Congratulations! You’ve decided to chase your entrepreneurial dreams and opened your very first Shopify store to support your passion, soap making. You spent countless nights, after your day job as an accountant, designing your website. You’ve curated your product pages with variants, photos, descriptions, and pricing. Avocado oil is extra. You’ve linked your bank account. You hit launch and you wait. Two minutes later, you’ve made your first sale! Okay, the customer might be your mom, but a sale is a sale. Now you ask yourself, “What comes next?” Next, you fulfill the order.
Here are the five (5) essential supplies and tools you’ll need to get your fulfillment up and running:
- You’ll want to start with the packaging. Not your retail packaging, but shipping packaging. The variety of shipping packages available to consumers is endless. Take your pick: box, envelope, or bag; cardboard, plastic, or compostable materials; kraft brown, white, or branded; where do you start? Don’t get caught up in the candy store of packaging materials. Start by taking a serious look at your product offerings. Decide if you need a rigid cell (think box) or if a bubble or poly mailer (plastic bag) is sufficient. Then, determine the packaging dimensions required to contain your product (Length x Width x Height). Now source what you need. Uline is an excellent source for all your packaging supplies. However, for start-ups, I’d advise against purchasing packaging. Instead, source free packaging from your shipping providers. Shipping providers often factor the cost of “free” packaging into their shipping rates. They will even provide preferred shipping rates for their packaging. When you open a business account, you can order free packaging from your shipping providers.
- Next, you’ll need shipping labels. Labels also come in many shapes and sizes. There is no need to purchase special equipment to print labels. Read that last sentence again. There is no need to buy special equipment to print labels. Until you have established sales, using a generic laser printer to print shipping labels is the way to go. You can order free labels from your shipping providers that work with your laser printer or print labels on computer paper and use a waybill pouch (available free from your shipping provider) to attach to the package.
- Tape, you’ll need tape. I’m not talking about Scotch Tape; I’m talking about packing tape, quality packing tape. I can’t stress this enough: do not cut costs with cheap tape. You don’t want a box to fall apart in transit because the tape was cheap and failed. Most free packaging you can obtain from shipping providers has built-in adhesive. Don’t become dependent on the built-in adhesive; it can fail. I recommend a 2-millimeter thick, 2″ wide industrial tape with acrylic adhesives, like this one. Also, avoid purchasing branded tapes or fancy tape cutters until you have established sales. I recommend a handheld dispenser, like this one.
- A blade will be an essential part of your tool kit. I recommend a pair of scissors and a box cutter. As your business grows and sales increase, you will need a blade for many operations tasks. Consider a dedicated fulfillment and receiving blade used exclusively to cut tape, cardboard, and open boxes. The edge will get messy, and you will want to avoid using it on your products.
- Consider a branding solution. Every box you ship is a moving billboard for your brand; maximize that exposure by branding your packages. As a start-up, you should avoid purchasing branded packaging and tape until you have established sales. Consider something smaller, like a sticker or stamp. Having used both stickers and stamps, I prefer a branded stamp. Stamps are cost-efficient, you can change the ink instantly, and it won’t peel off in transit.
Keep your fulfillment process simple. As a start-up, it will be essential for you to get your product out into the world quickly. Having your fulfillment basics ready will only help you facilitate this speed.
EAF Logistics 
Leave a comment