What is kitting? The advantages of using eCommerce automation for fulfillment
With the increase in online shopping, efficiency is 👑
Have you ever thought about your warehousing processes? Do you have a system in place for picking orders effectively and efficiently? You may have heard about kitting, but do you know what it means and how to implement it in your warehouse, distribution center or fulfillment operations with ecommerce automation?
What is kitting?
Kitting is the necessary warehouse service of purposefully combining and packaging your multiple items for fulfillment as one product. It’s an asset to your business, especially if you sell, or are thinking of selling bundles and subscriptions. When done right fulfillment kitting lets you quickly assemble bundles and subscriptions in your preferred packaging with fewer mistakes.
Kitting usually isn't a common term in ecommerce unless you partner with a 3PL logistics company, like ShipStation. Think of it as the service for shipping your wine-of-the-month subscription box, the gift basket for a newly engaged couple, or any beautifully packaged product with multiple items. You have the products that make up the basket or box, but you also have the thoughtful packaging and maybe an info card or hand-written note and some stickers.
Let's explore some bundles you can sell when you implement kitting.
6 types of bundles
Kitting opens your business up to being more creative with your inventory. You can bundle your products and create value for you and your customers. Bundle items with a discount, sell slow-moving products and help gain awareness of new products, as long as the products complement each other (you wouldn't bundle a pair of earrings with some printer ink). Here are different types of bundles you can sell:
Value bundles
Subscription boxes
Cross-sell bundles
Accessory/component bundles
Bonus-gift bundles
Holiday bundles
Interested in learning more about these bundles?
Learn about implementing different bundles into your online store
Where can kitting go wrong?
Kitting can be a big time-thief in warehouse operations. The enemies of efficiency are the manual parts of the processes and repetitive tasks that distribution has to complete. Just look at the problems Knifewear and Kent of Inglewood were having with their bundle process. While selling bundles, they had problems with kitting fulfillment. Product picking and getting the correct bundle items shipped were causing customer queries to run high. The brand image had the potential of suffering. Their efficiencies plummeted while workplace stress skyrocketed.
When implementing kitting, things can go wrong with:
Shipping wrong items or missing a bundle item in the shipment
Team training on what's included in the kit because the picklist is just one SKU
Extra load on customer service when there are missing items or wrong items are shipped
The brand image suffers with every wrong order
But don't worry! Ecommerce automation works to solve these problems for you.
Advantages of using ecommerce automation for kitting fulfillment
Ecommerce automation is like the Holy Grail for order picking and kitting fulfillment. It’s a way of reducing time, stress, and mistakes by automatically executing manual tasks. Ecommerce automation can set your kits up for warehouse success by taking the individual SKU of the kitted product and automatically expanding it into the individual SKUs that make up the kit. If you work with a third-party shipping company like ShipStation, they expect all the products in your bundle to be in your order details when they work with you, so setting up ecommerce automation is essential. With ecommerce automations you'll be able to:
Work with your preferred logistics provider
Reduce requirements on your warehouse with clear picklists
Have better inventory control
Less team training
How Edit Order by Cleverific can help
You can easily get this done with our Shopify app, Edit Order by Cleverific. The app has built-in ecommerce automation that's ready for Shopify stores. When you're running bundle and kitting fulfillment, problems can occur with product picking and getting the correct bundle items shipped. Customer queries build-up, the brand image suffers, efficiencies plummet and workplace stress skyrockets, but they don't have to with ecommerce automation.
Looking for your next steps?
Learn about 6 different ways you can increase your profits with bundles
See success stories from Knifewear and Kent of Inglewood to solve bundling problems
Follow LitJoy Crate’s story to streamline fulfillment for their subscription boxes
