Order fulfillment is an essential component of online selling. Order processing includes storing, sorting, and delivering products to customers. Order fulfillment can be automated or outsourced to a specialty provider. Understanding how order fulfillment works are vital to finding the best solutions for your online store. Keep reading to find out the most important factors when looking for fulfillment services. You need to make sure that you get to choose the best order fulfillment company for your needs.
Order fulfillment is taking an order and delivering quality customer service.
Order fulfillment is taking an order from a customer, filling the order, and shipping it to the customer. It involves various steps, including taking inventory, picking products, shipping, and quality control. The process is critical to the success of a company. Inefficient order fulfillment practices can lead to returns and damages. Using efficient order fulfillment practices will increase customer satisfaction, retain customers, and boost your startup.
A well-run fulfillment process is an essential part of the sale process. Getting the order right is necessary because a perfect order means it is complete, on time, undamaged, and accompanied by the required paperwork. Customer satisfaction is also essential, as customers want their product or service as quickly as possible. A late or damaged package will ruin a customer’s experience, and they’re unlikely to forgive a company that can’t meet these demands.
It involves storing, sorting, and delivering products to customers.
“Fulfillment” refers to storing, sorting, and delivering products. The fulfillment services provider receives and keeps products on behalf of a company. Once the order is placed, the fulfillment service provider processes it to deliver it to the customer. The fulfillment service provider uses a warehouse or multiple fulfillment centers to process the product to achieve this goal. This creates a flexible shipping solution. Typically, fulfillment service providers charge by the hour or per pallet. Combined costs include receiving, storage, picking and packing, shipping, kitting, and returns.
There are various types of fulfillment services: front-of-the-house storage and back-of-the-house storage. The former places high-performance items at the front of the warehouse while the latter stores low-performing products at the back. For example, an order fulfillment service company can help an e-commerce company purchase inventory from the manufacturer and store it efficiently.
You can automate it.
While many aspects of running a business can be done manually, mundane tasks should be automated to reduce time spent on administrative work. These activities include manually inputting shipping information, copying customer returns, and monitoring inventory levels. When choosing a fulfillment provider, look for one who understands the value of time. Small businesses can easily handle orders manually, but larger companies need more time to focus on strategy. Automate these mundane tasks and free up your time to focus on the most critical elements of running the business.
Automation can also help in the post-purchase phase of order fulfillment. The 3PL can set up automated email notifications, ensuring a consistent flow of communication. Many retailers ignore reverse logistics when looking to automate fulfillment. Yet the cost of returns in the U.S. alone is estimated at $500 billion by 2020. Automated reverse logistics can reduce these costs by more than 50 percent. Automation can help with this aspect of order fulfillment, which often gets neglected when automating e-commerce fulfillment.