The Benefits of Warehouse Kitting for eCommerce: Saving Time, Money, and Optimising Inventory
Warehouse kitting is a powerful tool for eCommerce businesses looking to streamline their operations, save time and money, and improve inventory management. As a value-added service, kitting can be just as essential to fulfilment as picking, packing, and shipping—especially during peak seasons like Christmas or for subscription box services. By preparing product kits ahead of time, you can improve efficiency and enhance the customer experience. This guide will explain the benefits of warehouse kitting and how outsourcing to RedSky Europe, leading Third-Party Logistics (3PL) provider can help.
What is Kitting?
Kitting involves grouping individual products together and creating a new SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) to sell them as a single item. By pre-assembling these items into kits, you can ship them quickly and efficiently, rather than picking and packing each product individually, which can be more time-consuming.
In a typical order fulfilment process, items are located and picked based on their SKU codes. With kitting, multiple items that are frequently bought together are bundled as one unit. These kits are then stored as complete sets in the RedSky Europe fulfilment centre, allowing for faster order processing and eliminating the need to assemble products after an order is placed.
The Difference Between Kitting and Bundling
While kitting and bundling are often used interchangeably, they are slightly different.
Bundling refers to packaging multiple SKUs (or ASINs on platforms like Amazon) together within a single shipment. Bundles are often used for holiday promotions or limited-time deals. For instance, offering flat-rate shipping on a purchase of three or more items is an example of bundling. This strategy is particularly effective during the Christmas season, when customers are looking for deals on gift sets.
Kitting, on the other hand, is more specific and involves assembling products in a particular sequence or format before shipment. It is commonly used for products like subscription boxes or built-to-order items that require careful assembly. For subscription box companies, kitting ensures that each monthly package is pre-packed and ready to ship, improving both efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Benefits of Kitting for eCommerce
Kitting offers a range of benefits, from reducing fulfilment times to cutting costs. Here’s how it can benefit your business:
1. Time and Cost Savings
Kitting reduces the time required for picking and packing orders by pre-assembling products. This is especially important during busy periods like Christmas, when high order volumes can strain warehouse resources. By preparing product kits in advance, you enable the RedSky Europe fulfilment team to prepare orders more quickly and efficiently, which leads to cost savings.
2. Increased Sales Opportunities
Kitting allows you to offer more SKUs by creating combinations of individual items into larger orders. For example, offering holiday gift sets or curated subscription boxes encourages customers to make larger purchases, especially when paired with a discount. This not only increases the average order value but also enhances the customer experience by offering convenient, ready-to-go product combinations.
3. Lower Shipping Costs
By bundling multiple products into a single kit, you can reduce overall shipping costs. Shipping a pre-packed kit is often more cost-effective than shipping individual items separately. Over time, this can result in significant savings, especially when shipping high volumes of subscription boxes or holiday gift kits.
4. Improved Inventory Management
With kitting, you streamline inventory management by grouping frequently ordered items together under a single SKU. This simplifies the fulfilment process and helps reduce errors in picking and packing. Additionally, pre-assembling kits allows warehouses to prepare for high-demand periods, ensuring that popular product combinations are always in stock and ready to ship.
5. Enhanced Customer Experience
Kitting improves the customer experience by offering thoughtfully curated product sets. Customers don’t need to search for individual products and add them to their carts one by one—they can simply purchase a pre-assembled kit or box that meets their needs. This is particularly effective for subscription box services, where customers expect a seamless and engaging unboxing experience every month.
Outsourcing Kitting to a 3PL
Outsourcing kitting to RedSky Europe 3PL provider can take the burden off your internal operations, allowing your business to focus on growth and customer service. 3PL providers specialise in optimising the kitting process, ensuring that your product bundles are assembled efficiently and accurately. They can also scale kitting services based on demand, which is particularly useful during peak seasons like the holidays or when running special promotions.
Conclusion
Whether it’s assembling subscription boxes or creating holiday gift sets, kitting is an invaluable tool for eCommerce businesses looking to save time and money. By pre-assembling product bundles, you streamline the fulfilment process, reduce shipping costs, and offer customers a better shopping experience. Outsourcing this process to a 3PL can help you scale efficiently while focusing on what matters most—growing your business and delighting your customers.
For more information on RedSky Europe’s kitting service visit www.redskyeurope.com