Ecommerce fulfillment ensures that orders from your online store reach your customers without any hassle. Learn how it works.
Ecommerce Fulfillment and Shipping
On this page
What is ecommerce fulfillment?
How does fulfillment work for ecommerce?
Three strategies for ecommerce fulfillment
Final thoughts
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In today's world of online business, making a purchase can seem like magic: you click a button, your credit card is charged, and within days the product arrives at your door.
However, the process behind getting an order to you, known as “ecommerce fulfillment,” is much more complex. It includes everything from picking up the products at the warehouse to the logistics that ensure efficient delivery.
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Ecommerce fulfillment is an incredibly complex network that requires coordination between companies, time zones, transportation modes, and many people to ensure your package arrives on time and in perfect condition.
What is ecommerce fulfillment?
Ecommerce fulfillment is the process from selecting and packaging products to delivering them to the end customer. It is a process that includes maintaining an up-to-date inventory, locating products where they are stored (whether in a warehouse or a physical store), preparing and packaging orders, and managing logistics to ensure timely and efficient delivery to customers.
How does fulfillment work for ecommerce?
Fulfillment for ecommerce is one of the most complex parts of managing an online store, as it requires highly refined logistics. Large companies invest millions in optimizing these processes to make them faster and more efficient. Although there are many aspects involved, the six main procedures are usually:
Inventory management. This process involves ordering and storing raw materials, product components, or finished goods. Since most online stores do not manufacture their own products, inventory management is essential to fulfillment. It is essential to be clear about what products you have available before you can process a customer order.
Warehousing. This process is responsible for storing products that are ready for sale and their subsequent shipment. You can manage this yourself if you have the necessary space and resources, or delegate it to an external storage service.
Order Receiving. At this stage, your business receives orders from customers.
Packaging. This process involves preparing products for shipment. This may include wrapping them in custom branded packaging and using protective materials to ensure they reach the customer in perfect condition during transport.
Shipping . Shipping involves choosing and managing the right transportation method or service to get products from the warehouse to the end customer. Buyers value receiving an accurate estimate of delivery times before making a purchase, and meeting those deadlines is critical. Unexpected delays are one of the biggest sources of dissatisfaction. If you can offer two-day shipping, great! But if that's not possible, communicate a realistic time frame up front to avoid problems.
Returns . Returns are the process by which items that do not meet customer expectations are sent back to the warehouse to be processed, cataloged, and, if possible, resold or reshipped.