Category: East Coast Fulfillment Warehouse

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The Glitter Bomb Heard ‘Round the World: A TikTok Shop Saga

TikTok Shop Fulfillment story by Medallion Fulfillment

Meet Chloe. At 24, she’s the proud owner of “Glitter to Go,” a TikTok Shop that sells custom-blended, biodegradable craft glitter. What started as a quirky hobby in her parents’ garage quickly exploded into a viral sensation. One video of a cat accidentally knocking over a jar of her “Stardust Sea” blend, creating what looked like a shimmering galaxy on the floor, got 10 million views. Orders started pouring in.

At first, it was fun. Chloe, her mom, her dad, and two of her best friends formed an impromptu assembly line in the living room. They called themselves the “Glitterati.” Dad was on box assembly, Mom was the master packer (no one could fold tissue paper like her), and her friends handled labeling and taping. Chloe managed the orders, printed the labels, and kept everyone supplied with pizza and morale.

But the viral fame didn’t stop. Chloe’s shop was featured in a major influencer’s “Favorite Finds” video, and suddenly, the orders went from hundreds a day to thousands. The Glitterati were no longer glittering.

From Living Room Chaos to Family Mutiny

The living room looked less like a home and more like a glitter-fueled disaster zone. Cardboard boxes formed precarious towers that threatened to topple with every footstep. The family dog, a golden retriever named Gus, was permanently sparkling. Chloe’s dad, a retired accountant, had developed a nervous twitch every time he heard the sound of packing tape.

The breaking point came on a Tuesday. After a 14-hour packing marathon, fueled by lukewarm coffee and the last of the stale donuts, Chloe’s mom put down her tape gun. She had a streak of “Unicorn Dream” glitter across her forehead and a look of sheer exhaustion in her eyes.

“Honey,” she said, her voice gentle but firm. “I love you, and I love that your business is a success. But I found a sequin in my salad today. Your father is seeing shipping labels in his sleep. We can’t do this anymore.”

It was a full-blown, albeit very polite, family mutiny. Chloe’s friends had already bowed out gracefully, citing the need to, you know, have lives. She was on her own, staring at a mountain of unfulfilled orders and the very real possibility of her five-star rating taking a nosedive.

The Hunt for a Fulfillment Hero

Chloe knew she needed help. Professional help. She needed a fulfillment partner. Her search began with a frantic late-night Googling session. She pictured massive, impersonal warehouses where her lovingly crafted glitter would become just another SKU in a sea of products. She worried about costs, contracts, and losing the personal touch she had worked so hard to build.

Her needs were specific:

Affordability: She was profitable, but she wasn’t Jeff Bezos. The pricing had to make sense for a growing small business.

Flexibility: Her sales were spiky. One viral video could mean a 500% increase in orders overnight. She needed a partner who could scale with her, not penalize her for sudden success.

Nationwide Coverage: Her customers were everywhere, from Miami to Seattle. Shipping from her parents’ house in Ohio was slow and expensive for coast-to-coast orders. She dreamed of two-day shipping.

That’s when she found us. With our bicoastal warehouses in Los Angeles and Boston, we immediately stood out. She saw the potential to slash her shipping times and costs by strategically splitting her inventory between our two locations. A customer in California could get their order from our LA facility in a day or two, while a customer in Maine could get theirs just as quickly from Boston.

How We Helped Chloe Reclaim Her Sanity (and Her Living Room)

Chloe scheduled a call, half-expecting a high-pressure sales pitch. Instead, she got a partner. We listened to her story (we’ve heard many like it!) and understood her panic. We didn’t just see a spreadsheet of order volume; we saw a passionate entrepreneur who needed a lifeline.

Here’s how we solved Chloe’s glitter crisis:

Step 1: A Simple, Transparent Plan

We walked her through a clear, easy-to-understand pricing model with no hidden fees. We showed her exactly how much it would cost to store her products and fulfill her orders. We even ran a cost simulation based on her previous month’s sales, demonstrating how our bicoastal model would save her an average of 18% on shipping costs compared to shipping everything from a single, central location. The numbers made sense. Chloe’s dad, the retired accountant, even gave it a nod of approval.

Step 2: Seamless Onboarding

Getting Chloe’s “ShimmerPop Creations” into our system was a breeze. Our platform integrated directly with her TikTok Shop. Within a couple of hours, her products were synced, and we were ready to receive her inventory. We coordinated the freight shipment from her parents’ garage—a day of celebration for her family, who threw a “Goodbye, Boxes!” party. We handled the receiving and stocking, splitting her inventory intelligently between our Los Angeles and Boston locations based on her sales data.

Step 3: Fast, Reliable Fulfillment

The moment a new order hit Chloe’s shop, our system got to work. The order was automatically routed to the closest warehouse. Our team picked, packed, and shipped it, often on the same day. Chloe could watch it all happen from her dashboard, feeling a sense of calm she hadn’t felt in months.

The best part? Her customers noticed. Her reviews started filling up with comments like, “Wow, that was fast!” and “I ordered this two days ago and it’s already here!” Her five-star rating was secure.

The Happily Ever After

Today, Chloe’s business is bigger than ever. She’s expanded her product line to include glitter-infused craft paints and DIY kits. She spends her time not on packing boxes, but on creating content, dreaming up new products, and engaging with her community. She’s a CEO, not a shipping clerk.

Her parents have their living room back, and Gus the dog is no longer a walking disco ball (mostly). Chloe’s mom still occasionally puts a pinch of “Stardust Sea” in her greeting cards for a personal touch, but her tape-gun days are over.

Chloe’s story is a perfect example of what happens when a great product meets the right operational support. You don’t have to sacrifice your family, your sanity, or your living room to build a successful e-commerce brand. You just need a partner who can handle the logistics, so you can focus on the magic.

Although this is a fictional case study, it is an illustration of what we do and how we do it. If you have an exploding TikTok Shop, Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics is ready to step in and relieve your “Glitterati” and make life easier for you to focus on what you do best – making great TikTok videos that drive even more business.

Find out how Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics can help you today!

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The Technology Behind Successful Ecommerce Fulfillment

Distribution center concept and international communication network. globalized business, transportation and professional connections.

Online sales in the United States have more than surpassed expectations. In 2012, online sales hit a record $226 billion, and accounted for 7% of all total retail sales. Experts projected $327 billion by 2016, but they were wrong… Total online sales in 2016 were $394 billion! If your fulfillment company isn’t participating in the ecommerce segment, no doubt you know that you’re missing out on an exceptional opportunity!

In this article, I’ll focus on the technological capabilities a warehouse needs in order to implement an ecommerce fulfillment service. The article isn’t going to be about listing the pros and cons of the Top 10 software programs on the market, because I don’t know your current capabilities or strategic goals. Instead, I believe that the most productive approach is to breakdown the process to help you identify where you can improve your systems.

Let’s talk about process integration. Ecommerce clients will typically approach a fulfillment company with an established business infrastructure. Integration means adapting your systems to plug into those of your customer. The processes that are frequently affected are:

• Order Capture & Management

• Picking/Packing & Shipping

• Synchronizing Order and Inventory Status

• Visibility

• Client & Customer Service

Order Capture & Management

There are more than 300 ecommerce shopping cart companies on the market. Your company needs to be technically capable of adapting to the wide variety of methodologies for communicating with those carts. Orders from carts need to be harvested on a regular basis, controlled to insure none are dropped or duplicated, and converted into a form that is compatible with your system.

I believe this area represents the greatest technical challenge for fulfillment companies in the ecommerce space. Your tool bag for interfacing with a client’s systems must include a wide array of technologies, including the ability to interact with flat files, Application Program Interfaces, Web Services, File Transfer Protocol, call center systems, and the occasional manual-order entry. IT resources to plan the implementation and support this process need to be broadly skilled and creative. Administrative resources that perform the daily-order harvesting routines need to be highly attentive to detail.

Picking/Packing & Shipping

This process is probably the most straightforward. Picking slips are generated, product is picked and boxed, and shipping labels are applied using traditional fulfillment methods. Although there may be special requirements for packing slip and box branding, those requirements don’t vary much from conventional fulfillment. It is essential to operate at a very fast past as ecommerce performance is measured in hours and the volume of orders is measured in thousands per day.

Synchronizing Order and Inventory Status

Ecommerce fulfillment requires that the client’s shopping cart has the most recent inventory and order status information. Your systems need to regularly communicate inventory availability to the cart to ensure that a client’s customer is made aware of out-of-stock situations before placing an order. Customers also need to be able to reference the shopping cart to find the status of their order. Process synchronization between your operation and that of your client is an absolute necessity.

Visibility

Ecommerce fulfillment is very fast moving! We used to joke that customers would press the “buy” button and run to the front door looking for the UPS truck! With Amazon’s latest experiments in same-day delivery, this joke is almost a reality. Given the speed of ecommerce, it’s important for your clients to be able to have a real-time window into your process and inventory. At a minimum, clients should be able to see orders and inventory in near real time. The leading-edge, ecommerce fulfillment companies have taken a more pro-active stance by publishing “alerts” when important events are happening in the fulfillment process. Alert examples might include: Product X is running low on inventory; a new shipment of stock has arrived; or a customer has returned an order.

Client & Customer Service

The fulfillment process is heavily impacted by fast-paced marketing and promotional decisions. Ecommerce client support typically requires a designated coordinator to represent the client’s requirements to the fulfillment organization and to coordinate program changes. The volume and minutiae of detail often warrant the implementation of “issue logging” and “project workflow” processes within the organization. Given the pace of the business, these processes are best automated.

Some clients, particularly the Entrepreneur and Offshore segments, may ask the fulfillment organization to manage customer support. This might involve call-center work, authorizing returns, handling the occasional complaint, and so on. These client groups often have too small a volume to outsource their work to large call center. Having an arsenal of exceptional customer-support tools, therefore, positions you to capitalize on a good revenue opportunity.

In summary, successful ecommerce fulfillment relies on solid technical foundations. Warehouses and 3PLs must understand that ecommerce clients have very different needs (and expectations) for the technical aptitude, agility and pace of their fulfillment partners. To fully capitalize on the ecommerce segment, your fulfillment service must meet–and exceed–these requirements.

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Startups and New Businesses Have Special Financial Needs, How to Plan for Success

Women, owner of small business packing product in boxes

For many new entrepreneurs, managing finances is one of the more intimidating aspects of a startup business. Ensuring that funding, expenses and other financial elements are controlled from the beginning prevents minor issues from snowballing into major problems.

The good news is that financial management is not as difficult as you might think. Our fulfillment warehouse has been part of several successful startups, so we’re offering these expert tips to get your fledgling business rolling with solid financial planning.

Manage Expenses

In the beginning, expenses can be a huge drain on cash flow during the time you need it the most. Fortunately, most costs can be reasonably estimated ahead of time. Create a year-long budget covering rent, wages, materials, taxes and other fixed expenses and focus on keeping them as low as possible.

Avoid Commingling Funds

As the owner, you may feel all funds are ultimately yours so the line between personal and business finances becomes blurred. When you keep both sides completely separate, it’s much easier to track business finances and prevent personal spending from draining the company account. You should also formally pay yourself a salary rather than simply dip into company funds.

Keep Detailed and Accurate Records

When it comes to judging your company’s performance, you can’t afford to rely on gut feelings or instinct. Make sure an experienced accountant, either in-house or outside, is keeping track of revenue and expenses. Review financial statements regularly and make adjustments based on a clear, overall picture.

Don’t Overdo It

You may feel compelled to take on as many roles as you can to save money, but that strategy can actually be counterproductive. Learning unfamiliar skills on the fly can end up costing more time and money than hiring an experienced person in the first place. Delegating work frees you up to focus on your passion and grow the business.

Learn to Negotiate

Don’t take vendor terms at face value. You’ll be surprised at how often suppliers are willing to make concessions to gain your business. Prepare a game plan ahead of time so you know what your goals are. Remember that it never hurts to ask!

Invest in Technology

Business technology has become so advanced and so widely integrated that your company will be at a serious disadvantage from day one without it. Any investment you make in technology will pay for itself in money and time savings.

Establish an Emergency Fund

Financial experts recommend that people maintain an emergency fund to cover unexpected expenses, and a company is no different. Put aside a percentage of income during peak times to help tide you through the slow periods.

Fulfillment Warehouse Services That Grow Along with You

Are you struggling with adjustments as your business expands? Our fulfillment warehouse services can be tailored to meet you specific needs today and scale to accommodate future requirements. Contact us at Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics to learn more about why we are the first choice for one-stop warehousing, inventory control and order processing services.

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Five Tips on How to Create Engaging Product Descriptions That Sell

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When you’re looking for ways to increase business, focusing on product descriptions can pay off. It’s not enough to simply list the product name and its features. These descriptions should entice customers to learn more about your products and make a purchase. Combining effective product descriptions with other business-boosting steps, such as partnering with a fulfillment warehouse for faster processing and shipping, can help your online store thrive.

Zoom in On Your Targeted Audience

General product descriptions might seem like a good way to reach a wider audience. However, these generic descriptions aren’t likely to appeal to many buyers overall. Focus on your target audience for each product description instead. Doing this gives you a much higher chance of appealing to prospective buyers.

Go Big on Benefits

Customers want to know why they should buy your products or how your products might help them. Rather than including a list of technical features, focus on the benefits your products provide. These benefits can persuade customers to find out more about your products and consider purchasing them.

Don’t Skimp on Details

Descriptions that use general phrases to describe products aren’t doing much to grab customers’ attention. Include specific details about your products to help customers learn more about them.

Share Glowing Reviews

Including reviews in your product descriptions can show other customers how popular your products are. Share images or quotes from reviews in your descriptions.

Format Product Descriptions with Care

Good product descriptions don’t just involve using the right words. The way these descriptions are formatted can also make them more or less effective. Create product descriptions that are easy to read. Use bullet points, white space, high-quality images, and larger font sizes.

Looking for the right fulfillment warehouse to partner with? Contact Medallion Fulfillment and Logistics for more information.

Your #1 Solution for Year-Round Warehouse Fulfillment Services

Your need for effective California fulfillment services doesn’t end when the sale is over. Medallion’s comprehensive programs are specifically designed to accommodate the ebbs and flows of your particular company.

Our robust Amazon replenishment warehousing services meet Amazon’s standards at a more cost-effective price. Contact us for more information.

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Ecommerce Store Owners’ Top Ten Challenges – How to Overcome Them and Succeed Online

Male entrepreneur standing surrounded by product in an office.

With more consumers turning to online stores for their purchases, this is a great time to run an eCommerce business. However, online store owners face certain challenges that can make or break their business. From protecting consumer information online to finding better ways to fulfill orders, such as with help from a fulfillment company, these are some of the top challenges eCommerce store owners face.

1. Building Customer Loyalty

With so many online stores to choose from, having customer loyalty can be tough. Encourage customers to be loyal to your business through online interaction, loyalty programs with rewards, transparency, and content marketing. Taking these steps can help you engage with your customers and build a rapport with them.

2. Labor Shortages

Labor shortages have been making it harder for online stores to find staff to handle orders, customer service, and other aspects of keeping businesses up and running. Making improvements to your recruiting process and offering good benefits can help you find employees to help you with your online store.

3. Problems with Logistics

Global supply chain issues have led to logistics problems for online stores, especially when it comes to tracking inventory. Hiring a reputable fulfillment company can help your eCommerce business keep track of products that are in stock, so that you’ll know when it’s time for you to restock.

4. Lack of In-Person Contact Before Purchasing

Customers aren’t able to examine products physically before buying them when they purchase goods online. This can cause some customers to avoid shopping online. ECommerce store owners can make use of newer technology, such as virtual realty or augmented reality to make up the inability to physically try on or feel or hold merchandise.

5. Low Conversion Rates

Conversion rates can be a problem for online store owners, especially for those who are just getting started. Focusing on driving conversion through search engine optimization, calls-to-action, and the targeted messaging can help you increase your online store’s conversion rates.

6. Fraudulent Transactions

Fraud can easily happen in online stores when secure payment methods aren’t being used. This can lead to financial and legal problems while also discouraging customers from doing business with your eCommerce store. Watch for signs of suspicious activity with customer purchases, and use software solutions to make the payment process as secure as possible.

7. Customer Support

Although you can use chatbots for convenient customer support, many consumers would rather talk to customer service personnel on the phone, especially when dealing with complex issues. Offering phone support that allows customers to speak to someone can help improve customer support.

8. Customer Experience

Customers have raised their expectations in recent years when making online purchases. Ensuring that customers receive their orders promptly is crucial for your online business. A fulfillment company can provide you with peace of mind while also meeting the higher expectations that today’s customers have.

9. Cybersecurity Threats

Cybersecurity threats can put customer data at risk and harm your online business in other ways. To lower the risk of these threats, you should update your online store platform on a regular basis, back up data routinely, and use security solutions.

10. Product Returns

Online stores have a higher risk of fraud or other issues when it comes to product returns. Having clear return and refund policies can help lower this risk. Giving customers different options for returns or refunds or offering coupons for those who aren’t satisfied with their purchase can help encourage customer loyalty.

Ready to Get a Price Quote for Our Services?

If you need a fulfillment company to help overcome challenges with your eCommerce business, please contact Medallion Fulfillment and Logistics today. We offer dependable, quality fulfillment services on both the East and West Coasts.