Tag: West Coast Fulfillment Warehouse

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Dual-Coast Power: Medallion Order Fulfillment Advantage

Order fulfillment in action with a package being set up for delivery.

In the fast-paced world of order fulfillment, shipping speed isn’t just a perk anymore; it’s a requirement. When a customer hits “buy,” the order fulfillment process begins, and the clock starts ticking. If that clock runs too long, you risk losing a repeat customer. For growing businesses, the logistical hurdle of getting products across the country quickly and affordably is massive.

This is where strategic geography becomes critical. Medallion Fulfillment has tackled this challenge head-on with a dual-coast order fulfillment strategy. By operating major fulfillment warehouses on both the East and West Coasts of the United States, they transform how businesses handle logistics.

This post explores why two fulfillment warehouse locations are better than one, detailing how Medallion’s specific setups in California and Massachusetts drive efficiency, reduce transit times, and keep customers smiling.

The Power of Strategic Placement in Order Fulfillment

Imagine shipping a package from New York to Seattle via ground service. It’s a long journey, often taking five business days or more. That’s a lifetime in e-commerce. Now, imagine if that same inventory was already sitting in a warehouse near Los Angeles. The shipping time drops dramatically, thanks to optimized order fulfillment.

Medallion Fulfillment operates two primary order fulfillment hubs to make this a reality:

  1. Chatsworth, California: A prime location in the Los Angeles area, perfectly situated to handle imports from Asia and serve the Western United States.
  2. Boston, Massachusetts: Ideally located to provide efficient order fulfillment for the dense population centers of the Northeast and the Eastern Seaboard.

This isn’t just about having two buildings; it’s about network optimization for ecommerce order fulfillment. By splitting inventory between these two hubs, businesses can reach the vast majority of the U.S. population within 1 to 3 days using standard ground shipping.

Why the West Coast Matters: The California Fulfillment Warehouse Advantage

The West Coast is the gateway to the Pacific. Medallion’s facility in Chatsworth, California, is a strategic powerhouse for businesses that manufacture overseas, particularly in Asia, and need fast, reliable order fulfillment.

Port Proximity

Being close to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is a game-changer for order fulfillment. These are two of the busiest ports in the Western Hemisphere. When your goods arrive from overseas, drayage costs (the cost of moving goods from port to warehouse) are significantly lower because the travel distance is short. You get your inventory into stock faster, so your order fulfillment starts sooner.

Serving the West

The California facility manages order fulfillment for the entire Western region, including the massive California market as well as the Pacific Northwest and Southwest. Shipping from here to a customer in San Diego or Phoenix is often a next-day delivery via ground service, which costs a fraction of expedited air shipping—giving your order fulfillment a distinct competitive edge.

Key Order Fulfillment Capabilities

  • Container Unloading: Expert handling of 20ft and 40ft containers straight from the port.
  • Cross-Docking: Quickly transferring goods from incoming trucks to outgoing transport with minimal storage time for streamlined order fulfillment.
  • Retail Compliance: Meeting the strict routing guides of major West Coast retailers.

The East Coast Anchor: The Boston Fulfillment Hub

On the other side of the country, Medallion’s Boston, Massachusetts location serves as the anchor for the Eastern United States. The Northeast corridor is one of the most densely populated regions in the country, making efficient order fulfillment a critical factor for almost every consumer brand.

Reaching the Population Centers

From Boston, Medallion can rapidly reach New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and beyond. Shipping to these areas from California would be slow and expensive. Shipping from Boston enables fast and cost-effective order fulfillment to major East Coast markets.

Operational Excellence in Ecommerce Order Fulfillment

The Boston facility is equipped to handle complex order fulfillment needs. Whether it’s high-volume B2C orders during the holiday rush or detailed B2B shipments to major retailers, this hub ensures the East Coast is covered with top-tier service.

Key Capabilities

  • Kitting and Assembly: Custom packaging solutions close to major consumer markets to enhance the order fulfillment process.
  • Returns Management: A central point for processing returns from East Coast customers, getting products back into inventory and ready for order fulfillment faster.
  • Scalability: High-ceiling storage and advanced warehouse management systems (WMS) support flexible, scalable order fulfillment operations.

The “Zone Skipping” Benefit in Order Fulfillment

One of the most technical but impactful benefits of this dual-coast order fulfillment strategy is “Zone Skipping.” Shipping carriers like UPS and FedEx divide the country into zones. Zone 1 is close; Zone 8 is across the country. The higher the zone, the higher the shipping cost.

When you ship from a single location, say in the Midwest, you are shipping to Zones 4, 5, and 6 constantly. With dual-coast order fulfillment:

  • Your California warehouse ships to Western customers (mostly Zones 1-3).
  • Your Boston warehouse ships to Eastern customers (mostly Zones 1-3).

You effectively skip the expensive, high-zone shipments. This results in substantial savings on shipping labels, often enough to offset the cost of managing inventory in two order fulfillment locations.

Who Benefits Most from Medallion’s Order Fulfillment Network?

While every business wants faster shipping, certain industries see massive gains from Medallion’s dual-coast order fulfillment setup.

1. Subscription Box Services

Subscription boxes rely on timely arrival and seamless order fulfillment. If customers on the East Coast get their box a week before customers on the West Coast, spoilers hit social media, and the experience is ruined. Dual-coast order fulfillment allows for synchronized delivery windows nationwide.

2. High-Volume Consumer Goods

For brands selling everyday items—supplements, apparel, cosmetics—shipping cost and order fulfillment speed are huge factors in margins. Lowering shipping zones with efficient order fulfillment protects profit margins on lower-priced items.

3. International Brands

Foreign companies entering the U.S. market need an order fulfillment partner who understands the lay of the land. Medallion acts as their domestic logistics arm, receiving bulk shipments on either coast and providing fast, accurate order fulfillment nationwide.

Delivering Satisfaction Through Superior Order Fulfillment

Ultimately, logistics and order fulfillment are about the end customer. When a buyer receives their order in two days instead of six, their trust in the brand grows. When the package arrives in good condition because it traveled fewer miles, return rates drop.

Medallion Fulfillment doesn’t just store boxes—they provide a strategic infrastructure that empowers small and mid-sized businesses to compete with retail giants through world-class order fulfillment. By leveraging the specific strengths of California and Massachusetts, they turn logistics and order fulfillment from a cost center into a powerful competitive advantage. Read our real-world testimonials and case studies.

Ready to Optimize Your Order Fulfillment?

If you’re tired of high shipping zones eating your profits or long delivery times hurting your customer reviews, it’s time to examine your order fulfillment geography.

Medallion Fulfillment has the infrastructure, the order fulfillment expertise, and the strategic locations to streamline your supply chain. Don’t let distance slow you down.

Contact Medallion Fulfillment today to discuss how a dual-coast order fulfillment strategy can transform your business.

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New Year’s Resolutions: A Pick, Pack, and Ship Guide to Order Fulfillment

Setting goals for your ecommerce business in 2026 with order fulfillment.

Let’s face it: scaling an ecommerce business is a logistical challenge. It might feel easy to launch a store, but maintaining efficient operations as orders roll in can make even seasoned business owners break into a cold sweat. By the time peak season arrives, good intentions often get buried under a pile of unfulfilled orders.

But what if you treated your business logistics like the high-priority operation it is? What if you applied the rigorous standards, we use at Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics to your store?

Here is how optimizing your order fulfillment can transform your business.

Assessing Your Capacity

Before you commit to a massive marketing push, you need to conduct a thorough audit of your current capacity. In the warehouse, we don’t accept thousands of pallets if there is no rack space. Yet, many small businesses overstuff their storage areas.

Check your inventory capabilities. Do you actually have the bandwidth to handle a spike in sales, or are your shelves already full? Be realistic about your storage space. Outsourcing your order fulfillment allows you to scale your capacity instantly without the capital investment of a private warehouse.

SKU Management and Precision

Vague inventory tracking is a recipe for disaster. In fulfillment, every item has a Stock Keeping Unit (SKU)—a unique identifier that tells us exactly what the product is. Precision is key. Our pick and pack team verifies every item to ensure accuracy. When you partner with us, we ensure your customers get exactly what they ordered, reducing errors and increasing satisfaction. If you can’t track it, you can’t improve it.

Why Professional Order Fulfillment is Key to Growth

Now that you have your inventory sorted, it’s time for the pick and pack phase. This is where the magic happens. In our Boston and Los Angeles facilities, efficiency is the name of the game.

If your current process involves searching through disorganized piles to find a product, your pick path is inefficient. You are wasting valuable lead time. We streamline this process, assembling all necessary components so that when an order comes in, it is ready to ship immediately. Effective order fulfillment means your products are moving, not sitting.

Shipping and Delivery: Execution is Everything

You can have the best inventory management system in the world, but if the truck doesn’t leave the dock, you’ve failed. Shipping is the act of doing.

Partnering with an experienced fulfillment warehouse offers advantages, such as established relationships with carriers, that keep shipping costs down while providing superior service. We handle the logistics, so you don’t have to worry about the “last mile” delays.

Handling Returns with Grace

In ecommerce, returns are inevitable. Don’t treat a return like a total system failure. In logistics, we deal with exceptions all the time. If an item comes back, we inspect it and process it efficiently.

Our team knows that a high return rate usually points to a problem upstream. By letting us handle your reverse logistics, you keep your operations running smoothly while we manage the restocking.

The Medallion Guarantee

At Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics, we know that success lies in the details. It’s about consistency, accuracy, and the ability to adapt.

Your business is the most important investment you manage. So, this year, stop trying to do it all yourself. Keep your inventory lean and your shipping on schedule. Contact us to learn more about our innovative order fulfillment solutions that can be customized to fit your particular needs.

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Ecommerce Management Resolutions for 2023 – Are You On Track?

businessman looking at hand drawn business concept sketch

For 2023 you made a resolution to lose weight, read more and eat your vegetables. Have you given any thought to New Year’s resolutions that you made for your Ecommerce business? With May upon us, it is time to review what you resolved to do with your business now to see that you are on track to meet your goals.

Our fulfillment warehouse team is here to offer some helpful suggestions to help you stay on track or catch up.

1. Step up your customer service.

If December is a month of sales, January is a month of returns. People are taking stock of their gifts, sorting out which ones to keep and which ones to send back.

While no business enjoys dealing with returns, how you handle them will greatly affect how customers perceive you. Gracious and professional customer service will leave people with a favorable impression. In many cases, you may even manage to turn those refunds into sales.

If you did not review your return policy and customer service, now is a good time for a checkup.

2. Get creative with marketing techniques.

Post-holidays, customers go into January with a shopping hangover, leaving sales as cold as the temperatures. Dig deep into your marketing bag of tricks for creative ways to generate sales. There is still time to do some constructive promotion planning this month to assure you meet your sales goals.

Consider these possibilities:

• Review abandoned shopping carts from the last few months and send emails to gently prompt customers to complete the sale.

• Encourage shoppers to redeem gift cards at your online storefront.

• Make judicious use of discounts and coupons. For example, make them contingent on a minimum purchase to drive multiple sales.

3. Analyze your inventory.

After the controlled chaos of the holiday season, inventory numbers may be off. Now is the time to reconcile quantities on hand and current pricing to avoid disappointed customers.

Did you turn up some products that didn’t move as well as expected? Run a sale to help clear out those items and make room for new products.

If you skipped this review earlier in the year, now is a good time to take stock of your inventory and do clearance sales or routine reorders.

Team Up with Our Fulfillment Warehouse

Inventory reporting and quality customer service are just two of the benefits provided by partnering with Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics. Contact us today for more information.

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Does Amazon’s “New Normal” Come with New Problems?

Fulfillment Company Warehouse

In 2005, when Amazon debuted their revolutionary Prime membership program, the centerpiece was unlimited free two-day shipping. As Jeff Bezos declared in the announcement, it was “all-you-can-eat express shipping.”

In an effort to remain the gold standard of online shopping, many items have since been upgraded to next-day shipping. But as with many companies, Amazon has been forced to adapt as the pandemic altered the retailing landscape. What does Amazon’s “new normal” mean for the sellers who rely on their fulfillment services?

Fulfillment by Amazon: The Answer for Third-Party Sellers?

A year after Prime began, Amazon upped the ante by creating Fulfillment by Amazon. This program allowed third-party sellers to store their inventory in Amazon’s fulfillment centers, where the products were cataloged and shipped to customers. FBA sellers also benefited by having their products eligible for Prime.

How powerful is FBA? Research found that three-quarters of Amazon’s top 100,000 sellers utilize the program. The number jumps to an astounding 90 percent for sellers based outside the United States

How the Pandemic Changed Amazon and Online Retailing

While Amazon was already the king of online retailing, demand became even higher as the onset of the pandemic caused widespread closure of brick-and-mortar shops. The first blow to third-party sellers came in March 2020, when the company cut off inbound FBA shipments of everything but high-priority products such as medical supplies.

The essentials-only mandate eased up in July 2020, but that didn’t mean FBA was back to “normal.” Quantity restrictions went into effect, limiting the amount of warehouse space that would be allocated to new products or those with more modest sales history.

One of the benefits of FBA is that products could flow through the warehouse and out to customers on a consistent and reliable basis. Some sellers found their inventory limits didn’t match demand, causing out-of-stock situations and hampering their ability to grow.

Inventory Limits by Any Other Name

In an announcement dated April 22, 2021, Amazon proclaimed that they had listened to feedback from their sellers and were removing limits based on ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number, which is assigned to every item in the company’s catalog). The bad news? Limits were now being set at the account level.

Despite Amazon’s efforts to play this up as a positive change, sellers were devastated. As one explained, instead of impacting only a few of their items, the reduction in space now had to accommodate his entire product offering. Adding insult to injury, the change took effect on the same day as the announcement, leaving sellers scrambling to conform to these new restrictions.

The Fallout Continues

While the Amazon customer experience remains relatively the same, it’s a whole different story behind the scenes. Inventory limits and other changes, such as long-term storage fees being charged monthly instead of annually, make it clear that Amazon has positioned FBA for short-term supply.

Sellers no longer have the convenience of using FBA as a one-stop solution for their storage and shipping needs. More and more are looking already to turn to additional third-party logistics companies for backup warehousing. They also face the uncertainty of knowing that Amazon can and will change the rules with little or no notice.

Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics: Working to Promote Your Success

Do you sometimes feel like David fighting Goliath? Our Amazon replenishment warehousing service provides a cost-effective solution that’s responsive to your particular needs.

Features include:

• Lower storage fees

• Climate-controlled warehouse space

• Amazon-compliant labeling, packing and prep

• Software that interfaces with Amazon as well as the industry’s top shopping cart systems

Contact the team at Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics today to learn more and loosen the grip Amazon has on your ability to grow.

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The Technology Behind Successful Ecommerce Fulfillment

Fulfillment Warehouse

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.