The Benefits of Shared Warehousing during Peak Season

Outsourcing your order to a 3PL company can benefit your company in many ways and support you especially in peak season. Let’s see how you can benefit from shared warehousing.

Shared Warehousing

In a shared warehouse, you only pay for the space and resources you utilize for your goods. The main benefits come from the fact that the availability of space and resources are flexible- gives you complete freedom for your volume and operational needs of goods, especially during peak season. Let’s see how shared or public warehouse is the best option during peak season:

Flexible Space Requirement-

Suppose you need 10,000 sq feet of warehousing space in the holiday season. But as the peak season approach and your estimation went a little wrong with increasing order volumes, and now you need to expand that space to 15000 sq. feet. Your 3PL company will help you to easily expand as much space you need. And if your space requirements go back down to 10,000 sq feet again after the holiday season, your 3PL will scale downward as per your need.
Shared warehousing is also a good option for companies with their own warehouse but needs space and resources during the peak time of months.

More Staff for More Workload

Just as the need for space and resources tends to increase during the holiday season, so does the labor demand increases to support customers and workload. Most of the 3PL company hires new staff for a temporary period of time for everything from pick and pack to handling resources and customer service. It is very important to ensure that the hiring staff is right for your operation. You must discuss the qualifications and vetting processes with your 3PL to make sure that your supply chain quality is preserved.

Check Your Expenses

Let’s say that you have an e-commerce business that nearly doubles its sale around the holiday time. If you are handling all the operation both peak and non-peak season yourself, you would have to buy your own warehouse or rent a space for your own fulfillment. Space can be fully utilized in the peak time but during the non-peak periods, space will not be used to its capacity. The costs of finding resources, training temporary workers, and other handling costs can put a large strain on your finances. Shared warehousing is a better option for saving costs, you simply pay for what you need when you need it.

Tenaxx Logistics

At Tenaxx, we offer a wide range of services including transloading, cross-docking, and shared warehousing. Contact Tenaxx Logistics today to learn how our expert staff and facilities can support you in the time of peak season.

Best Order Fulfillment Strategies for E-Commerce Businesses

Order fulfillment Process

Order fulfillment is an important phase in a successful e-commerce business, first you fulfill then it is the time you meet your customers and finish the transaction, and if you are new to the business then you might have not enough idea about how an order placed online reaches your doorstep. In the phase of order fulfillment, you create a lifelong relationship with the customer.

Order fulfillment services are third-party vendors such as online sellers which fulfill an order for other companies. Third-party vendor’s involvement reduces infrastructure and cost as well improve the efficiency, Your order fulfillment strategy determines how quickly and easily you can scale your business. As technology is evolving customer is expecting better and faster deliveries, the idea of waiting for a package for days is gone to the oblivion now.

Before knowing the popular order fulfillment strategies let’s look at the stages involved in order fulfillment.

1. Receiving- To fulfill the orders you must need an inventory and if you are filling orders-in hose, you’ll be manufacturing the products yourself.

2. Inventory Storage – Proper inventory storage is the key, employees must be able to find the products, pick and pack them, and get products ready for shipping as quickly as possible.

3. Processing- Order processing involves order being submitted and then process of picking and packing as quickly and efficiently as possible.

4. Picking and Packing- Once the order is submitted the order is packed and ready to be shipped.

5. Shipping- Order is packed and ready to send, it shipped to the customer.

6. Returns- If the customer pulls up a return request all the steps will be done in reverse order, from picking and packing to storing it into inventory.

Popular order fulfillment strategies.

Thanks to the ever-evolving technology, there are multiple options to choose from, all you have to do is just choose the right strategy, which depends upon your order volume, products and if you can do all that or want someone else to do it for you.

Direct Fulfillment

Direct/Self or In-house order fulfillment also known as self-fulfillment, this strategy is the starting point in small businesses, thought large corporations also use it.
This type of fulfillment occurs when the trader has complete control over the order fulfillment process, trader completes each step of the fulfillment process by going door to door himself, this demands effort and lots of attention.

Advantages for Direct Fulfilment

1. Offers total control over order fulfillment processes.
2. While starting small when you don’t have a budget for third party vendors you can rely on this because you are only paying for shipping.
3. You don’t need much knowledge to complete this order fulfillment process.
Np negotiations as large corporations shipping through third-party vendors can become a competitive advantage.

Disadvantages of Direct Fulfillment

1. It takes lots of time and energy and requires constant attention.
2. Limited options for shipping to customers.
3. Packaging of all the products will take the time that you can direct toward other things.

Dropshipping

When a customer places an order you pay for fulfillment as the order comes, merchant purchases a specific item their customers order from manufactures who send it to the customer, after shipping you are charged for the product.
You don’t need to have a warehouse for this type of strategy, this works if you are planning to sell products from numerous brands.

Advantages of Dropshipping

1. Easy to scale.
2. No need for a warehouse.
3. Easily affordable.
4. More products and faster.

Disadvantages of Dropshipping

1. No option for customization.
2. No control over warehouse-like direct fulfillment.
3. You can only buy from companies with drop-ship capability.

Third part Outsourced fulfillment/3PL

Third-party Logistics involves the third-party providers, involving handling the detail over to third parties. Third parties provide solutions regarding warehouses, packing, and distribution.
When the customer places an order it goes to third-party provides which then handles the order form their location to shipping to customer. The third-party involves steps mentioned above such as receiving, picking, packing, return and quality control.

Advantages of 3PL

1. No investment required for warehouse space.
2. It provides data to track the shipment.
3. Includes manpower as more men are committed.

Disadvantages of 3PL

1. Reduced control over products is packed and shipped.
2. Additional costs for fulfilments, storage, etc.
3. You are not the only client, so your order can be shared with others at the warehouse.

Tenaxx Logistics provides you all warehousing and transportation management services. Contact us today for more information and updates.

FOB or EXW, Which One To Use?

FOB or EXW, Which one to use? International Commercial Terms or Incoterms can be confusing for any new importers, as things to be aware of include trust, picking the best option and the best solution to ship and import. With this article, we aim towards the common incoterms FOB or EXW, which are the basic essential terms to be familiar with when importing for outside your counter.

FOB:-

FOB is an acronym for ‘Free on Board’, it is a port to door shipment. It refers to a shipping arrangement where the seller or sender has ownership of the goods only until when the are loaded.

After the loading process supplier takes ownership at the point of departure from the seller’s shipping dock. The supplier is responsible for providing transportation of the goods sold to a main shipping origin point. The shipping origin point is a port as incoterms are used for international trade which in turn imports goods through the sea.

When a buyer or the receiver gets the ownership of goods then it is considered as a complete delivery or delivery is accomplished. If goods are damaged in transit, the buyer should file a complaint with the insurance carrier. The cost of delivering the product to you are included but further, all the costs will be handled by the buyer.

So, in short, FOB means that the first seller sends the product which with the help of the supplier, and then reaches to the buyer who later has to arrange and ship it to the desired location.

Advantages of FOB:

As a buyer, you don’t have to worry about documentation in the origin country except for clearance as this goes under the supplier’s responsibility. If a buyer is withdrawing the trade the seller can still recover the goods before the goods are loaded to port, similarly, the buyer doesn’t have to pay if he doesn’t get the desired quality or quantity.

Disadvantages:

FOB disadvantages include situations when the supplier refuses to pay the cost that has been agreed upon and similar scenarios related to charges.

EXW:

EXW stands for Ex Works and it is a Door to Door shipment, all the cost, and the responsibilities are with the buyer. In Ex Works shipping term the only responsibility that the seller has is to ensure that goods are available when the buyer needs them. Ex Works term is used while making an initial quotation for the sale of goods without mentioning costs.

Advantages:

Buyer is the only one in charge, cost, risk, and transport will have to be dealt with by the buyer with which he can get the prices of all their costs upfront, Suppliers don’t add any margin to shipping.

Disadvantages:

Buyer is responsible for all the risks included within shipping to delivering at the door, Customs have different cost in countries which might lead to extra costing and the first time buyers don’t have an idea about the cost upfront.

EXW or FOB? :

Both these terms have their benefits and risks it depends on your knowledge of goods and of International commercial terms, with FOB being the most commonly used as it eliminates or splits the buyer’s responsibility, whereas in Ex-Works all costs and responsibility is to the buyer. FOB and EX Works both be used to get an idea about the costs and then make the right decision.

An Ultimate Guide to Plan Your Warehouse

Warehouse planning and implementation should be as efficient as possible to compete in the daily growing market. Fundamentals of warehouse layout designs are such that it accounts for the efficiency of operations, from stocking and refilling to order fulfillment, your warehouse design can either streamline your business processes or can slow it down. The following tips on how to plan your warehouse can help you achieve more efficiency, which can help you grow your business.

1.Define and Understand the objectives.

Objectives can be defined depending on the business such as to reduce cost and providing maximum customer services. Some need more inventory while some need more pick and packing. However, your objective must be such that it can be acted upon immediately.

2.Requirements.

Stocking and fulfillments are two of the major tasks that can either eliminate your burden or does the exact opposite. Once you get an understanding of what’s happening inside your warehouse you can organize items according to requirements, more frequently ordered products must be kept near the exit door so it gets easy to pack and pack them. Stocking must be greater than the demand to meet the supply.

3.Traffic Flow.

How great is the traffic, determines the design of the warehouse, if a warehouse with less traffic is built, it doesn’t need a large space and many employees while a place with great traffic will require much more space and employees. Traffic flow also controls the stocking and shipping from the warehouse, more traffic means more demand which needs greater space.

4.Space

How to utilize space, with a fixed length and width of your warehouse try to stack things vertically rather than organizing things horizontally. Keep similar things together and always have room for overstocking if occur, with some parts of the warehouse dedicated to office and some to working areas and empty pallet storage utilization of available space is done to increase the efficiency of the warehouse.

5.Implementation Plan

The focus should be on creating a clean and accurate warehouse, there is always a room for improvement, so Detail every step forward to create your warehouse layout design, Allocating suitable resources to tasks and projects in the plan. Checking what can be done to improve the design and when finished double-check everything.

6.What to do after planning?

Start implementing and try to manage inventory, a well planned and designed warehouse will surely help increase your efficiency and taking inventory management into factor you can deal with overstocking and stockouts. A planned warehouse will help you reduce pick, pack and shipping time and will eliminate any extra space and utilized it for other purposes.

How Tenaxx Logistics Can Help You

To know more about warehouse space utilization and optimizing your entire supply chain, go to Tenaxx Logistics and give us a call to find out which solution is right for you.

Tips to Manage Inventory for Multiple Warehouses

With great power comes great responsibility similar is the scenario with great business, a great business poses a number of challenges, inventory being one of them with multiple warehouses. Multiple warehouses are not just for multinational businesses but it is done to cover area geographically, some might have a smaller business and still have multiple warehouses, it helps to grow the business throughout the country.

Here are some tips about how you can manage multiple warehouses and get the best out of it.

Overstocking

Using effective management skills can be the boost that your warehouse requires. Inventories must be planned considering minimum level, maximum level, consumption rate at warehouses and turnover, Inventories must be planned considering these factors and an enlightened system will eliminate errors and it also ensures that warehouses have enough supply to meet their demands.

By considering geography as the main factor

While setting a new warehouse not taking geography into account will be a big blow. Look at consumption trough sales data and find out the regions and cities with a high aggregate of customers, factors such as rent cost and transport cost and the no. workers will vary while deciding the area for the warehouse. The area with a smaller population will have less consumption so no. of workers will be less but not the same case for the area with a larger population as they will need more workers, the transport cost will be less and the area required for the warehouse will be much more.

Warehouse layout

There’s always room for improvement, the process of packing and picking takes up most time which ends up making customers unhappy and even lost sales, an unorganized warehouse can confuse workers, while an organized one will eliminate the extra time for picking and packing. Warehouses must always be optimized for efficiency, which in turn is logical and easy for employees to navigate. Popular products must be kept near the exit door so employees can quickly send these orders out.

Using Secure and movable tracking options.

Mispicks happens when customers get the wrong item, this leads to nothing but wastage of time and labor, word gets around which is not good for the company’s reputation. A tracking option adds the trust that the right product will be delivered to customers, and also adds the feature of changing the destination with just a click. By tracking warehouse assets, destinations can be managed and assigned easily.

Keeping up with customer’s demand.

The best way to fulfill your stock levels is to identify what customer’s demand is at the moment and ensuring that the warehouse holds enough products to meet demands. Safety stock must be the minimum requirement and additional quantity will be according to the consumption of the product.

Little extra efforts.

Analyze the processes that can be done to cut personal costs and time for pick, pack and shipping and restocking the item. Always keep a similar team for product’s picking to restocking as they will have an idea about where they can find stuff, who to pack, why they have to ship and how to restock. This will not only save time but will be more efficient.

What more?

Managing multiple warehouses need a plan for working effectively, the plan must ensure that stocks must be available and don’t run out of supply. Customers are always the priority so make sure that the wrong item and damaged items do not get shipped, Effective skills are critical to managing and running an efficient business.

Tenaxx Logistics

If you’re looking for warehousing services, look no further than Tenaxx Logistics. We have the space, services, modern equipment, and commitment to customer satisfaction needed to make your transition to the world of warehousing a smooth one. To know more about our warehousing services, contact us today.

5 Types of Warehouses for your Supply Chain

What is a Warehouse?

A warehouse is a planned place used for the handling and storage of goods. The finished goods from the manufacturer or raw materials from suppliers come into the warehouse and then handle and moved according to how they are expected to move through the system. The warehouse is an important place to maintain an efficient flow of materials and goods from the source to the final point where it will be used.

Here are five types of warehouses:

Public Warehouse

The public warehouse is a storage facility that can be leased for any business with short-term distribution needs. Most small businesses or companies cannot afford to own, lease, or staff, their own warehouse. If you own a small business that holds product inventory, a public warehouse is a good option for you. Also, retailers that operate their own private warehouses may occasionally require extra storage space if their facilities do not have this much capacity or if they are making a special, large purchase of products.

Private Warehouse

This type of warehouse is owned and managed by suppliers and resellers to store their own stock of goods. For example, a major retail chain may have several regional warehouses or “fulfillment centers” supplying goods to their stores, or a wholesaler will operate a warehouse at which it receives and distributes products.

Climate-Controlled Warehouse

Climate controlled warehouse are used for storing goods that need special equipment, such as refrigerators for storing frozen products, clean storage space for handling sensitive computer products, and humidity-controlled space for delicate products, including produce or flowers.

Automated Warehouse

With advances in computer and robotics technology many warehouses now have automated operations. The level of automation can differ according to the warehousing requirement, from a small conveyor belt transporting products in a small area all the way up to a fully automated facility where only a few people are needed to handle storage activity for a number of goods incoming and outgoing in the warehouse. Nowadays many warehouses use automated machines and tools to handle nearly all physical distribution activities, such as moving product-filled pallets around buildings that may large in area.

Distribution Center

These types of warehouses store products for a very short interval of time as compared to a warehouse. In distribution center products are received from many suppliers and quickly shipped out to the customers, therefore the flow velocity of goods through the distribution center is more than the flow velocity of goods through a warehouse. Apart from storing products, distribution center offers value-added services like product mixing, order fulfillment, packaging, and cross-docking.

Choose Tenaxx Logistics

If you’re looking for shared warehousing services, look no further than Tenaxx Logistics. We have the space, services, modern equipment, and commitment to customer satisfaction needed to make your transition to the world of warehousing a smooth one. To know more about our warehousing services, contact us today.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF DROP SHIPPING

Drop-Shipping

The dropshipping process is different from the traditional fulfillment process in that the merchants don’t have to keep the inventory. Instead, the vendor represents the inventory from your side. You only make a purchase from them when any customer place the order for some items and you sell them through the dropshipping process.
Dropshipping allows you to sell items without actually involving in the handling of inventory and shipping the items to the customer by yourself. This becomes a very flexible and time-saving order fulfillment process for merchants.
To know more about drop shipping visit

The Advantages of Drop Shipping

There are numerous advantages to drop-shipping your products, which include:

1. Not keeping an inventory on-hand:

One of the main advantages of using drop shipping is that you don’t need to keep the inventory on-hand. You only buy the inventory from your vendor when you sell something to the customer, hence you do not need to worry about managing the inventory.

2. No storage space required:

With the dropshipping process, you don’t need storage space as you don’t keep the inventory on-hand. Hence, your business will have little to no overhead costs of managing and renting the storage space.

3. Grow more business:

When you store and sell your own inventory, there can be many limitations, such as limited stock of goods and limited shipping location. But, with drop shipping, you can sell a wide variety of goods which represents by various vendors as well as you can ship the items to many locations. Thus, in this way you can grow more business.

4. Unlimited Products:

Dropshipping gives you the flexibility to sell those items which are not present in-store or kept in local inventory. It appears to your customers that they have unlimited product options. This is very useful for great customer experience.

All of these benefits are great. But, before you get ahead of yourself and start to drop shipping, you need to know about the other side of this fulfillment process.

The Disadvantages of Drop Shipping

Dropshipping has some considerable issues that you need to take into account before choosing a dropshipping option.

1. Low product margins:

As the product directly ships by the vendor to the customer without the involvement of the merchant selling the products, the markup on the price keeps on increasing. It’s how vendors make their profit in this business strategy. Although, in a competitive market, you have to continually lower your price to compete. This might can results in loss sometimes as you have to sell at very low margins.

2. Finding the right vendor:

Finding and creating good business relationships with the right vendors with wide product variety and right prices can be difficult. As dropshipping becomes more feasible for more vendors, you’re going to have to scan through a lot of posing wholesalers offering “wholesale” prices.

3. Relying on vendors:

The best and worst part of dropshipping is that you rely on your vendors to always have products in stock and to make correct shipments. But, what if they don’t have an item in stock that you just sold to your customer? Or, their shipment doesn’t reach the customer on time? Who will be responsible for answering the customers? As the vendors are completely invisible to your customers, hence it is your responsibility to handle these situations and cover the costs when you need to.

4. Using multiple vendors:

Merchants will often make deals with multiple vendors to get a wide range of products, ensure the products are in stock and select the best prices for different products, and ship from the nearest location to customers. It is not as easy as it looks, managing multiple vendors can be very complex. If you don’t do it right, it can cost you your business.

5. Shipping costs:

Keep a check on shipping costs when you’re using multiple vendors to ship different parts of one order, or product. If not handled carefully, dropshipping isn’t cost-effective for you anymore.
Dropshipping if done correctly can make a big difference in your business and its bottom line. But, if not handled well, it can cost you your business.

The Bottom Line

The benefits of drop shipping make it an attractive and flexible order fulfillment solution. But, there’s also a bad side of drop shipping that you must take into account. Ultimately, the decision on whether or not dropshipping is the best choice for you depends overall on your business type and requirement.

Contact Tenaxx Logistics

Want to find out more about our order fulfillment services? Contact Tenaxx Logistics today by filling out our online form or call us at 519-260-2738 and let us know what your business requirement. We’ll talk to you about possible shipping requirements and give you an accurate estimate for the services you need.

Check out these articles for further reading:
What is Drop Shipping?
Common Order Fulfillment Issues and How To Fix Them

KNOW ABOUT 3PL WAREHOUSE COSTS FOR YOUR BUSINESS

If your business is growing and you’re thinking to go for warehousing options, the idea may seem a bit challenging. Warehouses are large facilities that need proper management and maintenance.

If you’re planning to build or rent a full warehouse for your business operation, then warehousing costs is something to give your attention to. If, however, you’re partnering with a third-party logistics company (3PL) to provide you with shared (or “public”) warehousing services, then your costs will only reflect the space and services you need. In this blog, we’ll examine 3PL warehouse costs and provide you with the information your 3PL company will ask you to provide accurate pricing.

Different Types of warehousing

If your operation is looking for a warehousing service, you have three options.

1. Build or rent a warehouse yourself and take full charge of it. This by far your most costly choice. With this option, you pay for the building, the staffing, the equipment, the warehouse management system, and other technologies. If your actual volumes don’t match your forecasts, you can be left paying a lot of money for resources you’re not using – or scrambling to add resources to keep up.

2. Use dedicated warehousing services of a 3PL. With this option, you hire a 3PL company to fully dedicate of its warehouses to your operation. Your 3PL can provide the staff, equipment, and systems required for your business operation – saving you considerable amounts of time and money and acquiring these yourself.

3. Use a shared warehousing service. Shared warehousing is the most common – and cost-effective – a type of warehousing. With this option, you utilize a 3PL warehouse and place your goods alongside several other companies and pay for only space and services you need.

Find your 3PL Warehouse Costs

If you decide to partner with a 3PL for either dedicated or shared warehousing, there are many key points that will affect your costs.
1. The first point you need to address in calculating warehouse costs is the location. As a rule, warehousing in large metropolitan areas is going to be far more expensive than it will be in rural areas.

2. The second point to consider is whether you need dedicated or shared warehousing services. The more costly of the two, dedicated warehousing is typically a good option for larger operations that have very consistent volumes.

Information your 3PL will need from you

You will need to provide your 3PL with detail about your business and goods so that they can determine the services and type of space needed in order to provide you with accurate pricing. The basic information that your 3PL will need from you for storing and handling the warehouse for you are mentioned below.

Storage information needed

• Average pallet dimensions (height, width, weight, depth)?
• Pallet characteristics (e.g., stackable or racking)
• Inventory turns per year
• Amount of shipments per year
• Estimated inventory volume
• Average inventory (in terms of number of pallets)
• Number of cases per pallet
• Product temperature requirements
• Hazardous material information

Handling information needed

• Number of orders processed per year (B2B and B2C)
• Average order size (pallets if B2B, pieces if B2C)
• Pick and pack facilities (for eCommerce fulfillment)
• The average number of inbound orders per day
• The average number of outbound shipments per day
• Percentage of cross-dock shipments
• Transportation requirements
• Intermodal and container details/requirements

Related: Advantages of Using Public Warehouse

Choose Tenaxx Logistics For Cost-Effective 3PL Service

If you’re looking for a 3PL for your warehousing operation, look no further than Tenaxx Logistics. We have the space, services, modern equipment, and commitment to customer satisfaction needed to make your transition to the world of warehousing a smooth one. To know more about our warehousing services, contact us today.

What is Drop Shipping?

What is Drop Shipping?

In the dropshipping process, the online seller doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, when a customer buys some items from a store, the store purchases the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the end customer. As a result, the merchant never handles the products it sells.

The major difference between dropshipping and the standard retail method is that the selling merchant doesn’t keep the products in inventory. The merchant purchases inventory when required from a third party – usually a wholesaler or manufacturer – to fulfill customers’ orders.

In this setup, the seller doesn’t need to invest in purchasing inventory for its e-commerce business. In this case, the manufacturer will charge the seller a higher wholesale price for each product, in exchange for handling the warehouse and shipping individual orders rather than shipping to the seller in bulk. Although the e-commerce seller does not any product in stock, on the seller’s website it looks as if they are selling their own products. The seller handles everything from the marketing of the products and to the customer handling, while the manufacturer provides warehouse and shipping services.

RELATED:BENEFITS OF OUTSOURCING LOGISTICS SERVICES TO THIRD-PARTY COMPANIES

The process for dropshipping is as follows:

1. Show items offered by one or more drop shipping companies in your online store.
2. A customer chooses the product and places an order in your store.
3. You forward the order to the manufacturer for handling the shipment of the order to the customer.
4. The manufacturer processes the order and ships it directly to your customer.

With this kind of retail fulfillment method, the seller doesn’t need to purchase the inventory and keeps it in the stock. This is a key feature of using the dropshipping process for e-commerce businesses.
Drop Shipping is a great option for sellers who do not have enough capital to buy their own inventory, or who don’t want to handle warehouse and logistics related work. You can also place a wider selection of products using drop shipping for your business. It can also be a low-risk way to test new products before you bring them into inventory.

Choose Drop Shipping or Third-Party Fulfillment for Your Ecommerce Business?

Dropshipping and third-party fulfillment are different e-commerce, business models. Both involve an outsourced order fulfillment process, but the services provided by drop shippers and fulfillment centers are quite different.
Dropshipping and third-party fulfillment fulfill different needs for e-commerce sellers. Your business may choose to outsource order fulfillment to both of these types of providers at different times, depending on your business needs.

Call Tenaxx Logistics for Your Order Fulfillment Services

Want to find out more about our order fulfillment services? Contact Tenaxx Logistics today by filling out our online form or call us at 519-260-2738 and let us know what your business requirement. We’ll talk to you about possible shipping requirements and give you an accurate estimate for the services you need.

Key Stages of Order Fulfillment Process

Order fulfillment is an important part of the supply chain process. It is the process of receiving, processing, and shipping orders to the end customers. It’s possible to handle fulfillment in-house or outsourcing it to a third party logistics company that handles the process for you.
To maintain quality control and maximize profit as much as possible, many smaller operations opt to handle their own order fulfillment process. But if you want to focus more on the main fields of activity, and work more efficiently and productively, opting third-party logistics is the best solution. The order fulfillment process varies according to the type of business, inventory management, and supplier selection and can become highly complex. Here are mentioned the key stages of the order fulfillment process:

Receiving Stage

When you receive inventory from suppliers and manufacturers at your warehouse. the next steps will be:

1. Count all the items which you have ordered.
2. Check to make sure no items have been damaged during shipment.
3. Add the record of new inventory to your warehouse management software to keep the count, sales numbers for each item and also to track the location of items.
4. Add SKUs/barcodes to every item you received if they aren’t already labeled correctly.
5. Place individual items into ready-to-deliver kit packages, if necessary.

After following all these steps carefully, the next stage is to shelve it in the warehouse. By properly storing the items in the warehouse, you can maximize the speed and accuracy of your order fulfillment process thus can increase warehouse productivity.
Store each SKU in its own box, with overflow stored in another area of the warehouse. Keep SKUs that sell most often in boxes closer to the packing stations for easier access.

Processing Phase

The order processing phase starts when an order is received from the customer. Typically, fulfillment software integrates with shopping cart software so that when someone places an order online, the order is automatically sent to your fulfillment software at your warehouse, too.
After receiving the order, items are picked by staff and taken to an order packing area. In the packing area, firstly the items are checked for quality and packaged with the best materials appropriate for the items. Packing slips and other information are added, then the box is sealed and moved to the shipping station.

Delivery Phase

Once the order is in the shipping station, it’s ready for delivery to the end customer. In the shipping station, the package is weighed and the best delivery method is selected. Once the package is ready to deliver, the shipping station will update the status of an order to make sure customers can track their orders until they are delivered. After the order has been delivered to the customer, it can be considered fulfilled.

Choose Tenaxx Logistics for Your Order Fulfillment Services?

Want to find out more about our order fulfillment services? Contact Tenaxx Logistics today by filling out our online form or call us at 519-260-2738 and let us know what your business requirement. We’ll talk to you about possible shipping requirements and give you an accurate estimate for the services you need.