Pick Pack & Ship vs. Drop Shipping

No matter what size a company may be, it will need to rely on order processing and logistics in order to get their products to their customers. Warehouses are important for this aspect of the business. Companies that have a fulfillment center will ship goods directly to their customer without having to send the freight to retail stores or a drop-off location. This process is referred to as pick, pack, & ship.

Drop shipping is a type of product fulfillment method where the company does not keep the products it is selling in stock. Instead, when the store sells the product it will purchase it from a third party and then have it shipped to their consumers. This means that the person or company selling the product does not have to directly handle the product.

As a business or a salesperson, there are pros and cons of pick, pack, and ship, and drop shipping. The type of shipping that is chosen for your particular business will depend directly on what products you are selling and how much space you have for inventory.

Pick Pack and Ship

If you have ever been to a warehouse discount store such as Sam’s Club or Costco, you are familiar with the pick, pack, and ship process. Consumers can pick through the products and purchase the individual products that they want. In a commercial warehouse, where consumers do not have access, there are people who work in the warehouse that will pick the products, package up the goods, and then print out a shipping label to send the product to the customer. This process is ideal for larger companies that have warehouse space to store their products.

There are several types of pick, pack, and ship strategies that may be utilized by a company. Each of these strategies has their own faults and there are often challenges that arise because of all of the people involved in the order fulfillment process. Most of the time these mistakes can be easily overcome and this type of shipping will work well for a company.

Drop Shipping

Drop shipping can be beneficial for smaller companies that do not have the space to store their products. Additionally, drop shipping is a way for a person to sell a product that they do not necessarily have access to. For example, a person may want to sell items for a third party. The company making the product will charge the drop shipper a lower price. The person then sells the product for a profit and the third party company takes care of the shipping.

Drop shipping can be an ideal way to make money by selling a variety of items. However, there are some issues that can arise when you are working for a third party. One issue that often arises is that you are relying on a third party to get the items to your customers. When you are relying on a third party there are issues that can come up as you do not know exactly when the company is going to ship out your products to your customers. When you are selling items online, people expect them to be delivered in a short amount of time. It is also important to ensure that the shipping times that you quote are accurate. Since you do not have total control over when the products are shipped, it can be difficult to give an exact time frame for shipping. This can lead to poor customer satisfaction if your third party service is not holding up their end of the bargain.

Christopher Morgan Fulfillment Center Services

Christopher Morgan Fulfillment has access to more than 600,000 square feet of professionally managed, secure, dry storage space, warehousing & distribution in Milwaukee and in all regions of the United States.

Our facilities are located in:

New Berlin, Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Atlanta, Georgia
Los Angeles, California
East Brunswick, New Jersey