# Experiences with fulfillment services



## danhersh77 (Sep 16, 2008)

Hey gang,

I've run an apparel company for 6 years based out of Philadelphia. During that entire time, I've handled all the order fulfillment myself: we get the goods printed locally with a few different printers, then we pack and ship individual orders as they come in.

During the first three years, I ran a home office and we shipped everything from there. We then grew pretty quickly and during the last three, I've had a brick and mortar retail location that doubles as our shipping center. Due to rising rental costs and the fact that most of our sales aren't derived from that storefront, we're getting out of our lease in the early part of 2015.

While the storefront didn't provide the necessary ROI, the business has grown and is too large to run from a home office. I'm interested in hiring a fulfillment service to process our online orders, but I have some concerns (listed below) and wanted to see if anyone has had similar experiences and could provide some input. 


We take part in many street fairs, events and markets during the warm weather seasons and need immediate access to inventory for these events. Are there services out there that allow you to pick up your goods on nights, weekends, holidays etc?
The online inventory listed on our site doesn't always accurately reflect the actual inventory, since we're doing lots of business off-line (at the aforementioned events) and through wholesale accounts. Are there services to streamline inventory in real-time for the fulfillment folks to work from?
Many of our shirts run small, and despite warnings on the website about this, we often need to contact customers about the sizing when they're purchasing gift packs (as opposed to the individual product page where sizing concerns are listed). We sometimes hold shipments and wait to hear from customers. This seems tricky with someone else handling shipping.
Lastly, we often like to throw in free swag or promotional items for customers through social media campaigns, web partnerships etc. Will services do this for you if they have the swag?
My gut tells me that there are too many variables to make a fulfillment service work, but I'd love to save that time and focus on other aspects of growing the business. Any input or suggestions you might have would be appreciated.


Thanks guys!


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## stevemib (Apr 17, 2014)

I have been using these guys for quite awhile now and do a pretty good job. Contact Steven and Im sure you guys will come up with a workable solution. Hes pretty flexible. Good luck!
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/members/smckee21.html


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