Three key forces which are converging to create an explosion in consumer-direct business models are  technology forces which make it possible, market forces that make it viable and social forces to make it inevitable. In the current business environment, customers are highly demanding about aspects such as timeliness of delivery, convenience and lower fulfillment costs. As a result, all the stakeholders across supply chain must become highly responsive and efficient. Consumer direct fulfillment offers customers to select and configure products, get a real time price quote and receive assured delivery on committed date.

It is necessary that businesses which are striving for satisfying customers online should dynamically change their business model to make consumer-direct retailing and manufacturing attractive to the customer. Direct fulfillment provides opportunity to must re-evaluate complete fulfillment business model including important aspects such as promotions, merchandising, product selection, pricing, supplier relations, technical management, distribution, replacement and after sales service.

The current financial crisis has forced governments worldwide to consider emergency measures so to address avoid an economy sliding into recession. To tackle these challenge retailers should manage the high cost of carrying inventory by finding ways to control impact of inventory on operating costs. As a result, increasing number of suppliers adopting Supplier-Direct Fulfillment strategy to contain the high cost of inventory and reduce overall operating costs. It is also helpful in a situation where shortage of funding and higher interest rates. In Supplier-Direct Fulfillment, orders are sent directly to suppliers, manufacturers and distributors. They fulfill the order and ship merchandise directly to customers. In Supplier-Direct Fulfillment, retailer never holds any inventory on the balance sheet while purchases it only after receiving payment from the customer.

Increasing number of manufacturers and businesses are adopting direct fulfillment to effectively serve their customer base. Upcoming Motorola DROID 3 would be available via Verizon direct fulfillment starting 7^th July 2011.

In the business industry of today, order fulfillment services are often an element of the infrastructure that is outsourced. There are various reasons for outsourcing this key component in the business. One such factor is protecting the secrets and values of the company. For example, a canned goods company could easily outsource these services. However, this type of company would not be willing to risk losing certain recipes in this manner.

Order fulfillment services are greatly utilized in today’s businesses with vast majority of the purchases by consumers being made online. Many of these services also include taking orders from customers, filling orders, dispatch of orders as well as monitoring a order to make sure it reaches its destination.

In selecting ideal order fulfillment services for a company, there are several aspects that should be thoroughly considered. The type of product that is being handled is important. Products should be considered by their weight, fragility, durability and much more. Companies would not choose services that mainly deal in paper items if they were marketing heavy machinery. This will only result in higher fees billed to the company because the service provider must go beyond their usual scope to fill the order.

When choosing order fulfillment services, the location is another key element. Companies should think about their office location, service company location and the location of their customers. The service company should be located in a central position which will ultimately save money for everyone.

A service provider’s size is a determining factor in its selection by a company. A smaller company will only need a smaller provider while a large company will require a much larger service provider. Customers will want to know the status of their orders such as where, when and how they will be delivered. Companies should make sure that the provider they choose has excellent monitoring techniques for everyone involved in the process.