Comments on: Mailbag: Order Fulfillment Advice, Approaching Vendors, Hosted Shopping Cart Solutions

By: Richard | RichardShelmerdine.com

Richard | RichardShelmerdine.com — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:28:55 +0000

I hear that Yahoo trumps eBay stores too even due to the cost. What would we do without fulfillment, it really is an amazing thing.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:05:20 +0000

@Alexa,
Oh okay. I understand. BTW, it’s always cool to disagree. My wife tells me I’m wrong all the time:)

By: Alexa Samuels

Alexa Samuels — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:13:47 +0000

Steve, sorry – didn’t mean to sound like I was disagreeing with you. I like your suggestion about partnering with a printing company. I was addressing more the theme of doing things yourself, in general (to your eBay comment).

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 15:55:52 +0000

Hi Alexa
That sounds like a sound strategy to me if you sell small, low volume items. With a greeting card business though, I think it makes sense to have a printing company handle most of the order fulfillment. Otherwise, you could run out of space at home very quickly.

By: Alexa Samuels

Alexa Samuels — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 15:34:27 +0000

For what it’s worth, my anticipated strategy will be to fulfill out of my home to begin with. For one, I plan to start small so it should be manageable, and I will have too many SKUs to make outsourcing affordable. Most importantly, I want to understand what’s involved, first-hand.

It’s like hiring someone. You’ll make a more educated decision if you’ve done the job yourself.

P.S. Happy holiday to my fellow Canadian readers!