In-House Fulfillment Made Simple: A Checklist | ShipMonk
In-House Fulfillment Setup
Thinking of setting up in-house fulfillment for your new business?
First of all: Congratulations! This is an exciting moment in your entrepreneurial journey, and it deserves to be celebrated.
Secondly: You’ve landed in the right place on the internet. We cover what you need to know about order fulfillment and everything you need to fulfill orders in-house. We even put together a handy checklist to make sure you’ve got all the must-have tools to manage in-house fulfillment efficiently.
Order fulfillment flow
Let’s start with a quick review of how orders are fulfilled — from getting your products in before an order is placed, to getting them out to customers after they place an order.
1. Source and import products
The items that make up your inventory – from supplies to the product itself – arrive from your vendors or manufacturer.
2. Receive inventory
Whether you manufacture or source your product, you’ll want to have accurate product weight and dimensions so you know exactly what it costs to ship each order and the packaging needed. Counting inventory upon receiving may be necessary depending on the product and supplier.
3. Sort and replenish
Send inventory for backorders directly to the packing stations or to other areas of the process depending on where it’s needed.
4. Store
Organize your products in bins or shelves for easy and efficient picking and packing. Consider the size of the product, type and the order volume when choosing how and where you store inventory.
5. Order placed
Customers purchase your product online and orders start rolling in.
6. Pick
From the incoming orders, you’ll “pick” the purchased items from their shelved location to be packed. Streamline your quality control process by adding measures (e.g. barcoding) to ensure the right products are picked before the packer receives the order to be shipped.
7. QC and pack
Check the products for quality and accuracy, then package the order to be shipped to your customer. Customize the packing process with inserts, branding packaging, thank you notes, and gifts to build brand affinity with your customer base.
8. Apply shipping label
Determine the best shipping method and label the package properly so it arrives to your customer without delay and at the lowest cost to you and your customers.
9. Ship
Once your packages are ready to go out, drop them off at the post office or at FedEx or UPS, depending on the shipping carrier you use. Your packages will then be processed by the carrier and sent to your customers.
Stress-free fulfillment is only one click away!
Everything you need to fulfill orders in-house
As a leader in the fulfillment industry, ShipMonk has created hyper-efficient processes and technology for fulfillment — you can read more about our warehouse automation here. But if your company is relatively new and your sales volume is low, fulfilling orders in-house might be the best option when starting out. You don’t need a ton of expensive tools to pack and ship orders from your own home, office, or warehouse. In fact, there are only 8 things you need to get started. Check out our list below.
Must-have tools
1. Tape & tape gun
Tape guns are an inexpensive and easy way to speed up the process of packing orders.
2. Boxes
Boxes should be large enough to comfortably fit the products inside – but not too big or you may run into dimensional weight issues costing you unnecessary money.
3. Packing cushioning
Protect your shipments with filler material such as packing peanuts, bubble wrap, foam, specialty paper, or crinkle cut paper.
4. Storage bins
Keep everything organized in bins, so your products are easy to find and move.
5. Klever safety cutter
Reduce the chance of injury to workers – and damage to merchandise – by opting for a Klever Kutter instead of a box knife.
6. Hand trucks or dollies
Don’t hurt your back! Use a hand truck or dolly to quickly and easily move containers between workstations.
7. Tape measure & scale
Quickly and accurately calculate postage for shipping. Pro tip: Don’t estimate weight, or your carrier will invoice you for shipping surcharges to account for the difference.
8. Packing table
A clean, dedicated space with all of your packing needs within arm’s length is crucial for efficiency.
Nice-to-have tools
9. Laser printer
As your business grows, consider dedicated hardware to print shipping and postage labels.
10. Barcodes
Take organization to the next level with barcodes, so you can identify separate SKUs to pick & pack orders more quickly – and with more accuracy!
11. Tape machine
If you’re sealing lots of boxes with stickers, you may eventually want to invest in a gum tape dispenser to save valuable time.
Download a copy of our checklist
Is your brand a good fit for in-house fulfillment?
- Do you ship fewer than 100 orders per month?
- Is your average order value $25?
- Are your products custom made to order?
If you answered YES to at least two of the above, your brand might be an ideal candidate for in-house fulfillment.