8 Best eCommerce Fullfillment Services in 2024
Ecommerce fulfillment is a term that refers to all the processes and methods required to complete an online order. It encompasses everything from getting the goods to the warehouse shelves, packaging the ordered goods, and delivering them directly or via a third-party service to the customer. In short, it means storing, packing and shipping the orders.
Obviously, for most eCommerce businesses, this is a process that should be streamlined as best as possible. Doing everything manually takes up a lot of your staff time and can cost a lot, too. That’s why relying on one of the eCommerce fulfillment services is your best bet, and that’s what we want to talk about this time around.
In order to help you save time you’d spend in researching and finding the best service for your online shop, we’ve compiled this list of the best eCommerce fulfillment services that you can use in 2023. These are:
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We’re kicking off the list with an extension created specifically for everyone’s favorite eCommerce platform – WooCommerce. Amazon Fulfillment (MCF) for WooCommerce is an official extension that allows you to connect your store to Amazon FBA and automatically ship orders from your store as Amazon ships, picks, packs and tracks your customer’s orders. A lot of shops opt for Amazon FBA over the dropshipping model precisely because of the high level of independence and convenience you get. The extension is compatible with all Amazon regions, without restrictions. You can track your orders inside your WooCommerce dashboard, get advanced email notifications for all stages of ordering and shipping and offer package tracking to your customers. Moreover, with this extension, you’re not limited to FBA orders alone. It allows you to combine your non-FBA orders with FBA, which will be fulfilled through Amazon. Everything is automated and works on the level of the entire inventory or specific products, and if you like, you can manually send orders to FBA in specific cases.
This WooCommerce extension costs $99 billed annually.
Did you know that one of the oldest and largest transportation and shipping conglomerates in the world, FedEx, also does eCommerce? Specifically, FedEx Fulfillment provides eCommerce fulfillment services to businesses of all sizes, including shipping your goods to the customers and handling the potential returns. FedEx offers very detailed services for all stages of fulfillment. For instance, you can opt for one-time, automated schedules or on-call pickups of your goods. Your inventory is managed through a single, intuitive dashboard and you get to track your parcels every step of the way. What particularly sets FedEx apart from other fulfillment services is the extensive knowledge base and top-notch support they offer. The platform helps you learn how to optimize inventory, shipping and tracking, and their customer service is always available with expert support. The prices range depending on the kind of service you need, but bear in mind that there is a minimum limit for monthly orders, currently at 400. This makes FedEx a good choice for online retailers who already have a steady stream of orders.
ShipMonk is a robust and well-rounded fulfillment service for eCommerce businesses designed to let you focus on sales and marketing while they handle everything else. It comes with an intuitive order management portal separated in four modules – inventory management, orders, shipping and warehousing. It integrates all your channels, allowing you to handle your business from a single spot. The service offers suggestions for the best shipping methods for each order and also often includes discounted rates for major shipping companies. In short, it aims to make your life easier by handling all aspects of the complicated order fulfillment process in a highly streamlined way. In addition, ShipMonk has special solutions created for businesses offering subscription boxes.
As for the pricing, there are no predefined plans. Instead, you can get a personalized quote based on the number of orders you’ll be expecting, storage options and the exact services you’ll be requiring.
NTG Freight is a cargo and freight company that offers eCommerce fulfillment as part of its services. It is a particularly good choice for small businesses that are just starting, as it will handle a single small order the same way it will do with a big and bulky one. You get to manage your shipments in a more hands-on way when there’s a need for that, otherwise the service simply takes care of everything for you. NTG Freight doesn’t offer any particular eCommerce-specific features like multichannel integration, inventory and warehouse management and so on, but, on the other hand, it is significantly cheaper than such feature-rich solutions. This, combined with the fact it allows for easy scaling up and down, makes it a good choice for small eCommerce businesses.
ShipBob is a global fulfillment service shipping from the US, UK, Canada and Australia, as well as the EU. It has 30+ fulfillment centers strategically placed across those regions, and boasts a 99,95% accuracy rate. The way it works is that you connect your store to ShipBob and import your products. You then send your inventory over to them, they store it and, when a product is ordered, they ship it to the customer from the nearest fulfillment center. The company helps you find the best inventory placement so that your products are shipped as soon as possible and reach the customer in the shortest period, reducing the shipping times and saving you money. ShipBob has a proprietary fulfillment platform, which is web-based, that you can use to manage orders, track stock levels in real time and get notified when you need to restock. The platform comes with built-in reporting and has an expert support center. If you’re working within the US, the company offers guaranteed 2-day shipping within the country. It also offers omnichannel fulfillment integrating all your sales channels, as well as B2B fulfillment.
If you’re looking for a fulfillment service with simple pricing that takes out the guesswork, try out Simpl. This complex service offers flat fees that are based on weight. Like many other solutions of this kind, Simpl has a platform you can integrate into with all your channels and marketplaces. It supports over 50 CMSs, marketplaces and shopping carts, and also offers custom integration. It also handles custom packaging, wrapping, inserts and marketing materials within packaging. Once you send over your inventory to Simpl, they sort it and start managing your fulfillment, while you can track and monitor it all live through the platform. You also get a dedicated account manager you can work with to make sure everything goes down smoothly.
Whitebox is a complete solution ideal for retailers working with Amazon. It handles everything from listing and advertising to selling and shipping your products. Whitebox rounds up all the sales and fulfillment data into its proprietary business intelligence platform, allowing you to make better decisions based on data and analytic insights. It also handles content optimization and SEO for Amazon. In short, it acts as an Amazon agency and eCommerce software. Like most services of this kind, Whitebox doesn’t have a fixed price range. Instead, the costs can be roughly estimated beforehand by requesting a personalized quote based on your needs. Whitebox is known for cutting out a lot of the fees that usually come with this sort of service, but they do have an upfront fee you need to pay before you start working with it. Whitebox is particularly suitable for small businesses but its features and the platform architecture allow for easy scaling up, when needed.
Sprocket Express offers order fulfillment, warehousing and inventory control for businesses of all sizes. It is particularly suitable for small and new eCommerce businesses looking for a reliable fulfillment partner. The service processes orders from most channels and platforms, from WooCommerce, Shopify and Magento, to Big Commerce and Ultracart, and with all major eCommerce marketplaces. Sprocket Express helps you cut down costs by only charging warehousing when you need it, not as fixed year-round expenses. In addition, this service boasts some of the lowest start-up and onboarding fees in the industry. It has an intuitive client web portal where you can keep up with inventory, order status and tracking information. It also takes care of forecasting, replenishment, returns and reverse logistics.
Wrapping It Up
As we saw, there’s no lack of excellent fulfillment services that do more than just ship your products to your customers. Omnichannel integration, rich support, inventory management, tracking and returns management are the basic features of each of these services, but most of them offer so much more, too. The only downside to this sort of service is that you can’t really know how much it will cost you beforehand, i.e. before you get a quote, but once you set aside some time to request a quote from several of these services, everything else will save you tremendous amounts of time.
