When we my partner Mark and I first started selling products online from our store, A Zen Gift, we had a little bit of money to invest. We decided we would buy wholesale and store our products at a fulfillment house. We had special branding that we wanted implemented, and we had an option on our site if our customers wanted to have their products gift wrapped, and have a personalized note attached. We also had a special coin which was a give-a-way item that was to be placed in every box, regardless of whether the customer wanted gift wrapping.

To make a long story short, we tried to do too much. We were living in Thousand Oaks, California at the time, and the fulfillment facility we chose was in Windsor, Colorado. Everything started out okay. It was a lot of work to set up, but the people that worked there seemed friendly and proficient…at first.

It did not take long for a total melt down to occur. Our first few orders that we had trickling in seemed to get lost. We received “call center” bills from the 1-800 number that could not accounted for, and we found out we were being charged for pallets that were not being used. We actually still tried to work with this fulfillment company, realizing the time and money it would take to move all of our inventory. But as time passed, more problems cropped up, and old problems never got resolved.

We bit the bullet, and moved our inventory to a Fulfillment Center in Sun Valley (now in Chatsworth), California. Without going into too much detail, the entire crew of this Fulfillment business was amazing. The name of this company is called River Plate Fulfillment. And I give them 12 out of 10 stars. River Plate (which is also a trucking company) is family owned and operated. The owner is Daniela Rodriguez, and she is an incredible person.

It is interesting that we give this fulfillment facility such outstanding marks for service, because about 1 month after we got all settled there, all of our inventory was destroyed in a fire (no fault of River Plate). But River Plate was insured, and we got refunded for our loss. River Plate and Daniela handled the whole unfortunate episode swiftly. We are still friends to this day.

Given our experience with fulfillment centers, we are in a unique position to offer you advice on going this route for setting up your ecommerce site. The Universe was clearly trying to tell us not to carry any inventory, and, ultimately, we listened…at least for now.

There could come a time when we change our minds, and start using a fulfillment center again. And if we do we will use River Plate Fulfillment-and we highly recommend that you do, as well.

Check out River Plate Inc here:  http://www.riverplateinc.com