Today’s fast-changing technology often means that a business must either evolve or die. That’s the conclusion that Eric Brown came to just a few years ago. Eric owns and operates a same-day courier service based in Virginia Beach. About three years ago he noticed a shift.
“A major part of our courier business for the past 14 years was document delivery, but the Internet changed that. Lawyers, real estate agents, many of the businesses that had needed our documents delivery service were now using email instead,” explains Eric. “We needed to diversify, to deliver things, not just documents. That meant storing and shipping, too.”
Eric began doing the research to expand his business, and learned that while the Internet has made document delivery less and less necessary, it has also created a whole new need. Many small E-commerce websites now have the ability to sell their products worldwide. However, they are either too small to handle the fulfillment portion of their business, or fulfillment became a distraction requiring the addition of a host of employees and management for back-office operations, storing and shipping of products to customers.
Fulfilltopia.com was born.
Fulfilltopia manages the backroom activities of receiving products, inspecting for quality control, sending inventory alerts or emails when products arrive, managing inventory, auditing inventory, integrating with online shopping carts to expedite orders, pick and pack, and shipping products throughout North America, Asia and Europe.
Eric realizes that E-commerce means global commerce. He has developed global partnerships to insure that deliveries can be made almost anywhere in the world. He is helping traditional companies and E-commerce businesses also ship bulk distribution for business-to-business fulfillment, as well.
“We take care of the backroom activities so business owners can focus on their core business—developing relationships with customers, marketing, sales and product innovation,” says Eric. “We help companies avoid mistakes in the fulfillment area.” For instance, finding the right box, even if it is a non-traditional size, can help avoid the costs of shipping multiple boxes to the same address. Correctly packaging fragile items can avoid breakage. In addition, he mentions, the high volume of shipping done by a fulfillment company means that products can be shipped at lower rates than a company can obtain on its own.
While Fulfilltopia.com officially launched in January of this year, Eric actually began helping clients with E-commerce fulfillment more than a year ago. Already he is working with companies that ship apparel, toys, pool supplies, electronics, literature, health supplies and small medical equipment. In addition, Fulfiltopia can handle food specialty items.
One of the beauties of an Internet-based business is that not only can Fulfilltopia ship products worldwide, his potential client base is worldwide, also. “We are not just limited to the Virginia Beach area. We already have customers based in other parts of the country.”
Eric sees Fulfilltopia as much more than a delivery or fulfillment business. Instead, he understands that he is a partner with his customers, offering them a vital service. “We help our clients to grow their businesses by offering services they can’t do as well themselves.”
