Shipping and fulfillment

Is this the right tool for you?

Every order you ship has to be packed, labeled, paid for and tracked, and doing that by hand at a carrier counter eats hours and overpays for postage. As orders grow, the choice becomes whether to keep packing yourself with better tools or pay someone else to hold your stock and ship it for you.

Signs you need it now

• You copy addresses from order emails into a carrier website one order at a time.
• You pay counter rates for postage because you have never compared carriers or used discounted rates.
• Customers ask where their order is and you have to look up tracking by hand.
• Packing orders takes a large part of your week and crowds out making, buying or selling.
• Your stock has outgrown the spare room, garage or back of the shop.

When another area fits better

• Your real problem is knowing what you have in stock and when to reorder, across your shop and online store, rather than getting parcels out of the door. Read the inventory and materials guide
• Most sales happen at a counter and you only ship the occasional order; a point-of-sale system with online orders built in may cover it. Read the point of sale guide

What matters at your size

How the way you work changes the choice

Online sellers packing their own orders

Orders arrive from your website and marketplaces. Look for software that imports orders from every channel, marks them shipped with tracking, and prints labels in batches so a day's orders take minutes, not hours.

Shops that also ship

A retail counter plus online or phone orders. Keep stock in one place and ship from the shop with label software, and make sure the online store and the till draw on the same stock count.

Makers and made-to-order work

Each item is made or finished after the order arrives, so a warehouse holding ready stock rarely fits. Label software and a tidy packing station usually do.

Growing brands with steady volume

Products are ready-made and orders are steady. A fulfillment company stores the stock, picks, packs and ships every order, and handles returns, so your time goes into buying and selling.

What to compare

• Store and marketplace connections

  Orders should flow in from every place you sell, and tracking should flow back so orders are marked shipped automatically.

• Carrier choice and your own accounts

  Compare rates across carriers, and check whether connecting your own negotiated carrier account is allowed and whether it costs extra.

• How you are charged at your volume

  Label tools charge monthly, by label volume or per label; fulfillment companies charge for receiving, storage, each order and shipping. Price your real monthly order count.

• Returns and customer updates

  Return labels, returns handling and automatic tracking emails save support time as orders grow.

Cost and setup effort

• Label software is charged by the month, by label volume, or as a fee on each label, and postage is paid on top. Compare total cost at your real monthly order count, including fees for extra users or connecting your own carrier accounts.
• Outsourced fulfillment is quoted to your business: fees for receiving stock, storage by the bin, shelf or pallet, picking and packing each order, and shipping. Ask for the full rate card and what happens to stock that sits unsold.
• Setting up labels takes an afternoon: connect the store, add carriers and set package sizes. Moving to a fulfillment company takes longer: product data, barcodes, sending stock in to their rules, and testing orders before switching over.

Trade-offs to weigh

Pack yourself or outsource

Packing yourself keeps control of presentation and costs little when volume is low, but it takes your time and space. Outsourcing frees both, but you pay per order and per shelf, and a mistake at the warehouse reaches your customer before you see it.

Discounted rates or your own carrier account

Software rates need no negotiation and suit most small shippers. At higher volume, your own negotiated account with a carrier can beat them; check whether the software lets you connect it and whether that costs extra.

One warehouse or several

Spreading stock across warehouses shortens delivery times and can lower postage, but splits your inventory and means more stock tied up overall.