Ecommerce order fulfilment can often be a stressful and complex process for online sellers. So, you must be wondering, what can you do to make this process simpler and more seamless?

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Warehouse kitting can be the answer! Indeed, warehouse kitting can be an excellent way for ecommerce brands to save time and money and optimise their inventory management.

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In this blog, you will learn about kitting and assembly services, the benefits of kitting for your ecommerce brand, and why it is important to have a fulfilment partner for kitting and assembly.

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What is kitting?

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Kitting is the process of combining two or more products as a single unit of sale or SKU (stock keeping unit). For example, rather than selling products piece by piece, an ecommerce brand can bundle similar items together to create kits, offer special deals, and cross-sell promotions. The purpose of creating kits is to have a ready-to-ship set once a customer places an order to expedite ecommerce fulfilment.

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What is assembly?

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Assembly is the actual process of arranging the individual items that make up a kit. Once assembled, the kit is ready to be shipped, so there is less work once a customer places an order. Kitting and assembly services are performed at dedicated workstations to increase efficiencies and streamline the fulfilment process.

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Kitting and assembly is a fulfilment service offered by most third-party logistics (3PL) providers that involves bundling and packaging different products into one unit of sale.

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What are the benefits of kitting and assembly?

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Kitting offers several great advantages to ecommerce brands and customers:

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Benefits of product kitting to customers

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1. Maximises exposure as products make their way into your customer's shopping cart easily when they are bundled
2. Provides reasonable value deals with simplified product selection and discounted prices
3. Targets multiple needs through a single purchase as it offers various benefits of all the products in the kit
4. It offers a great unboxing experience to create an unforgettable first impression
5. Empowers customers through custom combos and aims for higher engagements

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Benefits of kitting and assembly to ecommerce brands

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1. Increases revenue and Average Order Value (AOV)
2. Offers an opportunity to rebrand deadstock by including them in a kit
3. Reduces shipping costs and return rates as shipping more products together is always cheaper than shipping one product alone and even if a customer is not satisfied with one product in a kit, they don't return it as they want to keep other products
4. Serves as a value-added fulfilment solution to achieve several advantages simultaneously as it drives sales for seasonal kits
5. Organises your inventory as when you use kitting, you generate fewer SKUs, making it easier for you to organise your inventory effectively
6. Increases efficiency as kitting makes it simpler for your team to locate all items in one place, ultimately boosting team efficiency and productivity
7. Minimises inventory costs and better inventory tracking by keeping down all the expenses like inventory holding costs which includes storage space, labour, and insurance and provides the ability to track and maintain stock levels more effectively
8. Faster, more seamless shipping process by cutting down on the risk of human error and reducing delivery time
9. Frees up warehouse space as bundling similar items together helps to optimise and reduce warehouse space
10. Increases inventory turnover ratio as kitting can help you clear out your inventory quickly

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Why is a fulfilment partner essential for kitting and assembly?

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You need a tech-enabled fulfilment provider like Eshopbox to streamline kitting and assembly while ensuring cost-effectiveness. Eshopbox's ecommerce fulfilment services, technology, and geographic footprint across the nation help ecommerce brands meet customer expectations. Moreover, it enables brands to stay ahead of the competition and have a best-in-class fulfilment operation.

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Eshopbox enables you to offer two types of kits to your customers:

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1. Pre-built kit

A pre-built kit is a combination of multiple base products that are stored physically together and kept in stock as a single unit.

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2. Virtual combo

A virtual combo is a combination of multiple products which are physically available in the fulfilment centre but stored as different products (separate SKUs). These different products are picked from their respective locations when an order is received to create a virtual combo. It's packed as a single SKU at the time of order processing.

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Dedicated space and team

Eshopbox gives you access to a dedicated team for kitting and assembly. In addition, individual workstations are assigned to each kit to ensure both quality and efficacy.

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Distributed inventory

Eshopbox can help split your inventory at the SKU level across its network of fulfilment centres to the locations that are most strategic for you based on where your customers reside. Thus, enabling you to offer lightning-fast shipping of your products kits. Moreover, it helps to reduce the shipping costs while delivering across the country.

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Technology-driven inventory management

With Eshopbox's powerful technology and actionable dashboard, you can manage SKUs and how your products are grouped, bundle your products for promotions, request kitting of your inventory in advance. Moreover, you can take care of inventory replenishment to ensure uninterrupted kitting and order fulfilment.

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Additional cost savings

A fulfilment partner like Eshopbox, who has extensive industry experience can provide value beyond savings. For example, it can accurately forecast the operational costs of kitting and analyse the cost-value benefits.

Essentially, picking one kit is significantly more cost-effective than picking three items separately. Likewise, picking one order with five kits is more time-efficient than picking orders with ten items. Eshopbox can give you operational efficiency in a cost-effective way.

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Wrapping up

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Warehouse kitting is a simple but effective ecommerce order fulfilment strategy that can save your business time and money. Customers relish the option of kitting as they save on order value and shipping fees. However, the backend function has to flow smoothly for attaining customer engagement. In order to make sure your ecommerce business is ready to offer kits, you need powerful workflows that can handle it, so you can truly reap the benefits and create an exceptional fulfilment experience.