Kitting & Assembly Solutions

Assembling a lot of orders and carrying out the kitting process yourself can be a very time-consuming task.

At e2b, we know that the customer experience is vital in ecommerce. So let us, the ecommerce fulfilment experts, help you streamline that experience with our dedicated kitting services. We aim to streamline your operations, enhance your brand experience and make you more money!

What is kitting (Co-Packing)?

Kitting (Co-Packing) and assembly involve consolidating multiple products into a single SKU (stock-keeping unit) before your customer’s orders are fulfilled.

This process can range from simple actions, like unwrapping or labelling individual SKUs, to more complex kitting, such as combining different products into a single kit. For example, a selection of beverages may include items from various suppliers, packed together and sold as one SKU i.e complex advent calendar.

Kitting often requires custom packaging or arranging items in a specific order, ensuring the final product is ready for shipment.

This service, offered by specialist 3PL companies like e2b, allows businesses like yours to create customised packs or kits which will help streamline the kitting process and generate more revenue.

The process – how kitting (Co-packing) works

The kitting process will differ for every business depending on the size of the company and also the size of the project. However, for many ecommerce businesses, these are the simple steps of the kitting process.

Step 1 – Choose what’s included – You first need to decide what items will be included in the kit. Items are usually kitted together based on a theme or an offer.

Step 2 – Create a new SKU – After the items are decided, it’s time to create a new SKU for this kit. This will then make the kit a sellable item in your store. This SKU will need to be added to your inventory system.

Step 3 – Assembly – The assembly of the kit is the most time-consuming part. This is where everything in your kit is gathered and is placed in a box, bundle or hamper ready to be dispatched when required.

Step 4 – List the kit for sale – Once you have the kits ready, it’s time to create a new product listing for it. This is where we can carry out our pick and pack fulfilment service when needed.

We can help throughout this process and apply our expertise and technology to streamline the process for your business.

Kitting fulfilment project for a major beer brand

In a recent project, we managed a large-scale kitting activity for one of the world’s leading beer brands which contained 18 different items. These included products like snacks, t-shirts, countertop displays and more. These were picked and packed according to the requirements agreed with the brand and distributed nationally to the on-trade. Learn more about our recent kitting fulfilment project.

Kitting vs Bundling

Often kitting, or co-packing as it is also referred to, and bundling get confused with each other within the industry. This is an easy mistake to make as both can offer the selling of multiple products under one SKU.

Full kitting enables ecommerce operational efficiency, as each group of items is pre-collected and kitted together. Bundling is often picking one item at a time and therefore can slow down the process.

Although bundling is still a popular choice for simplicity, if you are partnered with a 3pl company like e2b, we can help provide simple or complex kitting fulfilment services that will help improve your efficiency and process, whilst still allowing you time to focus on other business needs.

The benefits of kitting

There are many benefits to partnering with a 3pl specialist to help you with kitting fulfilment. Below are our three main benefits:

Demand – If you are kitting in-house or do not have an efficient kitting process, you may struggle to keep up with demand. This can result in inaccuracies and unhappy customers. Working with e2b and our range of fulfilment services will enable you to keep up with demand, with our extensive expertise, flexibility, resources and technology.

Cost & time – When fulfilling orders for a kit, warehouse staff will only have to pick one item therefore this is already a saving of time. Couple this with a 3pl company such as e2b who can provide cost-effective solutions and a full end-to-end service, and this can save you a lot of time, effort and money.

Shipping – Reducing the time spent on fulfilment allows businesses to speed up their shipping process. By utilising kitting, companies prepare products in advance, leading to faster order completion. This approach minimises the time required for orders to be prepared and shipped.

If you want to find out how e2b could help you with kitting then contact us, we’ll be happy to help. Alternatively, you can check out all the fulfilment services we offer. 