Product Fulfillment

Uncertainty Principles

In the end, we can know only so much. That’s why when we try something new, we often don’t know what the end result will be. While we can certainly expect a certain result, we’ll never know for sure what will happen until it does.

There’s nothing wrong with this, especially if you work in product fulfillment. In fact, it’s likely a good thing that you understand that not everything you do for your business will be successful. There will be failures, and you will have to do a lot of learning from your mistakes.

However, you also can somewhat lower your chances of failure along the way. It’s a method that doesn’t cost much, and will let you see how successful something can be for your product fulfillment business: testing. By doing testing on certain product fulfillment materials, you will see the results up front, and can proceed accordingly from there.

Product fulfillment testing is multifaceted and a bit cumbersome, but always worth it when uncertainties exist. There are many ways to go about it, so it’s good to know what options you have. This will allow you to maintain your principles of success.

Small Stones and Big Mountains

A lot of product fulfillment companies do test their marketing material first. No matter if you are working with individual clients or doing B2B direct marketing, you should be keeping tabs on the flyers, promo slips, catalogs, and other advertising material you send out. If they yield good responses, keep using them; if they don’t, consider new marketing materials. If you want to try new materials, such as order cards or brochures that feature different colors or formats, start with a small batch and track their results.

Testing new products might be a bit more rigorous. Should you opt for new ones, you might want to send out small samples, then follow up with clients and see what they say. If you can’t afford to do this with larger products in your line, set a test period of a few months.

There’s also the matter of testing out new services within your product fulfillment line. You might want to offer clients more kitting and assembly-based products, or (partially) assemble the products for them, like larger assembly companies do. However, if it’s costing you more to do this than what you’re making back, consider cheaper options for your clients.

Large Numbers

If you really want to do some ultra-cheap product fulfillment testing, go with e-commerce fulfillment. Using the Internet and your web material, you can receive client comments and send out surveys, promos, or new product info at almost no cost to yourself. Using the Internet also means you can access a large number of people and receive comments and responses quickly.

Client-based testing can be unpleasant, especially if the results aren’t what you you’d expected. But don’t write off unpleasant results; if you’re serious about improving your business, testing will help fortify your product fulfillment business and increase its efficiency that much more.

Need solutions to your product fulfillment problems? Advanced Product Solutions has the knowledge and services to make your direct mail and product fulfillment ventures more successful. Contact Advanced Product Solutions by e-mail at [email protected], visit their web site at www.apsfulfillment.com, or phone at (954) 582-7450.