In recent years, eCommerce has reached a vast consumer market in various countries all over the world. And with many efforts made by different governments to support online sellers, entrepreneurs are now starting to sell local products internationally. With that in mind, customer’s expectations from eCommerce stores have also increased because what was once considered as an alternative option for buying products has already become the main choice for a growing number of consumers.
As a store owner, it is important to understand that fulfilling orders involve a combination of different processes and departments that work in harmony to deliver your order successfully.
And if you’re interested to know more, then we suggest that you keep on reading as we are going to share the process that you need to follow in providing an ideal eCommerce order fulfillment service to your customers.
Order Fulfillment Explained
Order fulfillment is a system that involves different processes starting from completing a purchase down to monitoring the post-delivery experience of your customer. To be specific, this system covers all the necessary aspects to fulfill a product order such as processing, receiving, and delivery of orders.
Some eCommerce stores handle the order fulfillment themselves while others tend to outsource their operations through dropshipping. A good example of a company that provides exemplary eCommerce order fulfillment service is 1StopFulfillment because they cover all processes involved in selling a product.
What Should Be Done In Order To Provide Excellent Order Fulfillment Service?
Here are steps that you need to follow to provide an ideal order fulfillment service for your eCommerce store:
- Management Of Inventories – First and foremost, you need to be familiar with the stock that you have before processing orders. A properly managed inventory must always be updated and your products are marked with SKU (Stock Keeping Unit).
Likewise, use a warehouse management software if necessary and check for any defective products so you can make arrangements with your supplier for new purchases or replacements.
- Inventory Storage – This is also essential as it dictates how fast your order fulfillment process is. Proper storage is needed to avoid delays provided that your warehouse is optimized to house all your products.
- Receiving – This step goes hand in hand with inventory storage. Through your order fulfillment software, you can sort out delivery dates based on priority. For example, if one of your customers chooses a 1-day delivery service, then you can easily place this order as a top priority.
You also need to send a confirmation email to your customer with an estimated date of delivery to avoid frustrations and that they won’t have to wait longer than what is supposed to.
- Pick-Up – This step involves searching your warehouse to find the product that was ordered by the customer. This order may include one or more products that are placed in different locations in the warehouse.
If your eCommerce store gets many orders, we suggest that you hire a staff that is dedicated only for warehouse logistics to speed up the search. Or better yet, invest in automation software to speed up the pick-up process.
- Packaging – The packaging of the product must be able to withstand the friction caused during transportation. And most importantly, you must make sure that the product is packed properly with adequate levels included and that it should conform to the packing standards of most courier companies.
- Shipping – This is the most important step in the order fulfillment process because you won’t persuade customers to buy any of the products at your online store if you can’t ship it to them.
We advise that you properly evaluate your courier company of choice before making any shipping arrangements as this step often makes or breaks the customer’s impression to your business.
- Return Order Processing – And finally, you have to be prepared in accepting return orders in order to have an edge over the competition since most fulfillment companies end their order fulfillment process during shipping.
Final Thoughts
Overall, these are the steps that you need to follow in providing an ideal eCommerce order fulfillment service to your customers. We hope that you will implement all the things you have learned here to your online store and improve your fulfillment process today.