Kitting and Fulfillment: What’s Changed for Companies in 2020

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Kitting and Fulfillment: What’s Changed for Companies in 2020

Oct 20, 2020 | 0 comments

Between shipping delays, out of stock items, overwhelmed delivery services, and decentralized business operations, the COVID-19 pandemic has made distributing meaningful professional gifts more challenging than ever.

 Thankfully, a service-based promotional products supplier can easily eliminate these obstacles. Finding a trusted distribution partner might even lead to increased efficiency for your business in the post-COVID era.

What is Kitting?

Kitting is a service in which items that arrive as separate pieces are packed together into a single grouping before they are distributed to customers. A kitting and fulfillment partner will send a wrapped, personalized package directly to your customers—all you have to do is place the order. 

By removing links in the supply chain, these services increase efficiency and reduce risk. They also massively cut down on the work required of your team. With experts handling the shipping and warehousing, you can focus on what your business does best. 

Kitting, Fulfillment, and COVID-19

Imagine that your company traditionally sends your top clients and personalized gift box at the start of every new year. 

In the past, you ordered a few items online, had office staff make a swing by the local store for a few extra things, picked up gift-wrap and shipping supplies, spent a few afternoons packaging the items and writing personal notes to your clients, then used the company car to bring everything down to the post office for shipping. 

 Even in a normal year, that’s a lot of labor!

Now add the complications of the pandemic. Online big box stores are sold out of the gifts people want most, and trips to the local store can be stressful. Because shipping times are slower than normal, your items are delayed, and your local post office is operating behind schedule. 

If that’s not stressful enough, your offices are closed, so warehousing individual items requires one of your employees to convert their garage into gift storage, and the task of preparing individual boxes for shipment to customers can no longer be shared across your team.

How a Promotional Products Provider Can Help

Thankfully, figuring out how to efficiently distribute thoughtful, personal gifts is the top priority of a service-based promotional products provider. When something like COVID-19 threatens the supply chain, these providers draw on years of experience to maintain the integrity of their service.

Promotional products providers have industry relationships in shipping, warehousing, and supply. Because they source products from wholesalers and assemble them on-site, the final product travels fewer miles, requires less packaging, and is handled by fewer people.

Fewer links in the chain means fewer opportunities for the system to break down—and if it does, these distribution experts are ready to troubleshoot and get your order back on track quickly. 

Just like we turn to doctors and epidemiologists for health guidance, we can turn to kitting and fulfillment professionals to keep things running smoothly in uncertain times.

All of the Fun, None of the Hassle

Today’s providers understand that there’s no such thing as one-size-fits all in gifting. A service-based partner will work with you on all of the details that make your gift special, from choosing just the right shade of ribbon to including a custom handwritten note in every package. 

2020 has been hard on everyone, so it’s important to keep doing the little things that show appreciation for your clients without overly taxing your own employees in the process.

Reach out to learn how partnering with a promotional products service provider can keep your supply chain running smoothly. 

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