Nowadays, traditional commerce is replaced by the cutting-edge form of trade so-called eCommerce which revolutionized concepts of purchase and sale. Through eCommerce, your customer doesn’t need to but in person, while he/she can be anywhere in the world and you can present your goods and services to anyone at any distance from you anytime! But as the traditional form has its own limits, eCommerce, despite of many advantages, has never been without challenges.
A successful eCommerce order fulfillment can be named the most critical challenge in this field. This process should properly meet the ultimate supply chain needs, and if this process fails or if it is done inappropriately, the whole supply chain fails. Here in this article, we present the key factors to a successful eCommerce order fulfillment process.
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Table of Contents
What is Successful eCommerce Order Fulfillment and how to do it?
Order fulfillment is the act of storing the goods, picking and packing them, and dispatching them to customers from anywhere in the world. The order fulfillment can be performed by your own facilities or performed by a third-party logistics provider. If your business has a great client base and you receive many orders, it would better to assign the fulfillment operations to a third-party company.
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For Successful eCommerce Order Fulfillment
Keep an eye on your inventory
If you receive an order and you had already run out of the product, this would be such a catastrophe for your business. You might lose your customers and it is hard to reach the former popularity. Therefore, counting the items is an essential key factor to successful eCommerce order fulfillment. You can ensure the product counts using some warehouse management applications which help you inspect always your whole inventory in the warehouse.
Implementing the SKU on your products
The SKU (stock keeping units) which is known by the familiar scannable barcodes, is another vital key factor that keeps your inventory organized and helps you pick and pack them correctly. Using an organizational format in your warehouse would let you take less time for finding the goods and let you take more time on other fulfillment processes like packing and delivery. The SKU barcodes are an efficient technology for the sellers to accelerate the order preparation and consequently cause more customer satisfaction.
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The picking step
When you receive an order through your website, you should first of all track the goods among your whole inventory to pick and mediate it into the packaging operation. As explained before, using SKU barcodes or warehouse management software and systems can for sure accelerate this step. Your inventory database should be always up to date and warns you if you are going short of a product.
If you benefit from a third-party logistics service provider, the picking step becomes easier as the third-party company tracks your ordered products in its own organized warehouses without any error and starts the packaging operation in a quick manner.
The packaging operation
The very first thing that your customer observe once received the order, is the package. You can improve your customer satisfaction by performing the best packaging operation. This is a key factor to successful eCommerce order fulfillment; the proper and standard packaging step not only boosts your customer experience of purchase but prevents many unexpected damages to the content.
Proper packaging demands standard factors depending on the content. If it is fragile, the package should be hard enough to prevent any breakage. Also if it is an edible item, the package should be customized to the spoiling content. Totally taking time on the packaging is so essential for a successful fulfillment; you may use bubble wrap, or poly bags to keep it safe and secure.
Read more about: How to Enhance Customer Loyalty And Fulfillment Experience
Sending the order to your customer
The ultimate step in the fulfillment process is to ship the order to the right destination. Do not forget to receive as much contact information from the customer as possible such as two telephone numbers and alternative addresses and to determine who is going to receive the order.
The order should be able to be tracked in every step of the fulfillment process. The customer feels better if he/she can track the order and can estimate the processing time.
The shipping should be safe too. The best choice for shipping is to use a third-party company which is specialized in shipping orders regardless of the weight and distance and the particular conditions of the shipping such as fragile or spoiling items. If your customer is abroad, you should be aware of the shipping costs and you should inform the customer about the excess fees that cost in the fulfillment process. Also, you should be aware of the transit affairs in the destination country.
The shipping price and rate
Offering a free shipping option can impress your customer significantly and improve your eCommerce function. The best strategy for free shipping is to set a minimum cart price or to set a minimum purchase amount.
Moreover, you can set some optional rates for more services for your customers. If you want to fulfill your eCommerce orders successfully, you should place more options to your audiences and collect a broad client base through this strategy; For example, offering the order insurance or express shipping.
Other services you may offer to your customer can be exchanged or returned of the item, but you should be prudent about this service, which may affect your revenue significantly. Another service you can offer is a warranty. If you are sure about your product quality, you can place a warranty which can ensure the customer and decrease post-purchase worries. The warranty has its own challenges as well as if your product doesn’t meet the expected standards of your client, you undergo an excess cost to resolve the problems.
The final word
In case you need a professional consultation about how to fulfill the eCommerce orders successfully without any trouble and excess challenges, feel free to contact the Delgate group, which does its bests to provide you with quality service and a personalized solution for you.
