What is Warehousing and Fulfilment?

A third party logistics company offers a fully integrated shipping service which includes warehousing and order fulfilment, however these two elements can come part of the same package, or separately. 

Warehousing and fulfilment make up an important part of the order fulfilment process, a warehouse stores products ready for distribution whilst the fulfilment aspect takes care of the picking (from the warehouse or fulfilment centre), packing and shipping elements of the order process. Together these two things offer an outsourced, professional service to take care of distributing orders to your customers. In more recent times, this kind of setup is typically favoured by ecommerce companies for a hands off approach to order fulfilment. 

What is a Warehouse? 

A warehouse is a large space used for the storing, management and handling of goods or materials in and out. You will ordinarily find forklifts operating in and around warehouses for assisting with the movement of goods into their appointed area of storage, likewise for goods ordered through online sales that need to be moved to be packed and shipped. 

Warehouses are also used for items that are out of season and need to be stored until such a time that they are more in demand. It is for this reason that warehouses are favoured by growing ecommerce businesses that need the extra space to store their goods ready for peak periods such as Christmas or Black Friday Sales. 

What is a Fulfilment Centre?

A fulfilment centre is similar to a Warehouse in that it is a large space filled with shelving to store stock and inventory, however it also provides other important aspects of the order fulfilment process. A fulfilment centre is likely to store goods for a much shorter period of time, with items being moved in and out at a much faster pace. 

A fulfilment company offers a fully outsourced service to provide the storage, whilst also receiving orders, picking and packing and finally shipping those orders out to the customer as well as often processing returns too. It therefore offers a fully ‘hands-off’ service for companies that want to invest their own time and workforce into other areas of the business. 

Therefore a fulfilment centre can perform all that a warehouse can offer, however it is not typical that a warehouse will offer all the services provided at a fulfilment centre. What works for your company will depend entirely on what you hope to outsource, how much storage space you need in order to keep your business going at a steady pace, and being able to continue meeting customer expectations. 

At Delamode, our warehousing logistics division operates over 80,000 sqm of warehousing throughout the UK and Romania, servicing customers within a number of sectors, including: technology, manufacturing, FMCG, automotive, agriculture, retail, fashion and eCommerce.

Our logistics infrastructure and warehousing services connect seamlessly with our domestic and international transport networks, which enables us to meet our customers’ cross-border transport needs, just-in-time and final mile deliveries and reverse logistics requirements.

To discuss your warehousing and fulfilment needs, please do no hesitate to contact us here: https://delamode-anglia.com/en/contact-us/