Kitting Doesn’t Have to Be a Grinch

It was a quarter past dawn,
All the Whos, still a-bed,
All the Whos, still a-snooze,
When he packed up his sled.
Packed it up with their presents.
The ribbons! The wrappings!
The tags! And the tinsel! The trimmings! The trappings!
Three thousand feet up! Up the side of Mt. Crumpit,
He rode with his load to the tiptop to dump it.

Kitting Doesn’t Have to Be a Grinch

While the Grinch’s picking and packing methods are certainly unique, stealthy, and thorough (and the one speck of food that he left in the house, was a crumb that was even too small for a mouse), you might consider a more organized, efficient, and cost-effective method of packaging promotional materials and items for sale this season, and all year.

Delzer can help. Our warehousing and fulfillment department offers kitting capabilities that can help you move products or marketing materials with ease, saving you time and money that can be better spent on other endeavors.

What is Kitting?

The concept of kitting is pretty simple, but a lot of business owners and marketers don’t think about the huge advantages it offers. Kitting is the assembly of individual items in ready-to-ship sets, or kits. The assembled kits can be assigned a unique SKU number for tracking and inventory purposes.

Kitting can be done in advance with the assembled packages stored until they are needed or ordered. Or kitting can be done on an as-needed basis, with all the components available and ready to be assembled on demand.

If you’re thinking about kitting for certain products or materials, using an outside vendor—or third party logistics (3PL) company—to handle it all is practically a no-brainer. Without a little help from an expert, your kitting and distribution efforts might more closely resemble the Grinch’s frenetic trip through Who-ville and up Mt. Crumpit than the carefully planned, perfectly executed process that you need to be successful.

When is Kitting a Good Idea?

Kitting is a low-cost way to move inventory and create a sense of purpose around a particular set of items. Holiday gift packs, travel packs, and corporate gifts are common kitting applications.

Kitting is also ideal for distributing marketing or promotional materials like product samples, instructional or demonstration packets and CDs, display materials, product launch materials, dealer and franchise supplies, and much more.

While kitting doesn’t make sense for everything, it does make sense when you have products that naturally go together and you can create natural efficiencies by packaging them together. Kitting can also help you boost sales of a particular item that is otherwise difficult to sell.

Let’s say you have some Who-pudding, Who-hash, and roast beast ready to sell for the holidays. The roast-beast and the Who-pudding are top sellers, but the Who-hash is a slow mover. By kitting the three products together in a special holiday pack, you can create an easy shopping experience for your customers and sell more of the lagging Who-hash. You might even be able to sell the package at a premium price and increase your profits across the board.

Why Use a 3PL for Your Kitting Needs?

Kitting is a great idea for gaining efficiencies in your marketing and sales efforts. But doing it yourself probably won’t produce the results you need.

By using a 3PL vendor like Delzer, you can prepare your business goodies together in a single, attractive package. You also spare your staff the hassle of putting them together (not to mention minimize space, time, and financial constraints).

Using a 3PL offers:

• Physical resources for packaging, fulfillment, and warehousing
• Lower shipping costs through distribution and warehousing advantages
• Reduced operating costs through efficiencies, economies of scale, and ability to react to seasonal fluctuations
• Better customer service with reliable returns and exchanges
• Ability to ship and deliver to any part of the world
• Use of latest technology for processing and packaging technology, inventory management, security, shipping and carrier selection, payment processing, and more

Delzer’s 3PL Solutions

At Delzer, we can help you with all of your kitting, warehousing, and logistics needs. All you need is a great idea, and we’ll handle the rest. (And we can probably help with the idea, too.)

• Store: Seamless storage, ordering, picking, packing and delivery begins in our warehousing and fulfillment center. We store your materials so you don’t have to.
• Order: Order and manage your print or kitting materials using a Delzer-hosted online storefront tailored to your business. Plus, keep your content fresh and up-to-date with our Print On Demand (POD) services.
• Kit: We prepare your customized materials to your specifications, and then your completed kits stay in our warehouse until you need them. Or, we can build them on demand.
• Pack: We prepare your products for delivery.
• Deliver: We make sure your packages get where they need to go, on time, so you can focus on other tasks.