Kitting and assembly are two key components of the order fulfillment process, working in tandem to ensure a smooth and efficient journey from product creation to delivery. It allows you to bundle items together in a way that allows customers to potentially save. It can also have concrete benefits for your business – helping to you ship products faster and save on shipping costs.
Businesses will group products into a “kit” as a way of upselling customers, offering a diverse product selection, and many more reasons. In this guide, we’re diving into everything to know about kitting and assembly and how such processes can improve your order fulfillment processes.
In the meantime, it’s worth mentioning that as a leading 3PL and fulfillment partner – Print Bind Ship can take on the “pre-kit” process of order fulfillment to ensure your brand’s product bundling is done right. What’s more – we also offer packaging services, where you can create customized materials in tune with your broader brand. Get in touch for a free quote for kitting and assembly for your project!
Product Bundling And How It Relates To Kitting and Assembly
Product bundling in ecommerce refers to the practice of merchants selling two or more complementary products together as one combined package or bundle. Some key things to know about product bundling in ecommerce:
- It allows merchants to increase average order value since customers are buying multiple products at once. This can also make shipping costs more cost-effective.
- It can be an effective merchandising strategy to get customers to buy more products that they may not have purchased separately.
- Common examples include bundling accessories with electronics, software suites that package multiple apps, or sample gift sets from beauty or consumer goods brands.
- Bundled products are usually offered at a discounted rate compared to purchasing each item individually to provide an incentive for customers.
- For the merchant, bundling can help reduce inventory carrying costs if the bundled items are ones that may not sell as quickly individually.
- Bundling products that are complementary or used together allows the customer convenience and ensures compatibility and matching products.
Product bundling allows ecommerce retailers to increase sales, move inventory, and provide customer value through discounted bundles of complementary products. Product bundling is closely related to kitting and assembly when it comes to ecommerce order fulfillment. Especially considering that kitting and assembly is the main process of gathering products and including them into kits or sets for shipment.
What Is Included In The Kitting Process?
The process of bundling products is referred to as “kitting”. During this step, there is an assembly of separate pieces of a product or several products, which are then combined into a single unit. Completed kits are stored in your inventory and mapped to a specific SKU (stock keeping unit). The SKU of the kit as a whole unit is distinguishable from the SKU of the individual products included within the kit.
What Is Included In The Assembly Process?
The “assembly” part of the kitting and assembly process is the step in which all of the components of the previously bundled kit are arranged and readied for shipment. To expedite and secure this process, fulfillment companies employ the use of assembly lines to create a uniform assembly process at scale. With a 3PL company, this process is typically covered by each member of a team executing one particular task, sending the product down the line from worker to worker until the end product is correct and complete.
Print Bind Ship’s Kitting and Assembly Process
Print Bind Ship’s kitting and assembling process allows your company to provide customers with specialized solutions to their evolving needs and your growing product line. We work with companies to assemble their items to the exact specifications given, with our end goal being to share the joy of knowing that we helped you deliver a tailored customer experience. Here are the steps we take to ensure your company, as well as your customer’s satisfaction.
Step 1: Print Bind Ship Consultation
We offer free consultations to see how we can service your company best. In this process, we will discuss which products you wish to kit and assemble, what scale or volume you expect to achieve, and what your ultimate goals are.
We will suggest your best packaging options and how our services can help positively impact your brand and reduce costs. Feel free to call, email, or contact us to set up a time that works for you to explore your options.
Step 2: Sending Your Products
If you have products that you wish to be kitted and assembled, all you need to do is simply send them to us, and the rest will be handled by our highly capable and experienced team. Once received, our team of professionals will safely store and inventory your products in our warehouse while we await orders.
Step 3: Kitting Your Products
Kitting and assembling your company’s products is one of our specialties. Whether it’s beauty products, educational materials, books or other promotional materials — we can handle it all!
With enough space to handle multiple order runs and securely package your items, each kit can create a unique unboxing experience for your customers.
Step 4: Fulfilling Your Orders
We’ll walk you through the process of linking your eCommerce platform to our in-house software. This will let us receive your order notifications 24 hours a day, and allows you to view where we are in the process. More importantly, this software integration will allow you to track who is buying which of your products, when, and where.
Kitting Examples
Kitting is an ideal method to use, especially in the eCommerce industry. The benefits of kitting and assembly services are that it allows for orders to be fulfilled faster, with less waste, with less packaging it becomes cheaper, it assists with inventory management, and can improve productivity. For these reasons, many industries send their customer kits and they are extremely popular with online sellers. Here are some of the most popular examples of kits.
New Product Launches
Oftentimes with a new product, you want to bundle a tried and true fan favorite to entice your customers, even if it’s just in a promotional size. If you have a new product with adjunct items, kitting and assembly can take your launch to the next level.
By enlisting the services of a 3PL company, you can piece together a brand new product with efficiency. The way this comes together can be tailored to your company’s specific needs. New products can be a little bit difficult to handle logistically, this is why using a 3PL company is recommended.
Fitness Workbooks & Journals
The fitness industry has taken advantage of kitting and assembling for quite some time and is one of Print Bind Ship’s strong points.
In these kits, there is usually a fitness item or piece of equipment, a workbook or workout journal, and maybe even an exercise DVD all packaged together in one bundle. The utilitarianism of these bundles are popular with customers because they provide multiple touchpoints to their core want, that simply buying a DVD or workbook by themselves wouldn’t.
Self Improvement Kits
Companies that provide self-improvement products, such as skin care, cosmetics or essential oils excel at creating kits. Their individual products are typically small by themselves, which means when they kit and assemble them together, new awesome products can be created to match a wide variety of customer needs, while also providing specificity.
For example, a cosmetic kit can include everything you would need to apply makeup correctly.
Corporate Gifts & Promotions
If companies are looking for giveaways for promotional efforts, there may not be a better way to do it than making a custom swag kit. Custom corporate gifts are not just a great way to show off your company’s logo. They can provide cool corporate gifts, unique company swag and a great way to promote your business positively.
Print Bind Ship for Your Kitting Needs
3PL companies such as Print Bind Ship are geared towards working on all aspects of fulfillment to benefit your business. In terms of kitting and assembly, if your business tries to manage this, it could be extremely time-consuming and expensive.
Going at it on your own, you may not be equipped to handle the inventory storage, or it could be expensive to find a warehouse to work with. Another overlooked aspect is that you may have to deal with returns which can be complicated and overwhelming.
Print Bind Ship is equipped to help with all of parts of the kitting and assembly process. We’re experts with over 60 years of experience in order fulfillment, printing, custom packaging, and more! Our goal is to help you deliver the best products to your customers and boost your branding with custom tools – from turning your own packaging designs into reality to smart targeting with direct mail campaigns. Get in touch to learn how we can boost your brand!
FAQs
Kitting and assembling refers to the process of grouping and packaging together multiple products or components to fulfill customer orders. This is especially helpful for eCommerce orders that contain bundled items or products with many parts.
While you might not need a 3PL for kitting and assembly, you’ll need to have a fully functional fulfillment center, warehousing, assembly line, inventory management, and logistics team in place, so hiring a 3PL will save you time, money, and space.
If you sell bundled products, kits, gift sets, or products with multiple parts like furniture, kitting and assembling by your 3PL can help streamline your order fulfillment. It saves you time and labor costs of having to manually pick and pack all individual items.
Benefits of outsourcing kitting and assembling to a 3PL like Print Bind Ship, include reduced touch points, higher accuracy, quicker order processing, professional packaging, and reduced shipping costs by sending complete kits. It also allows you to focus more on sales and marketing.
Common products that require kitting include bundled apparel, cosmetic gift sets, electronics kits, hardware kits, and products with multiple parts like furniture, toys, sporting goods, and more!