According to latest statistics, e-commerce is growing 23% year-over-year, and it means that there’s a constant need to optimize the product storage and distribution processes. Currently, there are several retail fulfillment methods, which help to manage these processes in e-commerce:

1. Drop shipping. This method significantly shortens the journey of a product from a warehouse or distribution/fulfillment center to a customer. What is the secret of drop shipping efficiency? Actually, drop-shipping companies never keep their products in stock. Instead, they purchase the products from a supplier and then have them shipped directly to the customer. In other words, customers receive products right from the supplier’s warehouse or distribution center.
2. Self-management. Unlike drop shipping, the self-management method requires that, after a purchase from a supplier, the merchant should keep the products in their warehouse and manage the inventory of these products. Such inventory management processes include counting, tracking, issuing, receiving, packing and shipping of the products, often with the help of specialized inventory management software.
3. Third-party fulfillment services. The first two methods work great when you’re just starting off with your business. But when your company has grown to an extent when it becomes hard to manage the flow of products that you sell, hiring a third party could help a lot. How does it work? You find a logistics company that will store your products and manage the packing and shipping as well as other inventory processes.

No matter which method you’d prefer, proper inventory management is crucial for any business. With Delivrd inventory management software, you can process your orders and inventory operations in a quick, efficient, and hassle-free way.