Choosing an eCommerce fulfillment company to manage parts of your business can be stressful. You want to be working with a reliable fulfillment partner you can trust to consistently deliver top-notch service—especially if the company will be handling customer-facing tasks. 

Your business’s reputation depends on outsourcing to the right fulfillment partner. But how do you assess fulfillment companies for alignment with your business values and needs? 

Keep reading to find out how you can choose the eCommerce fulfillment partner who’s the best fit for your business, PLUS core value metrics you should be using to assess companies’ services. 

Know Your eCommerce Fulfillment Needs Before Outsourcing 

Working with a fulfillment company is a long-term investment. Before diving into your search or signing any contracts, you should know exactly which day-to-day operations you’ll be outsourcing. 

Make a list of the tasks you want to outsource. Your order fulfillment goals and metrics. The accounting software, order and inventory management system, and eCommerce platform you use. Documenting these items will not only guide your search for a compatible fulfillment partner but will also enable you to determine which services and solutions (e.g., picking and packing, international shipping, package tracking) to include in your contract. 

During your search, make sure to look for a fulfillment company that specializes in eCommerce. This may sound obvious, but there are numerous fulfillment companies out there that serve every kind of industry. Companies that have experience in or exclusively specialize in the eCommerce industry will know how to properly handle and ship your products and are more likely to have technology compatible with your systems. 

Assessing eCommerce Fulfillment Companies 

The key to successfully choosing a reliable fulfillment provider is to not get caught up in the marketing. Instead, you should focus on analyzing how a company approaches their core tasks. A stylish office or a fancy website doesn’t indicate the company provides great value to their clients—but the metrics they use to measure and incentivize performance do. 

To give you an example of what an eCommerce fulfillment company’s core value metrics look like, here are the six core value metrics we use at TransAction Heroes. 

1. Customer Service Contacts per order 
2. Customer Service Response (1 hour or less) 
3. Inventory accuracy 
4. Pick/pack accuracy 
5. Average days order to Delivery (Canada) 
6. Average days order to Delivery (US) 

Looking at a company’s core value metrics will tell you what they care about and whether their core values align with yours (Curious as to how our core value metrics at TransAction Heroes help us streamline fulfillment for your business? Our team is happy to review them with you in more detail). 

Most fulfillment companies prioritize fast shipping and volume of orders. While speed is important, it’s also important to ensure order accuracy to prevent (costly) mistakes from happening down the line. 

Questions to Ask Prospective eCommerce Fulfillment Partners 

In addition to looking at a fulfillment company’s core value metrics, here are questions regarding service quality and partnerships you should be asking prospective fulfillment partners: 

Quality of Service 

• Do they offer a service guarantee? 
• How do they calculate and ensure accuracy (for inventory, picking and packing, etc.)? 
• What are their average shipping and handling times? 

Operations 

• Can their operations scale to meet demand and/or business growth? 
• Where are their facilities (warehouses, distribution centres) located, and can you tour them? 
• What is their minimum order requirement? 
• Also, do they offer bulk shipping discounts for large volumes of orders? 
• What technology do they use, and can it integrate with your eCommerce systems? 

Communication and Relationship-building 

• What happens if they make a mistake? 
• What is their customer response time? 
• Are they invested in mutual growth and success? 
• Do they have a long-term contract? 

How companies answer these questions will give you an idea of their compatibility with your business and, most importantly, whether they have your best interests at heart. 

Despite your best efforts, the fulfillment company you choose to work with still may not be the right fit. To prevent long term headache, set up an "exit clause" on any contract agreement you sign. This will give you the option of reassessing the contract in a pre-defined amount of time and terminating if need be. 

 

Conclusion 

When choosing a fulfillment provider, assessing prospective partners’ core value metrics will go a long way in helping you avoid conflict and frustration for the duration of your contract. It’s more beneficial for you to select a partner based on alignment of values instead of affordability of rates and fees. You get what you pay for, and once you sign the contract, you’re locked in. 

At TransAction Heroes, we are an order fulfillment company with extensive experience in providing the end-to-end order fulfillment solutions for eCommerce store owners. We understand what makes customers happy, and we’re here to help you deliver results. 

Interested in seeing if we’re a good fit for you? Contact us here.