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The American Dream
You've done it. You're living the "American Dream." You started your own business on the internet by opening a webstore. Maybe it's something that grew from a hobby. It started in your garage, or a spare bedroom, or your own bedroom. But now it's growing. You may have added some more products, and as much as you love the cyberspace thing, the "stuff" is beginning to get in the way. You find you may have to be home more than you wanted to in order to receive, pack, and ship. And the promise of freedom that comes with owning your own enterprise has begun to fade as you try to keep up with orders and shipments. You're not big enough yet to look into getting your own facility, but you want to be able to do more business like this--minus the limitations of your physical space.
Enter fulfillment services
There is a way to outsource the whole back end of your business---economically. Most charges you receive can be passed directly along to your own customers as shipping and handling fees. Yes, you can have your bedroom or garage back, and free yourself up to work on your business instead of in your business.
Here's what a good fulfillment services company will do for you:
- First, they will receive, verify, and catalog your inventory. Then they'll enter it into an inventory system that will actually be "real time," and it will be available on the internet. This means when your customer orders something on your website, the inventory count will always be correct. This is important for you so that you'll know when to re-order your items, or to make more of them. (Your inventory can also be "valuated," so you can figure out your true cost of goods sold.)
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Next, they will help you set up your ordering system to work with the software that controls inventory and ordering. You can now have your orders taken by phone, in addition to fax, or email. When your customer orders by using the internet at your website, it will interface with a real live business management system that integrates inventory, orders, and shipments. You can keep your current ordering method and send batch files, or you can have your orders go immediately to production. Your fulfillment services company will make sure that they help you design just the right order method and shopping cart that works for your company.
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Finally, they will pick, pack, and ship your orders.
What else will fulfillment services do for me?
Fulfillment service companies are professional 3rd party distributors. Outsourcing this part of your business has many benefits.
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You get to spend more time working on bringing in business. You can concentrate on product innovation, marketing, and sales; and leave the order fulfillment to professionals who will seamlessly integrate it with the rest of your business. Your customers will see it all as one company.
- Your inventory will be accurate and up to date (and out of your bedroom).
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Your orders will go out quickly and accurately.
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You can decide to have email notification for anyone in the process when any inventory or ordering event occurs. For example, if you need to be notified when inventory is received, you will be sent an email whenever this occurs. If your customers need to be notified when an order is shipped, they will be sent emails when this happens.
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Most importantly, it is simply more economical for many companies to outsource fulfillment than it is for them to do it themselves. Fulfillment service companies operate efficiently, use powerful industry software, and often have good relations with shipping partners. All of these economies are passed along to you. And the fulfillment charges you incur can be passed along as shipping and handling to your customers.
What's the next step?
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You can contact us (IFS) to talk about your situation. We promise that you will not be "sold" anything.
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You can go right to our price calculator to figure out your fulfillment costs by emailing Vaughn. [Just put Pricing Grid in the Subject of the email.] If you choose this method, no one will bother you with follow up sales calls. -
If you're ready to go, just follow these steps and we'll set you up. -
You can just email us your questions and we'll respond to them on an individual basis.
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