has many different fulfilment companies. Comparing them is difficult because you are comparing apples and oranges. The service can differ from each other. To help you choose a fulfilment partner for your online shop, we have asked you a number of questions. By answering these questions, you can make a better assessment of which logistics service provider best suits your webshop:
- Does the service of the fulfilment company match the requirements and wishes for my web shop? Or are there still certain things you miss?
- Are there minimum requirements that the fulfilment company has for their services? And does my webshop meet these requirements?
- Is integration possible with the order- and inventory management system of my webshop and the fulfilment company?
- Is the location of the fulfilment company strategically advantageous for my webshop? Does the fulfilment company have multiple locations?
- How important is flexibility of a fulfilment company, to be able to deal with peak periods in your sales process? And can the fulfilment company meet these needs?
- How important is sustainability for my webshop? Can the fulfilment company meet these demands?
- What are the costs of using the services of the fulfilment company? To what extent are these costs fixed or flexible? And do I keep enough margin for a healthy business?
Want to know more? Also read our article: How to choose a fulfilment company for your online shop?
Discover our fulfilment options
Curious about whether our fulfilment options are suitable for your web shop? Feel free to contact Active Ants and we will be happy to look into it with you!
Fulfilment company Active Ants
Active Ants is not your average fulfilment company. We are at the cutting edge of automation and sustainability of the fulfilment process and we specialise in web shop logistics. This allows us to help web shops with their fulfilment as efficiently and quickly as possible. This enables us to keep the costs for our services as low as possible, as well as the delivery times for your orders.
Curious what we as a fulfilment company can do for your webshop? Feel free to contact us. Call or mail us or make an appointment and visit us at one of our fulfilment centres. Then we will gladly discuss the possibilities and advantages for your webshop.