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You have options to outsource part of or all of fulfillment services to fulfillment vendors. Fulfillment options include 'Do-It-Yourself',
'Using Suppliers for Fulfillment', 'Drop Shipping', or 'Using Fulfillment Companies'. The fulfillment options you use depend on geographical regions
of your customers, types of goods to be delivered, volumes of orders, and the dependence of fulfillment process on other business processes.
Do It Yourself Small businesses can operate fulfillment services from their garages or basements.
Many e-businesses started this way, and eventually outsource the fulfillment as a result of success.
Using Suppliers for Fulfillment If your goods are from a single or a few suppliers, you can use suppliers
for fulfillment. You email or fax orders to suppliers and keep tracks of fulfillment in a computer system.
Drop Shipping An alternative fulfillment option, becoming increasingly attractive, is drop shipping.
Suppliers handle specific brands, and will ship your orders directly to the customer. Online order placement can be directly integrated with
suppliers' fulfillment systems, or you can fax or email the orders to the drop ship company.
Using Fulfillment Companies Fulfillment companies offer effective ways to handle your order fulfillment.
Fulfillment companies are not cheap and many of them require a minimum of one year contract. Besides fulfillment services, many of them offer
value-added services, such as integration of your online storefront to their backend fulfillment systems.
Related Topics
Outsourcing Your Ecommerce Order Fulfillment
Ecommerce Fulfillment Services - Evaluating Vendors
Choosing a Fulfillment Company
Choosing a Fulfillment House - Fees and Pricing
Literature Fulfillment - Choosing Fulfillment Services
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