FFN, FBJ, or FFC – the acronym jungle is not part of a Fantastic 4 song, but has fulfillment in common. But what is what and why does JTL now also do fulfillment itself? In order to clear up the confusion that has arisen recently, we would like to give you an understanding of the big picture.
JTL as a fulfiller?
The cause of the confusion was our quarterly newsletter from Q4 2017, in which we introduced our subsidiary, JTL-Fulfillment-GmbH, in a short paragraph. Fulfillment service providers who are already connected to the JTL fulfillment network were particularly confused – will we be competing with JTL in the future?
Anyone who knows us knows that we like to build on our own experience. JTL’s ranks include various former online retailers and logistics experts who support us with their expertise in user-oriented development. We also use the software we have developed ourselves to cover a wide range of internal processes. For example, we are currently working on the new JTL-Store for our website, where you will be able to purchase all services related to our solutions in the future. It is based on our JTL-Shop and JTL-Connector products.
What does this have to do with fulfillment from JTL? We would also like to further expand our expertise in this exciting field. Internally, I formulated this some time ago as follows:
Good knowledge of the processes is essential when a Company sets out to serve a new area such as fulfillment technologically.
We have made it our mission to significantly reduce process costs for retailers and fulfillers. For the latter, too, everything should be as automated as possible, whether it’s adding new customers to the product page or billing them.
To this end, we set up a fulfillment think tank last year. This was a panel of experts in which we discussed this topic with industry professionals. It quickly became clear that although we know the retailer side well, we could benefit greatly from more hands-on knowledge on the fulfillment side. To this end, we divided the topic of fulfillment into three important core areas:
JTL fulfillment - the service
Shortly after the ThinkTank, the decision was made: “Cobbler, get to know your lasts properly.” We started planning our own fulfillment system that would work hand in hand with JTL-Wawi, JTL-WMS, the workflows and JTL-Shipping in order to better mature the JTL-Fulfillment Network (JTL-FFN). This was the birth of JTL-Fulfillment-GmbH and the associated service “Fulfillment by JTL“.
With this service, we want to be available to selected customers as a fulfiller. At the same time, we get to know the processes that such a fulfiller goes through with our products down to the smallest detail. The positive side effect of this is that we can also put our marketplace and store connections through their paces to an even greater extent. In a way, Fulfillment by JTL is a fulfillment service, but above all it is also our internal test laboratory for the JTL-FFN in order to better meet the needs of the participants there. And the concept is working – we can already see where there is room for improvement.
The fulfillment technology
Internally, the technology at the heart of the JTL-Fulfillment Network is known as the Fulfillment Cloud (FFC). JTL-Fulfillment-GmbH is of course also integrated into this. It is this technology that enables the networking of retailers and fulfillers. It exchanges all the data required for professional fulfillment between the participants – either via our own ERP or a REST API that enables the integration of other solutions. You can find out what advantages this has for retailers in particular on our landing page Remove from stock – fulfillment for retailers.
An important component of this fulfillment cloud is the fulfillment portal. This enables retailers to store goods with a fulfiller even without using specific solutions.
The fulfillment community
We call the “community” or “network” all the people who are connected by the technology: all current and future fulfillment service providers as well as retailers and manufacturers willing to store goods. In our recent interview with MIMO GmbH, you were given an exemplary insight into the emerging community. And it is precisely this community that we aim to expand in the coming months as soon as we enter the open beta phase with the fulfillment technology.
The big picture
The people combined with the technology ultimately represent our network, which you can access via the JTL-FFN portal page. Fulfillment by JTL in turn uses the JTL-FFN, but also helps to further mature our internal processes. In order to support you in the future as an expert for fulfillment and online business, it was essential for us to know both sides in detail. This will also enable us to offer fulfillment service providers a coherent and user-oriented service in the future.
We will keep you up to date on the JTL-Fulfillment Network, or more precisely the fulfillment technology, in the coming weeks.
