Getting Started – Onboarding at Fulfyld
The Fulfyld onboarding process comprises six main steps that must be completed in order.
Your team will be responsible for any front-end setup for your online store(s), such as SKU listings, shipping methods, and customer shipping charges.
Once you’ve completed our sign-up and onboarding forms with your sales representative, we’ll schedule a 15–30-minute Intro to Onboarding Call via Zoom to introduce you to our onboarding team and review the six steps in detail.
We’ve included a brief overview of the six main onboarding steps below:
Step 1 – Provide Store Details
During your onboarding form, we’ll provide you with an SKU/Shipping Method Excel Template where you’ll fill out your product details and online store shipping method names.
Once we have your completed template, we’ll upload your products into our system and map your shipping method names to our internal ship-codes/rates accordingly.
We’ve included a brief breakdown below of each tab on the Step 1 Excel template:
- Individual Products – these are for SKUs you’ll need Fulfyld to ship out to customers. Each product variation, such as size and color, must have its own unique SKU and product listing.
- For each unique product, we’ll need
- SKU Value
- UPC/ Barcode Value
- Detailed Product Description
- Dimensions and Weight
- HS Code
- Country of Origin (manufacturing country)
- Declared Value (sales price)
- For each unique product, we’ll need
- Bundles – this is where you have one master SKU listed on your website, but the offering comprises multiple individual SKUs.
- For each bundle, we’ll need:
- Master SKU
- Detailed Bundle Description
- Component SKUs
- Quantity of each component SKU
- For each bundle, we’ll need:
- Dropship / Ignore SKUs – this is for SKUs on your website that Fulfyld will NOT be shipping. This could be a physical product shipped by another facility or digital products (for example: virtual gift cards).
- For each dropship/ignore SKU, we’ll need:
- SKU Value
- UPC/Barcode Value
- Detailed Product Description
- For each dropship/ignore SKU, we’ll need:
- Shared Products – If another facility will be shipping orders with the same products simultaneously to Fulfyld, we’ll need to know which SKUs will be shared and how Fulfyld will differentiate our orders from theirs.
- For each shared product, we’ll need to know:
- SKU Value
- UPC/Barcode Value
- A brief description of how orders will be routed (examples: custom shipping method names, order tags)
- For each shared product, we’ll need to know:
- Shipping Methods – each customer order must have a shipping method applied to the order at checkout, so we’ll need to know the shipping method “names” as they appear to your customers.
- In column 1, we’ll list the Fulfyld shipping rates/speeds offered to you during the sales process.
- In column 2, we’ll need you to copy and paste the shipping method names from your online store matching to our rates/speeds in column 1.
- Once we have your shipping method names, we’ll map those accordingly to our internal ship codes (for example: US Standard (2-6 days) has a ship code of FF_STANDARD).
- We offer one-to-one mapping, so once a shipping method name has been mapped to one of our Fulfyld rates/speeds, we cannot map that same shipping method name to another different Fulfyld rate/speed.
Step 2- Provide Access to Sales Channels
Once your SKUs are uploaded and your shipping methods are mapped, we’ll move on to any needed store integrations so that orders can flow automatically into our system.
We offer free, direct integrations or third-party connections for all major e-commerce platforms, such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and more.
If you’re selling on a retailer platform such as Walmart, Nordstrom, or QVC that requires third-party shipping on the retailers’ shipping account, there may be additional per-order fees and additional integration costs.
If you have a custom-built website or are utilizing an e-commerce platform where direct and third-party connections are not possible, we will provide you with documentation for an Open API Integration, and the primary setup would need to be handled by your team.
Depending on your specific e-commerce platform, we may ask you to send an admin invitation, provide us with store login credentials, or provide us with specific API Keys to complete the integration.
Once connected, we’ll ask you to enter a 1-unit test order with a valid shipping address to ensure the integration flows as it should. We’ll monitor the order entering our system, ensure the SKU(s) and shipping method line up with our mapping, and we’ll mock “ship” the test order in our system to monitor tracking pushing back to your storefront.
If we do not set up any store integrations for orders to flow over automatically, you will have the option to manually add orders directly to our system using a CSV bulk-upload file or to add orders one by one within our system.
- Please note: while tracking will be generated in our system immediately after an order is shipped, without any integration tying our system to your sales channel(s), the tracking details will not push over to your online store(s).
Step 3- Confirm Packaging Requirements
For this step, we’ll need you to provide a detailed description of any packaging requirements or preferences you’d like our team to follow.
We’ll provide a packing slip with each customer order, and if you’d like to provide us with a brand or company logo, we can include the black-and-white logo in the top right-hand corner of the packing slip.
You’re welcome to provide us with your own custom packaging for use, but there may be additional fees depending on the packaging complexity. Please ensure that you discuss all packaging needs with your sales representative for accurate pricing quotes.
If you’d prefer to utilize any Fulfyld standard packaging, we offer the following packaging options free of charge:
- Standard-sized cardboard shipping boxes
- Standard poly mailers and bubble mailers
- Standard Tape
- Standard void fill, including kraft paper, shredded cardboard, or bubble wrap.
If we will be bundling or kitting items, any pictures, videos, or detailed guides you can provide are additionally helpful to our team.
We require all individual units to have scannable barcodes, and we highly recommend sending any apparel-type items in individually barcoded polybags for protection from dust, dirt, and potential damage during transit.
Step 4- Schedule Demo Call
Once your packaging requirements are confirmed, we’ll schedule a 45-minute Demo call via Zoom to teach you how to use our system (Shipedge) dashboard. We’ll cover all main system features, review the process for sending inventory, and walk you through entering a replenishment in Shipedge for each inbound inventory shipment.
Following the Demo Call, we’ll send you a Demo Follow-up Email that includes some of the main pieces discussed during the call, a recording link, and a label template you can use when labeling the inventory boxes or pallets shipping to our warehouse.
Step 5- Send Product
Once we’ve completed the Demo Call, you can enter any inbound shipment details into the “replenishment” section of Shipedge and send the product to our warehouse.
All inbound inventory shipments are referred to as “replenishments,” and any shipment coming to our warehouse needs a replenishment submitted in Shipedge for our warehouse team to begin the receiving process. Please submit any replenishments before inventory arrival to avoid receiving delays.
For the system replenishment, you’ll need to fill out the SKUs and quantities coming on that shipment, as well as other important shipment details such as tracking information and an expected delivery date.
Process Overview:
- Add a ”replenishment” to Shipedge for each incoming inventory shipment.
- Once submitted, Shipedge will generate a unique replenishment ID for each shipment.
- Please clearly label all boxes and pallets with the requested label details, including the unique replenishment ID.
- Ship the inventory to our warehouse.
- Ensure tracking is added to the Shipedge replenishment.
- Once inventory is delivered, we’ll email you confirmation and let you know if any questions or issues arise during the receiving process.
- If any units are missing or under-received, we will let you know as soon as receiving is completed.
- If any units are determined to be “damaged,” we will provide you with photos or videos and ask the carrier to document the shipment as delivered with damage.
Step 6- Schedule Live Date
Once Steps 1-5 have been completed and product is fully received into our facility, we’re all set to coordinate your official ”going live” date and first order for fulfillment.
We offer live dates Tuesday-Friday of each week, and any order that enters our system before 1:00PM Central Time (USA) will be fulfilled the same business day.
If there are already orders in our system, we can begin shipping with a specific order number or order date, or all orders can be shipped using the first-in, first-out method.
If there are no orders in our system, our team will begin fulfilling any orders that flow into our system starting on your live date.
Post-Onboarding
After we’re live and shipping smoothly for 2-4 weeks, we’ll send you a short list of pre-transfer questions to begin prepping your account for transfer to our Account Management Team.
Once confirmed, we’ll send you an email introducing you to your dedicated, on-site Account Manager, who will become your main point of contact for the rest of our partnership.
