Simpl Fulfillment glossary

A 3PL (third-party logistics provider) is a company that stores your inventory, picks and packs your orders, and ships them to your customers. Ecommerce brands hand fulfillment to a 3PL so they can put their time into product, marketing, and growth instead of packing boxes.

Anticipation inventory is stock you build up ahead of a demand spike you can see coming — a seasonal peak, a product launch, a planned promo. Unlike a speculative bet, it's stock staged against demand you have real reason to expect.

Cross-docking is a logistics method where inbound goods move straight from a receiving dock to an outbound truck with little or no storage in between. Product is unloaded, sorted, and reloaded within hours, so it flows through the warehouse instead of sitting on a shelf.

Deadstock is inventory that stops selling and just sits — product you've paid for that isn't moving and isn't likely to. It ties up cash, eats storage, and gets counted every cycle without ever shipping, which makes it one of the quietest drains on a growing brand.

Dimensional weight (DIM weight) is a pricing method carriers use that bases shipping cost on a package's size, not just its actual weight. If a box is large but light, carriers charge for the space it takes up, so a big, underfilled package can cost more to ship than its scale weight suggests.

Kitting is the process of combining several individual products into one ready-to-ship package, such as a bundle, gift set, or subscription box, stored and sold under a single SKU. In fulfillment, kits are built before orders arrive, so the finished package ships as fast as any single item.

Lead time is the total time between when a customer places an order and when it arrives at their door. In ecommerce, it covers order processing, pick and pack, and shipping transit, so shortening any one stage cuts the wait your customer actually feels.

Order fulfillment is the full process of getting a product to a customer after they buy: receiving inventory, storing it, picking and packing each order, and shipping it out. It is everything that happens between the checkout button and the package on the doorstep.

Pick and pack is the core of order fulfillment: a worker picks the right items off warehouse shelves for each order, then packs them safely for shipping. It's the step between an order hitting your store and a labeled box heading out the door to your customer.

A reorder point is the stock level that triggers a new purchase order. When a SKU drops to its reorder point, you order more, timed so fresh stock arrives before you run out. It's the line between healthy inventory and a stockout.

Reverse logistics is everything that happens when a product moves backward through the supply chain: a customer returns an order, and it is received, inspected, then restocked, refurbished, or disposed of. For DTC brands, it is the operational side of returns.

Safety stock is the buffer inventory you hold on purpose to cover the surprises — a demand spike, a late supplier, a bad forecast. It's the cushion between your reorder timing and a stockout, sized to keep you selling when reality doesn't match the plan.

A SKU (stock keeping unit) is the unique code a brand assigns to each distinct product it sells and stores. Every size, color, and bundle gets its own SKU, so inventory can be counted, picked, and tracked down to the exact variant.

SKU rationalization is the process of reviewing every SKU you sell and deciding which ones to keep, cut, or consolidate. Brands run it to strip out slow, unprofitable, and redundant products so inventory dollars and warehouse space go to the SKUs that actually earn their shelf.