Swimwear Fulfillment

Swim demand is shaped by weather and travel. For many brands it builds through spring, peaks into summer, and comes back for holiday travel and warm-weather trips in the colder months. Some brands sell resort and cruise collections that follow a different rhythm. Your own sales history is the best guide.

What every swim brand shares is a short window. A style that arrives three weeks late has lost a meaningful part of its season. That puts pressure on production timing, but also on receiving: stock that sits on a dock waiting to be counted is stock that is not selling during the weeks that matter.

Inbound cartons are checked against your advance shipping notice, inspected for damage, scanned and photographed, then slotted within one business day. Anything that does not match is flagged in your portal.

Plan the season backward from when you want the first orders to ship. Read apparel inventory forecasting and apparel peak season fulfillment.

Many swim brands sell tops and bottoms separately, because bodies do not come in matching sizes. That is the right call for fit and for returns. It also means one print is two products, each with its own size run, and an order can easily include a medium top and a small bottom in the same print.

Prints make it harder. Two colorways of the same floral can look alike under warehouse lights. That is why every size and print gets its own location, and every unit is scanned at the pick before it goes in the mailer. A mis-pick in swim usually means a return, because a customer will not wear a bottom that does not match the top.

Fixed sets can also be built to stock ahead of a launch, so the pick is one scan instead of two. Read apparel kitting for when that makes sense.

Swim returns are different from most apparel. Many brands only accept unworn swim with tags attached and the hygiene liner in place, and some do not accept bottoms at all. Those are policy decisions for your brand and your customers. Our job is to apply your rule consistently, item by item.

Returns are processed and logged within 48 hours of receipt, and many are handled the same day. Each item is inspected and restocked, discarded or donated by the rules you set.

How a returned swim piece is handled

1. The customer starts a return through your portal or returns app. Our integrations directory includes Loop, Happy Returns, AfterShip Returns, Narvar and ReturnGo.
2. The item is received and scanned against the return.
3. It is inspected against your rules: tags, liner, signs of wear, damage and the return reason given.
4. It is restocked, set aside, discarded, donated or sent back to you, as your rules say.
5. A refund or exchange is triggered on receipt or after inspection, whichever you prefer.

Write the rule down plainly before you go live, with photos of what passes and what does not. A clear rule is easier to apply and easier to explain to a customer who disagrees. Monthly return reports by SKU then show you which styles come back and why. Read apparel returns and exchanges.

Swim folds small and weighs very little, so a right-sized poly mailer usually does the job and keeps shipping costs down. If your brand ships swim in a box or a pouch for presentation, that is fine too. Box size affects what carriers charge, so it is worth knowing the trade-off. Read poly mailer or box for apparel?.

Packing follows your own standard operating procedures for folding, bagging and packing: tissue, a care card, a size guide, a sticker, a thank-you note, a branded mailer you supply. Your instructions are written at the station with photos so every order matches.

Swim also ships as gifts, especially before trips and holidays. Gift notes, gift packaging and gift-with-purchase pieces can be added by rule. Read apparel packaging and unboxing.

In swim, a print rarely sells out evenly. The middle sizes go first, and with separates, tops and bottoms sell out at different speeds. A print can look healthy on paper while the size most customers need is gone.

Weekly reporting from your account manager covers service levels, shipping costs and inventory status, so size breaks show up early. When a restock is coming, tell your account manager and it goes to the front of receiving. Labeled inbound with an advance shipping notice is received and slotted within one business day.

Read restock fulfillment and size curve planning for how to order the right mix in the first place.

Storage is by pallet, shelf or bin, based on the space your inventory actually uses, and pro-rated daily. Invoices are weekly. There is no committed footprint, so when the season ends and inventory shrinks, so does the storage bill.

Leftover prints still carry a cost every day they sit. Decide what to hold for next season, what to mark down, and what to move through outlets or bundles, and decide it in late summer rather than in spring. Read dead stock in apparel.

Swim brands often sell to boutiques, resort shops and larger retailers alongside their own site. Wholesale purchase orders ship from the same warehouse and inventory as website orders, as parcels or palletized freight.

Purchase orders are reviewed and routed per retailer, with retail-compliant and GS1 labels, advance shipping notices, EDI for major retailers and palletized freight. Read apparel wholesale and retail fulfillment.

Agree how much stock is held for each channel before the season, so a big boutique order does not leave your site short of the core sizes. Read allocating stock between DTC and wholesale.

Your account manager works on site at our Anaheim fulfillment center, in the same building as your inventory. When something is urgent you call and talk to a person who can walk to the shelf and fix it. Call anytime. We are here. We got you.

All client requests are acknowledged within two hours, and support is never outsourced. When a print is selling faster than planned or a return rule needs a judgment call, you talk to someone who can walk to the shelf and look. Read about on-site account management.

For the full list, read the apparel 3PL checklist. For what the invoice looks like, read apparel fulfillment pricing.

1. Talk to us about your catalog, channels, monthly order volume and busiest weeks. You speak with the people who would run your account.
2. We connect your store, map every size and variant, and run test orders before any inventory moves.
3. You write down your packing and return rules with photos, and we put them at the packing and returns stations.
4. You send inventory with an advance shipping notice. It is received, photographed and slotted within one business day.
5. Orders switch over. Your account manager sends weekly reporting on service levels, shipping costs and inventory status.

If you are moving from another warehouse, plan the switch for a quiet stretch, not right before your peak. Read switching apparel 3PLs.