7 Best eCommerce Fulfillment Services to Streamline Fulfillment and Shipping Operations for Enabling Same Day and Next Day Delivery in 2024

Have you wondered how eCommerce market leaders achieve exemplary growth and customer satisfaction metrics?

As the eCommerce boom continues and customer preferences change rapidly, powered by the plethora of options available to end customers, differentiation in offerings will be the key game-changer for eCommerce businesses. This differentiation can be achieved through the selection of the best eCommerce fulfillment services, more specifically, a reliable partner that offers the most recent trends in fulfillment, such as same-day delivery and next day delivery services.

Keep reading to better understand how you can select the best eCommerce fulfillment services for your business and how WareIQ can be the best fulfillment partner in your growth journey.

What are Fulfillment Services?

Fulfillment services are similar to third party (3PL) logistics service providers that take care of preparing an order and shipping it to the end consumer on behalf of the seller and also provide a multitude of related services such as taking complete responsibility for receiving, managing and completing the order.

As customer expectations of same day delivery and next day delivery grow at an ever-increasing and unimaginable pace, eCommerce fulfillment services are fast evolving as the preferred choice for eCommerce businesses across the globe. The best eCommerce fulfillment services enable businesses to reliably, accurately and efficiently fulfill their customer orders while minimising capital expenditure. While fulfillment services vary with regard to their exposure to the value chain, they mostly act as a command center for handling the entire order preparation and dispatch process as well as doubling up as a buffer inventory for holding the clients’ products.

WareIQ – Amazon-prime Like Logistics for Modern Brands in India

WareIQ, an eCommerce fulfillment company, empowers online brands with a superior-tech platform to compete with Amazon like service levels by bringing their average delivery timelines from 5-10 days to 1-2 days.

"With WareIQ, UTH is able to consolidate common inventory for all platforms and get much closer to the customer through access to WareIQ’s strong nationwide network of fulfilment centres, and last mile & hyper-local courier partners. We are excited about being able to offer same day delivery in several pin codes due to WareIQ."
- Samit Mehta, Founder, UTH Beverages

What Does an eCommerce Fulfillment Provider Do?

An eCommerce fulfillment service provider takes up a broad span of responsibilities ranging from receiving stock, storing it in warehouses, order processing, shipping and transportation.

The success of any eCommerce business largely depends on setting new expectations for customer experiences and fulfilling them effectively. With the eCommerce boom, customers have started expecting same day delivery and 2 day delivery as a general standard. However, for any eCommerce company, handling so many things single-handedly becomes cumbersome and the team starts losing focus on their core business processes. There is heavy capital investment, manpower hiring and management bandwidth allocation that is involved.

Hence, outsourcing these requirements to the best eCommerce fulfillment services has proved to be a simple but very effective way of addressing this issue while riding on the growth engine along with competitors.  An eCommerce fulfillment service’s task begins as soon as an order is placed by the customer and continues till the order reaches the doorstep of the customer or is returned due to some unavoidable reason.

The best eCommerce fulfillment services give the seller access to a more dynamic eCommerce warehousing space, help negotiate more favourable terms with shippers, prevent stockouts and provide real-time tracking information of the order consignments.

What are the Factors to Consider while Choosing the Best Fulfillment Services for eCommerce?

While selecting the best eCommerce fulfillment services, a number of factors should carefully be considered and it can be a big burden for retailers to determine them. The decision depends both on the business objectives and personal preferences of the decision-maker. Broadly, the following factors must be taken into account while selecting the best eCommerce fulfillment services provider:

  • Spectrum of service offerings
  • Scalability
  • Flexibility with respect to same day delivery and next day delivery
  • Cost structure, pricing plans and price transparency
  • Ease of onboarding
  • Efficiency of customer service and reachability
  • eCommerce and startup friendliness
  • Intuitive business intelligence dashboard for real-time monitoring
  • Extent of integration and security

Micro eCommerce Fulfillment: The Move to Same Day and Next Day Delivery

Same day delivery and next day delivery are rapidly becoming the most preferred delivery models for customers globally. According to some recent survey reports, over 60% of eCommerce shoppers consider delivery speed as a significant factor in their purchase decisions and 80% of shoppers are likely to turn to a competitor brand if they encounter long delivery periods. Let us take a look at the meaning of each:

When an item is delivered to a customer within 24 hours of it being ordered, usually on the day on which it was ordered, it is referred to as same day delivery. To accomplish this humongous task, the item must be delivered from the inventory, also called a micro fulfilment center, located as close as possible to the consumption clusters.

Next day delivery, on the other hand, means that the customer receives the item at their doorstep on the following day from when it was ordered. It involves bundling multiple orders throughout the day destined for a given region of distribution and making scheduled delivery stops by the shipping partner.

However, there are multiple challenges to this micro fulfillment revolution such as heavy capital expenditure on numerous warehousing facilities, investment in robotic product handling, rapid order processing and packing, and lack of transport infrastructure in remote locations. Hence the micro fulfillment model used by eCommerce fulfillment services is fast evolving to provide a more customised experience for eCommerce sellers with same day delivery and next day delivery offerings.

7 Best eCommerce Fulfillment Services Offering Same Day and Next Day Delivery in 2024

We have listed down the 7 best eCommerce fulfillment services that offer same day delivery and next day delivery services, which will boost customer satisfaction, leverage loyalty and increase online sales for eCommerce businesses.

WareIQ 

best eCommerce fulfillment services for same and next day delivery_wareiq

Established in 2019, WareIQ, a Y-combinator backed startup, has rapidly grown to be the leading provider of full-stack eCommerce fulfilment tech solutions for some of the most reputed brands in India. WareIQ offers a full-stack platform for eCommerce companies to enable same day delivery and next day delivery to customers – an Amazon Prime-like experience but accessible to everyone. 

WareIQ has empowered brands to sell more, sell faster & sell everywhere due to:

  • Access to WareIQ’s strong nationwide network of fulfilment centres & urban darkstores near their customers
  • Access to all major national & hyperlocal last mile couriers at discounted rates for making same/next day deliveries possible
  • Easy integration across multiple online platforms & marketplaces
  • Access to a superior centralised tech platform for ecommerce operations
    • ML-based prediction engine for efficient warehouse network design & smart inventory placement
    • Centralised platform for core fulfilment & shipping operations
    • Post-shipping apps for delightful experience & zero to minimum supply chain leakages (Branded tracking page with smart marketing placements; Trigger-based updates & smart communication platform)

WareIQ has customised offerings for merchants experiencing different order volumes as well as having different delivery speed expectations. WareIQ is probably one of the very few fulfilment tech companies in the world that have same day delivery offering for their customers under their product “WareIQ RUSH”.

Best Ecommerce Fulfilment Services_wareiq shipping operations

With world-class WMS functionalities, WareIQ handles the entire range of intricate operations in the eCommerce fulfillment process, ranging from inbound operations such as scanning and quality checks through 100% accurate pick and pack to inventory management across all channels. WareIQ’s next day delivery and same day delivery services are helping eCommerce businesses set new standards with respect to setting customer expectations and fulfilling them with high efficacy. At the same time, WareIQ customers realise significant cost savings and wider reach due to better negotiations with shipping partners, strategically placed warehouses, economies of scale and scope in warehousing and data-driven decision making.

WareIQ’s WMS, a centralised tech platform, is its core offering, with the following functionalities:

  • Shipping Management 
    • Integration to all major national couriers and same-day delivery partners through WareIQ’s platform with discounted rates
    • Generation of bulk shipping labels & invoices in a few clicks
    • Offering a branded tracking page and sending auto-alerts to inform customers of their shipment status
    • Reduction in RTO % (Return to Origin) by automating cases of failed delivery attempts (NDRs) by the shipping or delivery partner
    • Preemption of COD frauds through an integrated AI engine flagging risky orders
  • Orders management
    • Tracking of orders across multiple channels 
      • Filtering of orders by status
      • Searching for specific orders
      • Quick timeline view of where the order is in the fulfillment process (e.g. when an order is picked, packed, or shipped)
      • Shipping-related information (e.g. weights, dimensions or carrier service) 
      • Quick snapshot of any orders that require action
    • Syncing WareIQ’s out-of-the-box integrations with sales channels to eliminate manual importing of data and triggering all the necessary notifications to the end-customers
  • Inventory management
    • Tracking of inventory levels across multiple locations & sales channels including websites and marketplaces
    • Using WareIQ platform to distribute inventory to multiple locations optimizing for speed & cost/order
    • Setting reminders to proactively replenish inventory, bundle products for promotions, make inventory transfer requests and much more
  • Warehouse management
    • Managing multiple warehouses and offline stores on WareIQ’s platform
    • 100% inventory accuracy ​​​with scan-based operations
    • Automated reconciliation tool which helps to keep track of returns and unsettled invoices
    • Integrations with all major ERP & Accounting systems
    • Assured tag on Flipkart without physically dedicating inventory to them

The central platform helps to better manage undelivered orders by reducing NDR processing time by 12 hours – a multifunctional NDR dashboard helps to track and take immediate action for undelivered orders in real-time, thereby reducing RTO by up to 10%. Automatic replenishment recommendations and easy purchase order creation capabilities on the WareIQ platform further empower eCommerce companies to leverage all possible ways of increasing their ROI.

More than 300 companies such as The Man Company, Future Group, Kama Ayurveda and Wingreens Farms have trusted WareIQ as a reliable partner in their growth journeys. No minimum order quantity requirements make it suitable even for eCommerce firms having low order quantities to take advantage of the latest trends such as same day delivery and next day delivery. The onboarding process is simple, convenient and less time-consuming, while the pricing policy is clear and transparent. WareIQ also undertakes strict safety precautions at its warehouses and complete ownership of operations, thereby minimising the risk exposure of customers.

ShipBob

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ShipBob was founded in Chicago in 2014 as a global logistics, technology, and eCommerce fulfillment services company that fulfills orders for D2C brands with next day delivery. With a claimed accuracy rate of 99.95% and serving more than 7000 customers worldwide, ShipBob provides end-to-end solutions for eCommerce fulfillment. It offers 2-day shipping at affordable and transparent prices, along with a robust software platform that allows integrations to the eCommerce providers’ own platform with a developer-friendly API.

According to independent customer review reports, ShipBob ranks high with respect to:

  • A broad network of warehouses across distant locations
  • A superb easy-to-use user interface
  • The ease of integration with other platforms

However, customers have reported dissatisfaction on the following issues with ShipBob:

  • Difficult to understand pricing plans
  • Not-so-active customer support
  • Non-availability of refrigeration facilities for perishable products
  • Inflexibility for B2B operations

Shipbob also provides predictive analytics to eCommerce customers to better handle stock-outs during peak sales periods.

ShipMonk

Best eCommerce Fulfillment Services_shipmonk
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Also established in 2014, ShipMonk is based out of Florida and serves medium and small-sized eCommerce companies with comprehensive fulfillment solutions including warehousing, smart inventory management, subscription box fulfillment and campaign fulfillment.

ShipMonk’s warehouses are located strategically across the USA and it has plans to establish warehouses in Europe, so as to provide more customised fulfillment, including 2-day delivery and next day delivery to D2C eCommerce brands. ShipMonk is equipped with robust and eco-friendly modern technologies such as locus robots, kardex machines, cubiscans and software that integrates easily with 75+ marketplaces and shopping carts. It offers customised packaging solutions and delivery protection schemes for willing eCommerce companies.

ShipMonk allows a convenient pricing model that allows customers to pay on a per-unit basis for 1 to 10,000 fulfilled orders per day. It also enables customers to better understand the returns management process with accurate and real-time data and round-the-clock customer support. ShipMonk has a respectable mindshare among its customers with respect to:

  • Heavy discounts and affordable shipping rates
  • Complete paperwork and claims settlement
  • Zero setup fees
  • Zero inventory receiving fees
  • Easy integration with eCommerce platforms
  • Ability to handle international orders and subscription boxes effectively

However, Shipmonk’s software is not integrable with eCommerce company websites hosted on Wix.

Amazon

Amazon has been the pioneer in the eCommerce fulfillment space with same day delivery and next day delivery services for Prime members across a long list of cities. To add to customer delight, Amazon has gone to the extent of fulfilling certain eCommerce orders within a few hours of placing the order.

Amazon makes it possible through a very carefully placed network of fulfillment centers, comprising of warehouses and phantom godowns, close to the sites of maximum orders, based on their past order data and projections. The same day delivery concept evolved from the 2-day delivery promise that Amazon inherently made to its Prime members.

While most eCommerce companies, especially small and medium businesses, admit to having benefited largely from the same day delivery offering of Amazon, the associated costs have been heavy for eCommerce companies having less frequent and uneven rates of orders. Moreover, the same day delivery and next day delivery services of Amazon are available only for registered vendors and sellers of Amazon; external parties selling through other platforms cannot avail of these services, thereby restricting their reach.

Deliverr

Established in 2017 in San Francisco, Deliverr provides superior fulfillment solutions to small eCommerce companies, with a 2-day delivery service. Transparent pricing, badges similar to Amazon Prime or flipkart badges and a hassle-free experience stand at the core of Deliverr‘s services. eCommerce companies can leverage the live data tracking options of Deliverr to predict their future fulfillment performance and even next day delivery for D2C customers located in close proximity of the warehouses. Deliverr ranks high on the following parameters:

  • Online Customer support
  • Ease of onboarding and integration
  • Transparency in pricing
  • Multi-platform integration for companies

The primary disadvantages of Deliverr are:

  • Unavailability of International delivery
  • Telephonic customer support
  • Non-adaptability with subscription boxes

Rakuten Super Logistics 

Originally established as a 3PL company in 2001, Rakuten Super Logistics has established its strong foothold in the eCommerce fulfillment domain since 2013. A nationwide fulfillment network helps eCommerce companies minimise shipping periods, control costs and increase accuracy in eCommerce order fulfillment. RSL has partnered with some of the leading shipping carriers to handle a diverse range of parcel sizes for eCommerce platforms. While currently offering only next day delivery, it plans to introduce same day delivery services in the very near future to compete with Amazon.

Rakuten customers have reported a plethora of advantages including:

  • Dedicated customer support managers, available through phone
  • Two-way inventory management and address verification
  • Speciality fulfillment
  • Discounts with bulk orders

The main barrier for smaller eCommerce companies in partnering with Rakuten Super Logistics is its minimum order quantity of 250 monthly orders, although the company plans to shred down this limit in future. The other disadvantage is that eCommerce websites hosted on Wix cannot integrate with the API of RSL directly. Also, Rakuten Super Logistics does not offer a live chat feature and 24*7 customer support.

FedEx

best eCommerce fulfillment services for same and next day delivery_fedex
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FedEx, formerly Federal Express Corporation, was founded in 1971 as an urgent delivery services company. Over the years, Federal Express has grown and evolved as a multinational eCommerce fulfillment provider, serving diverse sectors such as healthcare, transportation, D2C, B2B and B2C eCommerce fulfillment solutions. Having operations across 200+ countries, FedEx has many large multinational conglomerates among its customer base and continues to innovate supply chain solutions to meet changing customer expectations. Moreover, FedEx offers the convenience of shipping pre-ordered consignments without storing them in a warehouse.

However, the main disadvantages are that FedEx does not ship oversized and overweight products and it does not integrate with Amazon – an essential requirement from any eCommerce fulfillment service.

Conclusion

So, by now, you must have gained a fair understanding of the importance of having a strong fulfillment services partner, which is capable of providing same day and next day delivery services, which will boost the ability of your eCommerce company to become more customer-friendly. There is no standard one-size-fits-all approach for selecting the best eCommerce fulfilment services.

So, it is best to trust WareIQ, the fulfillment company that provides you with the right flexibility with respect to order size and pricing. WareIQ has been constantly working on incorporating feedback from customers and strengthening the focal points in the fulfillment chain to provide you with a consistent improvement in customer satisfaction.

best ecommerce fulfillment services_customer testimonials

We help you not only to reduce your logistic costs but also your delivery timelines – this could be the game-changer for your business. 

eCommerce Fulfillment Services: FAQs