How fulfillment supports small businesses
It’s always exciting when one of our members takes on a new business opportunity. Sue Tetley a longterm Insider has partnered with her husband to create OS Suffolk and has been sharing their plans and ideas with business owners in our confidential mastermind group.
Here Sue tells us about Fulfilment and how it can help small and micro businesses.
Fulfilment and warehousing are two of the main areas we focus on in our business. We wanted to de-mystify this process for the small and micro business owners.
It’s a common misconception that you need to be sending out hundreds of items a week to be able to use the services of a fulfilment company. However this is not the case at all. Even if you only have a few products going out a week initially, you can still benefit from outsourcing your fulfilment.
We Pick it, Pack it and Post it
In simple terms, fulfilment is managing all the orders that come in from customers. We like to use the analogy of when you click buy on Amazon. We do the 3 P’s: we pick it, pack it and post it! In reality there’s a lot more to it that. We manage all the stock that enables a customer’s orders to be met (or fulfilled!)
Every evening may be spent juggling space in your house and trying to pack parcels on the dining room table
Your product based business may be your side hustle. You are juggling your day job, taking care of your kids and trying to grow your business at the same time. You are passionate about making your business really successful. However, you just don’t have the time to make your products, tell the world what you do or send your products out to your customers.
Fulfilment is different for every business. We manage not only the stock that is available for sale but all the packaging that’s needed. We take away the pain of ordering boxes, tape, stickers, void fill (the stuff that protects goods!) It takes up a lot of room and when you are doing the packing at home. Suddenly it’s like having an extension when you hand over to us and take it out of your home!
Orders come into us in different formats
Some orders some in through email, some through platforms like shopify. We take those orders and then pick to our customers’ requirements. One of our customers Lizzie, from The Rose Press Garden has lots of complexity and has a vision for how her products arrive at her customer’s home and it’s our job to fulfil those requirements. We work incredibly closely with our customers as it allows us to help their business grow. Since taking over all the fulfilment from The Rose Press Garden in January Lizzie has been able to focus on growing her business very successfully.
We have no minimum quantity, and our smallest orders are sometimes two or three units per week but we also handle customers who can ship 1000 parcels in one day!
We love what we do and its great being able to remove things that are massive challenges to our customers. Dalia from Dalia Botanique, a lovely brand that makes our warehouse smell fantastic explains.
“I never thought fulfilment was an option for a company like mine. I thought I needed to have hundreds of orders. It’s removed a load of stress.”
Every customer is unique, and we would love to talk to you about how we can help grow your business. You can follow us on Instagram @os_suffolk, Facebook @OSSuffolk.
