Shopify provides various options for order fulfillment, shipping, and storage. We’ll talk about one in particular in this article: the Shopify Fulfillment Network (SFN).
We’ll look at Shopify’s fulfillment service, including its features, benefits, and comparative analysis with other fulfillment services.
In this article you will know:
- What is Fulfillment Service?
- Shopify: An E-Commerce Platform Overview
- Who Can Use Shopify Fulfillment Network?
- How Much Does It Cost to Use Shopify Fulfillment Network?
- Benefits and Drawbacks of Shopify Fulfillment Service
- Amazon FBA vs. Shopify Fulfillment Network
- Conclusions
What is Fulfillment Service?
A fulfillment service is a warehouse that manages every facet of your inventory, from order preparation and storage to customer shipping.
On Shopify, there are three primary methods for completing an order:
- Dropshipping. Dropshippers fill orders for you when you sell goods from them on your Shopify store.
- Internal completion. You are capable of managing your own fulfillment. Thus, you handle the preparation, shipping, and storage of your goods on your own, either alone or with team support.
- Joining forces with a 3PL. This is the time to collaborate with a logistics provider to handle your fulfillment and warehousing needs.
Fulfilling your own orders has benefits in terms of expenses and flexibility. If your Shopify store has just opened and you are just getting started, think about managing your own logistics. But if your online store is growing quickly and you have the money to invest, you should definitely think about working with a fulfillment service.
Shopify: An E-Commerce Platform Overview
One of the largest names in the e-commerce sector is Shopify. Company owners can market and sell their goods online thanks to the e-commerce platform. A seller’s personal e-commerce website appears on a Shopify store.
Shopify made $2.9 billion in revenue in 2020 and over $4.6 billion in total revenue in 2021. Shopify has experienced year-over-year growth, rising by over two billion since 2020.
With the help of the platform, entrepreneurs can create their own websites that exclusively highlight their brands. Customers will thus see highly customized pages for a single brand when they visit a website hosted by Shopify.
See our article benefits and drawbacks of owning a Shopify store.
That’s how SFN operates. Following the customer’s checkout, Shopify handles order preparation and shipping.
Products must be shipped by sellers to a single fulfillment center. Shopify will then suggest locations for the inventory to be sent based on sales and clientele, which will reduce delivery costs and time.
The US and Canada are home to Shopify fulfillment centers, which are operational in these two nations. All orders, though, can also be shipped abroad.
To proceed, you must apply and be accepted; according to their website, this process may take up to two weeks.
Who Can Use Shopify Fulfillment Network?
At the moment, companies who sell in the US and have fulfillment centers in the US and Canada are the only ones eligible for the Shopify Fulfillment Program; stores located in the US are the only ones that are accepted.
You also need to have three or more orders shipped to the US or Canada every day (just make sure the items aren’t on their banned list).
Should you fulfill these prerequisites, you can submit an application for Shopify Fulfillment Program, after which they will assess your store.
How Much Does It Cost to Use Shopify Fulfillment Network?
Shopify is cautious when it comes to SFN pricing. Because Shopify Fulfillment Network allows custom pricing, it is difficult to determine the final cost. On their website, you can request a quote. Shopify will get in touch with you and provide you an estimate.
The daily fees are determined by factoring in the need for transportation, the requirements for picking and packing, storage, and special projects (like bundling and inventory validation, among others).
Source: Shopify
The number of SKUs you have in fulfillment centers and your monthly sales are used to calculate fees. There may be monthly variations in the price.
Benefits and Drawbacks of Shopify Fulfillment Service
View the benefits and drawbacks of SFN below:
Amazon FBA vs. Shopify Fulfillment Network
We’ve compared Shopify and Amazon, two of the largest platforms, to help you choose which online retail fulfillment service will be best for you. Take a look at this comparison chart:
Conclusions
Selecting Shopify Fulfillment Network enables you to stay in close contact with your customers and deliver a positive customer experience while cutting down on processing and shipping times.
Is Shopify Fulfillment Network, though, more advantageous for your company? This is dependent upon the kind of business you oversee and your long-term objectives. Note that you can use both FBA and SFN at the same time, so you don’t have to choose between the two.