Order fulfillment handles the logistics from the point of ordering a product to its delivery. It might often involve complication, if order return is involved too.
This procedure might be very basic, with a few steps or often involves complexity — including multiple organizations, geographic regions, and different regulations.
Contents
The following listed are the common indicative for order fulfillment cycle:
- Delivering items towards the storehouse and updating stock levels.
- When such an online order is placed and so as the item is sold.
- Order completion at the warehousing
- Adequate packing to guarantee safe transit
- Accomplishing deliveries with the final route service provider
- Acquiring the item in accordance with returns and complaints
To successfully manage everything related, ecommerce needs an exceptional fulfillment system which should assist the entire business operation — from orders to deliveries!
Now, this article will give a meticulous aid on why to consider fulfillments services — Read further to have a deeper understanding!
How is fulfillment service different from drop shipping?
Order fulfillment comes whenever an ecommerce firm collaborates with either an order fulfillment or shipping services to manage inventories.
Whereas, drop shipping is the process through which a manufacturer manages the shipping and merchants merely advertise items on their platforms.
Take note that a drop shipper doesn’t have inventory — All items remain with both the supplier or manufacturer, and usually the manufacturer itself dispatches products straight to the buyer.
Why consider fulfillment service for your ecommerce company?
Here are the following reasons to consider fulfillment service:
- Freedom to manage your own Fulfillment: Perfect upon whenever you wish to — personalize your delivery; Inclusion of freebies with your items; shipment towards underdeveloped areas; Endeavoring another delivery service and many more! So, if you want that degree of control regarding your fulfillment —order fulfillment services are a reasonable approach for you.
- Develop your own product line: Product line development is quite necessary for creating your own brand. Drop shipping might often be an alternative to marketing, yet, maintaining your own inventory with fulfillment services enhance product line development. It also improves the shelf-space, thus offering higher product visibility.
- Manage your own inventory: You may face tremendous hardships and losses if ever shipping your items run out of inventory. Unless, when you own your personal inventory—you may control the quantity of items as per you desire. Fulfillment services track the inventory level & ensure that order replacement is done prior to exhaustion.
- Obtain and distribute real-time shipment updates: Shipments and logistics for large manufacturers may become extremely hectic over the holidays, therefore, collaborating with a specialized order fulfillment services that include a shipment update option–allows you to provide additional details to your customer along on the shipment process.
- Optimize your packaging & incentives: You may wish to explore with order fulfillment tactics to increase sales such as discounts and enjoyable promo! Consequently, this is only limited with drop shipping, since manufacturers are the ones who hold the control.
Conclusion
Based on the research we found that by 2025 — ecommerce will account for nearly one-quarter of all retail sales. Therefore, it is still a good choice to enter the e-commerce world.
However, if you do decide to sell digitally — you’ll need dependable order fulfillment services and partnership to guarantee that your firm delivers on its expectations and creates confidence within your existing customers.
Thus, these terms will make certain that your business continues to flourish in the longer run!