Top Issues in Reviewing <A href=”http://www.FulfillmentPlusNY.com”>Pack and Ship Services</a>
As you would expect from the name, a pack and ship service handles merchandise. They tend to center on providing services to independent retailers that are either incapable of shipping items themselves or simply don’t want to. They are a good substitute to setting up your own dispatch center.
<A href=”http://www.fulfillmentplusny.com/direct-to-consumer/index.cfm”>Pack and Ship</a> vs. Fulfillment Services
Pack and ship services often do not warehouse products, but concentrate on shipping services. Invoices, billing and all contact with customers continue to be done by the retailer. They can be especially important to those who need to ship hard to package items or items that need special shipping or insurance.
Many pack and ship operations deal with multiple carriers – USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL and others. They may also arrange local transport and may provide custom drops to and from airports. Most will even pick up items as well as send them, so they can serve as virtual mail boxes.
Fulfillment services generally offer storage facilities as well as shipping. Some even pick and pack to meet order requirements. The main difference between fulfillment services and pack and ship services is that a fulfillment service might offer to warehouse reasonable amounts of items offered for sale. They will charge for processing orders in addition to packing and shipping.
Pick-up is an option available with pack and ship companies, but for any significant volume, a fulfillment service might make more sense – because they offer a complete service, from warehousing straight through to shipping.
Specialty Services
Several pack and ship services will specialize in international shipping. Their familiarity with insurance, custom regulations and costs for shipping overseas can be extremely useful. In addition many offer:
· Guaranteed delivery – same day, overnight and two-day.
· No size limitations and custom crating for fragile or unique packages.
· Cargo insurance – important for time sensitive deliveries, perishables and foreign country shipping.
· Real time tracking
· Office add-ons onsite: fax, mail boxes, supplies, copies and even some notary services.
Many smaller, locally owned pack and ship services will hold items in hand (if you rent a mailbox) and ship them at your direction. They are usually not set up for large-scale storage so only small item sellers would find this practical.
<A href=”http://www.fulfillmentplusny.com/index.cfm”>Fulfillment services</a> also offer a specialty service that pack and ship services do not: customer contact in the form of receipts sent to your customers, order confirmation, package tracking and in the case of some fullfilment services, billing services. This is fantastically convenient when the only customer contact required is a courtesy follow-up email.
Choosing between pack and ship and fulfillment services
Pack and ship companies might be the better option when you are shipping a few items or fewer, more expensive items. They also come with the advantage of both shipping and recieving packages. They usually have many more shipping options than straight fulfillment services. This is important if you deal in vauable or fragile merchandise and cannot take the chance that items will arrive in poor condition. In cases such as this, insurance and package tracking are more important than the ability to store large amounts of stock. Of course if storage is more important to you then a pack and ship service would be better suited to your needs.
Pack and ship companies give you more control over the order. Because you initiate the process you can choose when the item will be shipped. If the item has a longer distance to travel before it reaches the hands of the customer, a pack and ship company would also be more likely to ensure a prompt arrival.