Multi-channel Ecommerce: Fulfillment Across Marketplaces

As of 2024, there are over 150 online marketplaces, each with its own unique storage, fulfillment, and shipping requirements that vary by product size, material, weight, and more. Listing on all those marketplaces borderlines the impossible, but what if you only focused on the top 3 with your 10 best-selling products?

That's potentially 30 different policies, tracking metrics, packaging requirements, and fees you need to manage. Factor in big-and-bulky additional costs or hazmat regulations, and it becomes a chaotic mess.

How do sellers with thousands of SKUs manage multichannel ecommerce effectively? Leveraging cross-channel services allows brands to integrate operations with major marketplaces like Amazon, Target, and Walmart, ensuring seamless order fulfillment. In this article, we discuss how brands can maintain a cohesive strategy across all channels, enhancing their ability to meet consumer demand and scale their business effectively.

Multiple Channels = Multiple Hurdles

Each channel has unique requirements and often hidden limitations, like restricted distribution networks and operational fees, that complicate order fulfillment. Here we break down specific challenges posed by the three biggest online retailers—Target, Walmart, and Amazon—and offer actionable solutions to help your brand overcome these obstacles and streamline your distribution management.

Target Challenges and Solutions‍

Challenge #1: Lack of LTL (Less Than Truckload) options: Without an LTL shipping option, brands are restricted in the types of products they can offer on Target’s platform, especially larger items.

• Solution #1: Optimize Packaging and Products: Consider bundling smaller items together to create a single shipment. Or use packaging that allows you to fit larger items into smaller, more manageable shipments - reducing the need for LTL services.
• Solution #2: Third-Party Logistics (3PL): Collaborate with third-party logistics providers who offer LTL shipping solutions. These providers can handle the coordination of shipping larger items that Target's current fulfillment options may not support so your products can reach more customers efficiently.

Challenge #2: Basic Fulfillment Interface: The simpler interface that Target tends to utilize can make fulfillment centers prone to errors like inadequate tracking, leading to higher return rates.

• Solution #1: Strategic Warehousing: Establish regional warehouses closer to key customer bases. This can reduce the need for long-haul shipping and allow for more efficient delivery using smaller vehicles.

Challenge #3: Limited Coverage: Target’s shipping zones may not cover all regions effectively, making delivery times for customers in less-served areas unreliable.

• Solution #1: Dynamic Fulfillment: Explore alternative delivery methods, such as drop-shipping directly from suppliers who can handle LTL shipments and adapt to different shipping scenarios, ensuring flexibility in how orders are fulfilled.

Walmart Challenges and Solutions

Challenge #1: On-Time Delivery: Baseline and success metrics are set high and are often difficult for brands to reliably meet. They require a lot of manual input and an extensive appeals process to ensure a Pro Seller Badge is maintained.

• Solution #1: Optimize Logistics: Partner with reliable carriers to ensure flexibility and options for meeting high on-time delivery metrics while using predictive analytics to anticipate potential delays and address issues proactively.

Challenge #2: Shipping Templates: This is an intricate process that often requires manual work for things like weekend orders and quoted times that may differ from the carrier SLA.

• Solution #1: Manual Input Reduction: Integrate order management systems with Walmart’s platform to automate data entry and reduce the need for manual inputs. Of course, many of Walmart’s processes still require a human touch. Assign a dedicated team to handle appeals and maintain the Pro Seller Badge, ensuring focused and collaborative management.

Challenge #3: W+ Program: Like Amazon’s FBA, this seller program can make a substantial impact on sales and overall brand exposure, but brands should note that it is expensive and comes with a loss of control over inventory. These factors make creating a W+ delivery-level service with buyer benefits difficult for many brands to scale.

• Solution #1: Selective Enrollment: Perform a detailed cost-benefit analysis to determine if the benefits of the W+ program outweigh the costs for your specific products. If the budget is tight, but you still feel there are key benefits to enrolling, it is possible to enroll only high-margin or high-turnover products to maximize return on investment.

Amazon Challenges

MerchantFulfilled Network (MFN) or Fulfilled by Merchant:

Challenge #1: Non-Prime: Fulfilling MFN does not automatically give you the prime badge. You must be enrolled in Seller Fulfilled Prime to get the Prime badge and to maintain that badge you are required to meet a variety of fulfillment metrics.

• Solution #1: Achieving Prime Status: Apply for and actively manage your enrollment in Seller Fulfilled Prime to earn the Prime badge. Ensure you meet all SFP (Seller Fulfilled Prime) metrics, such as on-time delivery and order defect rate, to maintain the badge. Invest in tools and processes to meet the strict fulfillment metrics required for SFP, including automation and efficient order processing systems.

Challenge #2: Shipping Rates: Getting favorable shipping rates is difficult, which can squeeze margins and reduce profits.

• Solution #1: Third-Party Logistics (3PL): Consider partnering with third-party logistics providers that offer competitive shipping rates and help manage shipping costs more effectively. This allows brands to lower operational costs while achieving Prime badge status management.

Challenge #3: Shipment Tracking: Operationally you must have a great tracking mechanism to ensure packages are out the door on time, your carrier is moving things on time, and that last mile occurs as expected.

• Solution #1: Shipment Tracking: Implement advanced tracking systems that provide real-time visibility into shipments, including carrier updates and delivery status. Through these systems, you can integrate logistics solutions that connect with your order management system to automate tracking updates and ensure communication with customers.

Fulfilled ByAmazon (FBA):

Challenge #1: Cost: The larger the item, the more expensive it can be to store and fulfill. This often makes margin considerations difficult. These fees work against incentivizing brands to sell products that are over 50 lbs.

• Solution #1: Managing Costs: Conduct a detailed cost analysis to determine if FBA is cost-effective for your products. It is important to consider the impact of FBA fees on margins and explore if the selective use of FBA is more beneficial. Focus on sending smaller, high-margin items to FBA to make the most of the service while minimizing the impact of high fees on big-and-bulky products.

• Solution #2: Inventory Management: Use a balanced approach by leveraging both MFN and FBA strategically. For example, use MFN for bulky or low-turnover items and FBA for smaller, high-demand products. Place your selected inventory strategically across Amazon’s warehouses and your facilities to optimize costs and delivery times.

Challenge #2: Building Shipments: The structure and requirements for shipments are tedious, require background knowledge of Amazon regulations, and take a dedicated team to manage and submit appropriately.

• Solution #1: Alternative Fulfillment Solutions: Consider using third-party fulfillment services for items that are cost-prohibitive to store with FBA, while still benefiting from Amazon’s marketplace exposure.

When it comes to multi-channel management, brands have two options. You can either navigate each channel individually as you grow—learning, failing, and adjusting with each new expansion, starting a new business with every additional channel.

Or you can partner with a cross-channel service provider, securing support for supply chain logistics and operational goals as you grow your marketplace network. Collaborating with these fulfillment partners often allows brands to negotiate better terms, minimize operational disruptions, and develop a more agile fulfillment strategy.

Tackling Multi-Channel Ecommerce Fulfillment

Spreetail leverages a sophisticated and internally developed suite of tools and processes, refined over years of experience, to manage multi-channel fulfillment. Our comprehensive toolkit allows for tailored solutions that align with the specific requirements and expectations of each channel, continually adapting as new needs arise. With advanced data and analytics integrations, we quickly identify issues, pinpoint areas for improvement, and provide actionable insights and reports to our customers and partners, advocating for necessary changes.

The scale and reach of our fulfillment centers across the country sets us apart from other ecommerce fulfillment solutions. By employing advanced algorithms and inventory control based on historical and anticipated demand, we ensure that products are stocked close to where customers make their purchases. As a result, 70% of our non-LTL shipments are delivered within one day, and LTL shipments are completed in 3-5 business days, outperforming competitors.

To learn more about our fulfillment capabilities and see how we can be an omni-channel solution for your brand, get in touch with one of our buyers.

‍