If you are running an ecommerce store, it is likely that you have heard about fulfillment as an answer to your logistics and inventory management issues as your company scales. While order fulfillment from your main facilities is an inexpensive way to launch, volume sales require infrastructure and overhead that makes it difficult to keep up without dedicated staff or a service provider. Fulfillment is simply the service that handles the “pick, pack, ship” process for your customers.

You have just made the plunge and sent your entire product lineup to a 3PL. You may have SKUs scattered across the country at multiple distribution centers, or perhaps you’ve decided to store your complete inventory list at one centralized location. Setup and integrations are complete, and orders are rolling in like there’s no tomorrow. Now what?

You may be wondering how much day-to-day work there is for you (communication, organization and coordination) in terms of managing your outsourced order fulfillment operations. Should you check your inventory levels on a daily basis? Are you tracking your shipments like a hound? Do you wait to see a “shipped” status on every order and do a happy dance?