What is Fulfillment?
In the simplest of terms Fulfillment is a promise that all parties involved in a Frequent Buyer Program will be rightly reimbursed the cost of a free good or discounted item. In a Distributor Fulfilled Program the Distributor you chose to enroll with is fulfilling that promise of reimbursement made by the Brand Manufacturer to you. In a Retailer Fulfilled Program you are responsible for securing that promise yourself.
Here at Astro we offer a couple of different fulfillment types to meet the needs of our manufacturers and retailers. Fulfillment types indicate how your credits will be reimbursed and who is responsible for ensuring the retailer gets their credits. Our two most common fulfillment types are
Distributor Fulfilled and Retailer Fulfilled.
Retailer Fulfilled
This is Astro’s second most common fulfillment type. This is the fulfillment type used for our
Tracking Programs. Under this fulfillment type it is the retailer who is responsible for managing their own credits. Retailer Fulfilled Programs are typically set up for manufacturers who are not participating Astro Alliance members or who prefer to have their reps handle all frequent buyer credits. Retailer fulfillment is offered largely as a tracking convenience to Astro retailers and all fulfillment of credits must be negotiated directly with the manufacturer.
Retailer fulfillment works like this:
- Your customer comes in and redeems a free good.
- This free good is automatically added to your Retailer Free Goods Credit Batches report as a New Reward.
- You can then roll these New Rewards into Batch Reports.
- You can generate your Batch Reports weekly, bi- weekly, monthly -- whichever works best for you.
- You can export your Batch Reports as either printable PDFs or as email-able Excel Sheets.
- You can then submit (mail or email) your Batch Reports directly to the manufacturer or your brand rep per the requirements you have negotiated with them.
- You Mark the Batch as Fulfilled once your manufacturer or brand rep has issued you your credit.
It’s pretty simple. Astro gives you the tools to more accurately track your Retailer Fulfilled Frequent Buyer Programs for your customers, and you are able to generate simple reports easily to report those free goods to your fulfillment partner for crediting.
Astro is not responsible for ensuring credits for any program designated as Retailer Fulfilled. Retailers assume all responsibility for credit fulfillment for Retailer Fulfilled programs.