All Down the Line: Knowing More About Your Product Options for Product Fulfillment

More Than One

There’s nothing better than having options. It’s hard to believe that even within the last half century, there were places where you could only purchase one kind of food or drink due to government restrictions, or that you had to commit yourself to particular social norms because tradition forced you to. It’s nice to be able to make decisions based on the options that are available to us all and proceed accordingly, knowing we had the opportunity to think things through clearly.

Consumers and business pros often get stuck in a rut from not knowing just how many options are available to them, inhibiting both parties and creating problems. To be schooled in what is available is to empower all aspects of a business and create harmony, along with eliminating many marketplace problems.

For product fulfillment pros, it’s imperative to know what options exist for providing great products to clients. Knowing gives your clients a larger selection to choose from, thereby increasing your success levels, as well as makes business practices easier for yourself. Options are good for both sides of the client-business equation of product fulfillment, and, as the business side, the more you know, the better life is.

The Big Combos

When exploring product options in product fulfillment, start right at the beginning. You likely have a specified product base (e.g. sports gear, stationery supplies, car parts, etc.) and deal with clients on matters specific to those products. However, it’s worth picking the supply chain companies’ brains to see what else they have: there might be accessories, tools, or untold hidden, smaller products that might pique the interest of your clients.

At the fulfillment center of your product fulfillment business, you might have to start thinking a bit like McDonald’s. If you’re a consumer of the “Golden Arches’” products, then you know the power of their combos—they put food packages together in different, yet similar, formats for their clients. This model is useful, and you can get into pick and pack fulfillment for yourself through suppliers to access the exact products you want to market. You can also offer the same type of service to your clients, offering them the option to pick combinations of products for less than the cost of the individual items.

In fact, the kit assembly mentality is good to have here, too. If you know about arranging products in the correct sales format, you can offer big product packages to clients, allowing them to combine big product orders at reduced prices. This gives them the same bargain they might get from a wholesaler, and can also help you clear out older stock.

Order of the Day

Having options ready and on hand for clients in product fulfillment at all times is a must. It’s not that hard, and allowing clients to make simple mail orders or complete basic online order fulfillment through an easily accessible online order interface makes their lives that much easier. But the end effect is so much better: they can get what they want, you can process orders more effectively, and, in the end, the clients have a great incentive to order more products from you in the future.

The marketplace is ultra-competitive these days, and with good reason. There’s likely never been another time in history when so many consumers can get what they want, when they want it, and at a decent price. As a product fulfillment pro, you really don’t have to see this as hard competition; you simply have to adopt the correct processes to keep yourself in business. If your options are good, you can both give and take the right ones to make everyone happy, yourself included.

Need solutions to your product fulfillment problems? APS Fulfillment, Inc has the knowledge and services to make your direct mail and product fulfillment ventures more successful. Contact APS Fulfillment, Inc by e-mail at info@apsfulfillment.com, visit their web site at www.apsfulfillment.com, or phone at (954) 582-7450.