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Order Fulfilment anyone?
 

I don't know if this is the right subforum, but I guess its eBay related and I could use some general advice from all over the world.

I'm looking for a solution when it comes to my shipping. I've recently grown a bit and plan to do so again in 3 months time and then again after 3 months- Basic business move, right?

Right indeed but currently I'm a one man band and somewhere I will need to either hire somebody to ship the parcels for me, or find a company who can do it for me.

Whats the best way to go about it? Whats the most cost effective solution?

I have two ideas that I think might work:

1) I rent a house/business property and find a person who can come in every day for X hours to pack everything and transport to my local Post Office. Pay per month/week/parcel and hope for the best?

-I'd only have to source the stock, process it when I buy new stock and then list the items as I want.

2)I find a company who takes in my stock and they deal with it. I'd just get the stock there and send them orders as they come to me. They look after everything else.

-Most likely more expensive, don't think I'm big enough for that?


Anybody can share their experience and if you don't want to do in public, you can always send me a PM.
Any advice is much appreciated, just looking for some ideas.

Re: Order Fulfilment anyone?
 

I do option 1. 2 is expensive and I wouldn't really like it, prefer being able to see what I have infront of me.

Get a warehouse or shop, can get 500 square foot for £3-500 a month depending on where you are, won't have to pay any rates (business council tax). I advertised on gumtree for people, 'part time, £6 a hour,can work pretty much anytime you like', had loads of students apply.

Re: Order Fulfilment anyone?
 

I do option 1 as well. I pay my fulfillment person $1 per package so they are more efficient (better than hourly for them). At 2000-2500 packages/month it turns out to be a nice part time job for them.

Re: Order Fulfilment anyone?
 

Do yo have any competitors?

My BEST partners and my best warehouses and shipping facilities were once and still are competitors. We just so happen to compete for a greater and more profitable good these days.

Better buying power, better support, vacations are easier, etc... and no, it was not always easy to arrange this. It took time and dedication and not everyone is mentally capable.

Now if you can find someone who can COMPLIMENT your business that is even better. So someone who is not directly competing.

I like to work with other sellers because they understand the business and how everything works.

Re: Order Fulfilment anyone?
 

Thanks for that, kinda right up my alley.

£3-500 a month for rent is exactly how much I pay at the moment so it would fit the plan well. I'd probably pay per item as its easier to manage and easier to motivate people as well- The items that I sell are not difficult to pack at all and I average around 80-100 per hour and thats with making a cuppa halfway through, heh.
It makes everything very black and white as well- A person would come in, pack the weekend sales and deliver them to post office. I know how much I sold, they know that everything is packed and I can pay for that accurately, no questions asked.

I just need to find a person who is reliable I guess, thats all.

Re: Order Fulfilment anyone?
 

The category that I'm at has couple of "bigger" sellers in the UK but even they are not THAT big, as I've already surpassed their monthly sales, using stealth.
Mostly just couple of small shops that specialise in the category and have been around for 20 years and they don't really focus on online sales as such, for some reason.

By looking at their eBay stores and what they list and how they list it, its pretty obvious that I turn over more stock than they do and I'm more of a business and less of a hobby.


I'm pretty hesitant about the prospect of working with competitors because I don't believe I'm in a strong enough position to really hurt them when the push becomes shove- I'd much rather keep doing what I do now because it seems to be working very well.

I reckon that there are some categories where sharing market and space is very, very smart business move and sometimes pack mentality works very well, but I feel that the category that I'm in is all about just being as unique as possible with my own procedures and sourcing ways.

In the future, it might be very smart move to buy one of my competitors and just take over a business, so that they could look after my current business. Already existing business structure would be easy to take over and all they'd have to do is go from 200 sales a month to 2000 sales a month and thats easy.

Re: Order Fulfilment anyone?
 

option 2 I think

Re: Order Fulfilment anyone?
 

Amazon fullfillment was a great option for me when I had over 1000 items at once and had an active pro account with them.
I know it might not be an option for you. Just brain storming and giving all options. The time and money saved it well worth it.

Just my 2 cents

Re: Order Fulfilment anyone?
 

I see TONS of opportunities :)