What is e-Commerce fulfillment?
You can have the greatest product in the world, but if you can’t get it to your customers safely and on time, it won’t mean much. Successful eCommerce businesses all have one thing in common: terrific e-Commerce fulfillment services. For this reason, choosing a fulfillment company for your eCommerce business is a crucial decision.
E-Commerce fulfillment is the part of your eCommerce operation that delivers your products to customers. Your e-fulfillment processes include several things. Getting product onto fulfillment center shelves is eCommerce fulfillment. Picking and packing orders is order fulfillment. Shipping times and methods are part of your third-party logistics operations.
In truth, e-Commerce fulfillment has been an integral part of your business from the start.
What’s involved in the e-Commerce fulfillment process?
Fulfillment involves more than picking and packing orders. The best e-Commerce fulfillment providers will help your online retail business run seamlessly.
Think of your third-party e-Commerce fulfillment provider as an extension of your business. Outsourcing your fulfillment makes your business agile. You can expand and contract warehouse space as your business needs change. Outsourcing lets you minimize your expense and risk.
There are four basic components of the e-fulfillment process:
- E-Commerce store and fulfillment center integration
- Receiving and inventory management
- Order fulfillment
- Returns processing
Let’s detail what you need to know to take advantage of the power of outsourcing order fulfillment.
How does e-Commerce fulfillment work?
Fulfillment is the lynchpin of your e-Commerce operations. When you understand each of the steps in the process, therefore, you’ll be better able to manage your outsourced e-Commerce fulfillment provider.
- Fulfillment Center Integration
When you think of a fulfillment warehouse, you might imagine rows of shelves filled with products. At its core, however, every good order fulfillment center is a technology company.
Your e-Commerce store should integrate seamlessly with your fulfillment center. Your orders should flow directly to the people who will pack and ship them.
- Receiving and Inventory Management
Pallets of your merchandise ship to your fulfillment warehouse. Then, those pallets get logged into inventory and placed on shelves, ready to fill your orders.
Receiving is the spot where many fulfillment warehouses fall short. When pallets sit on a loading dock, your products aren’t in inventory. Of course, no inventory means no sales. This, as you may have guessed, is bad.
- Order Fulfillment: Pick, Pack, and Ship
When an order arrives, your order fulfillment warehouse will select the right products to put into the box, put them in a perfect box and ship them to your customer. This is the process of picking, packing and shipping.
Accuracy is vital. Mistakes in picking and packing orders can cost you customers.
- Returns Processing: Reverse Logistics
You can’t avoid e-Commerce returns. Ease of returns is important to e-Commerce shoppers. This can be a major factor to drive your sales. Logging in returns is an important function of e-Commerce fulfillment.
The more quickly your fulfillment provider processes returns, the more quickly your customer will get a refund. Efficient returns also get your stock back on the shelf so it’s available to sell again.
Inefficient eCommerce fulfillment can slow the growth of your business. Poorly packed boxes, shipment errors, and delays can lead to dissatisfied customers and bad reviews.
Now you have a solid grounding in the basics of the order fulfillment process. Fulfillment is a core component of your e-Commerce success.
As Main Deep-O, we are here to help you grow your business. For more detailed information, please contact us.
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