Without a doubt, several companies have driven major advances in e-commerce fulfillment, warehouse handling, distribution and shipping. The first is Wal-Mart who has innovated and found savings throughout the supply chain through technology and efficiencies (and chargebacks, just ask the people who sell to them). The second is Seattle-based Amazon, whose formerly $79 (now $99) Prime Memberships give their members free two-day shipping and $3.99/item next-day shipping. It’s a darling of Amazon’s customers, but it doesn’t do much for their investors.
Amazon is actually testing a program where if you will accept a slower delivery speed, they in exchange offer a $1 Amazon Instant Video Credit.
When you purchase an item from an online retailer, it sets in motion a series of steps that gets a package “picked”, or taken from the shelf, packaged, a label printed and handed to a trucker, integrator, postal service or other delivery carrier.
This doesn’t happen in a manner of moments, though. Systems prioritize the pick order by a variety of factors, including: the time it takes to retrieve and package, whether it’s expedited or standard delivery, if the order should be held pending items that are on backorder, and how long it will take for them to arrive.
Flex has a little over 200,000 square feet of warehouse. If it were a perfect square, it would be approximately 447 feet long and wide. That’s at least as far as Mike Trout hits a baseball. We’ve got multiple layers of racking, multiple SKU’s and products each…that takes a while.
E-commerce fulfillment services and warehouses that provide the service are a great way for a company to reduce their overhead by not needing to maintain the real estate and assets to operate a warehouse. They can expand and contract their inventory in and out of a place like Flex Logistics in a way that makes good financial sense.
Flex offers e-commerce fulfillment services for both dry and perishable items. If your company is looking to outsource e-commerce order fulfillment, consider Flex Logistics as your best choice in Southern California.