There are many fulfillment houses out there to choose from, with many different specialties. 

How do you choose the best one for you?  Is there a comprehensive list available so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel? 

Yes! 

Many fulfillment houses specialize in various industries.  For example, they may specialize in mail, distribution, freight forwarding, retail shipping or direct response.  Then they could further specialize in certain product lines or a variety of industries. 

Additionally, you’ll want to know how your account is serviced.  Will you have a dedicated account manager to help you with product launch?  How will your fulfillment house engage with other suppliers you’re working with to coordinate the specifics of your program? 

To get a good picture of the fulfillment companies you’re considering, find out:

• What is their specialization?
• How will your account be serviced?
• How do they price their services?
• How will they work with your other suppliers?

Next, consider your offer and what services you will need, and be sure to ask any potential fulfillment partners their experience with each item as well as well as how their pricing works for each service.

• Pack & ship
• Kitting
• Assembly
• Multi-pay
• Continuity or auto-ship program management
• Merchant Processing
• After-sale customer service
• Returns processing
• Drop ship
• Virtual orders
• EDI order processing

PACK & SHIP

 This is a standard service offered by most, if not all fulfillment houses.  You will likely find a range of pricing and will want to find out specifically what is included.  Be sure to ask about receiving fees for your product when it’s received at the fulfillment warehouse and don’t forget about storage costs.  Regardless of how much product you’re planning to maintain at the fulfillment house, there is usually a charge for storage. 

KITTING

Most fulfillment companies will put kits together for a fee.  Compare pricing for this and what find out what happens when you make changes to kits or add more products to your line.

ASSEMBLY

Will the fulfillment house provide assembly for your product, if needed?  At what cost?

MERCHANT PROCESSING

Can the fulfillment house do your merchant processing?  Chargebacks?  What is the cost for these services?

CONTINUITY/AUTO-SHIP

A successful auto-ship element can make or break a lot of campaigns.  Check to see that your fulfillment house has the flexibility to offer different products in the different cycles and can make changes on short notice.  Also see if they can answer calls and emails with the details of your program.  Extending your customers’ “stick-rate” is key to maximizing profits after you’ve made the sale.

MULTI-PAY

This can be a tricky component of a Direct Response program.  If you will have your fulfillment house handle multi-pays is this something they have experience with?  It is important to have a follow-up mechanism in place to try to recover funds when a multi-pay payment fails.  For various reasons, a customer’s payment transaction may fail.  Reasons such as expired credit card, or over limit declines can be recovered with an effective follow-up effort.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Can the fulfillment house handle phone calls from your customers about your product(s)?  Answer emails?  Accept checks as payment and make bank deposits, if needed?  Can they issue customer credits?  What are the fees for the services you will need?

RETURNS

How are returns handled?  Can they inspect returned products and return them to inventory?  What are the fees for each component of returns processing you will need?

EDI

If you’re planning retail distribution now or in the future, can your fulfillment partner handle EDI processing?

RESOURCES

Depending on where you are in launching your DR program, you may need some help selecting other vendors such as Merchant Processors, Call Centers, Web designers, Marketers, etc.  Will your fulfillment company be able to help you with supplier selection?  Coordinate with multiple suppliers and handle file exchanges when necessary?

As you can see there are many things to consider when selecting your fulfillment partner.  Hopefully, this list has helped you to see that with all the information at your fingertips, the selection process can be straightforward and you can easily select the best partner for your DR program.