Your online store may offer excellent customer service, have a wide variety of products, and enjoy stellar sales optimization. But all that is for nothing if you can’t fulfill customer orders.ECommerce fulfillment is everything that happens behind the scenes to complete customer orders. It includes everything that needs to be done in the back end, like purchasing and storing inventory, processing customer orders, picking and packing the items, and arranging transportation to the customer’s delivery address.Returns and exchanges and any reimbursement also fall under eCommerce fulfillment processes. You can manage all your eCommerce fulfillment service in-house using eCommerce fulfillment software. You could also use an eCommerce fulfillment services center to outsource these functions. Using an eCommerce order fulfillment company means you don’t need additional warehouse space to store inventory, manage the logistics of picking and packing, or deal with shipping orders. The order fulfillment services center does all of that for you. A fulfillment company will also deal with the logistics involved with reverse logistics like returns and exchanges. As your company gets larger, it may be worth considering outsourced fulfillment to meet your needs.This could leave you free to manage other aspects of your eCommerce business, like providing excellent customer service, marketing, or sourcing additional products and offerings. As with moving to unified ecommerce, not all eCommerce businesses benefit from using an eCommerce order fulfillment company to run their fulfillment operations, it is still worth looking at as your company grows. It depends on various factors, including fulfillment costs, logistics handling, and inventory capacity.Whether you use a fulfillment company or perform all your ecommerce fulfillment processes in-house, there are a few things that you can focus on and implement in your fulfillment strategy to meet and exceed customer expectations.
1. DeliveryIf your business can’t meet your customers’ delivery expectations, customers will likely turn to a business that offers better customer satisfaction.Offering fast, reliable, and effortless delivery options is vital. Nearly a quarter of online shoppers will abandon an order if you don’t provide them with an expected delivery date. 38% of persons who make online purchases will abandon their carts if the delivery is expected to take longer than a week. Between 15 and 16% of consumers abandon if shipping orders takes between four and five days. In contrast, only 8% of online buyers will abandon their cart if delivery takes three days or less.Consumers want the convenience of online shopping along with the instant gratification they get if they were to visit a brick-and-mortar store. They want their purchases as soon as possible after paying for them.In fact, 69% of online consumers will leave your eCommerce business if their purchase hasn’t been delivered within two days of the promised delivery date.2. Shipping feesShipping fees add to the total that people pay for consumer goods. If a customer has a price in mind and then gets surprised with shipping costs at check-out, they may abandon their cart. The shipping cost could determine whether someone purchases from you or your competitor who offers free shipping on all consumer goods. A quarter of online buyers will abandon their order if you add an unexpected shipping fee right before or during the check-out process.Nearly two-thirds (63%) of online shoppers will cancel a purchase if the shipping fees are too expensive. Many eCommerce companies get around this by offering free or discounted shipping fees. That means that they potentially make less money or, in some cases, lose money on certain sales. Alternatively, they could add at least a portion of the shipping fees to their product prices to offset this expense.Around three-quarters of eCommerce consumers consider free shipping to be very important. Nearly all (94%) have done something to get free shipping. This action could include registering for an account, signing up for a newsletter, or meeting a minimum spend threshold.If it’s possible, establishing distribution centers or even shipping from local brick and mortar stores could help lower shipping costs and meet your clients’ delivery expectations. Alternatively, you could consider using an eCommerce fulfillment services center with locations closer to your customers.Using an eCommerce fulfillment services center that’s located in a rural area may be less expensive to use. On the other hand, you might end up spending more on shipping costs when using an eCommerce fulfillment center in a rural area than you would when using one in an urban area.3. InventoryTo offer affordable shipping and meet your customers’ delivery expectations, you need to have your products on hand. Therefore, it is vital to ensure that you manage your inventory well, have enough stock, and keep track of low-stock items to replenish these items timeously.That means that you need to keep your inventory either at your eCommerce business premises, in an inventory storage facility, or a warehouse. If you are mainly picking, packing, and shipping from your eCommerce business premises, it would make sense to keep your inventory there.On the other hand, if you distribute from another location or fulfillment center, your inventory will need to be placed in the most strategic areas. Focusing on data-driven fulfillment could help you establish where best to store your inventory.Products in your inventory should be well organized and easily accessible. This will make the picking and packing of your products more efficient as you or your employees won’t need to spend time looking for a particular product.You also need a robust inventory management system. An inventory management system will allow you to track your inventory. It will help you see which products sell quicker and thus will need to be restocked more often. It will also allow you to identify low-stock or out-of-stock products that need to be replenished.More than that, an inventory management system will indicate which products are less popular and could potentially be dropped from your offering. This could free up storage space and allow your business to run more efficiently as you no longer need to accommodate the logistics required to source and store products that don’t sell well.Avoiding out-of-stock situations means that you would be able to meet your customers’ needs more effectively and consistently. Unless a customer is fiercely loyal to your company or brand, not finding the product they want could mean them switching to your competitor both for their current purchase and potentially their future purchases as well.
4. Picking and packingDuring the picking and packing process, products are selected from the designated area where they are stored and packed for shipping. The correct item must be picked and packed so that your customers do not receive the incorrect product.In a traditional retail environment, a product will be handled or touched an average of around five times before a customer takes it home. In eCommerce, products could be handled or touched 20 times or more. Because these packages are handled more, they are also more likely to be dropped.If your products are not properly packed, they may not withstand being handled and transported and end up being in poor shape by the time they reach your customers. Receiving products in a less than perfect condition will likely stop someone from becoming a repeat customer.Robust and efficient eCommerce fulfillment processes will provide better customer service by effectively and efficiently fulfilling orders. In addition, it will allow you to meet and exceed customer expectations more consistently-with less effort and less chance of things going wrong. But before fulfillment can happen, you have to make a sale. Discover how Ampry can help you optimize your website to convert even more customers. An average ecommerce store gets 2% conversion rates, but Ampry can increase your efficiency and put your ad spend to good use!For more, you can read about how some large eCommerce companies have creatively harnessed fulfillment strategies.E-commerce Fulfillment Services Market Report, 2021-2028 (grandviewresearch.com)22 Ecommerce Order Fulfillment Statistics That’ll Change the Way You Think About Retail (conveyco.com)Ecommerce Fulfillment: 3 Strategies To Fulfill Online Orders (bigcommerce.com)What is eCommerce Fulfillment & Its Scope in 2022 -ShiprocketThe Ecommerce Fulfillment Guide to Grow Your Online Retail Channel (amazon.com)Understanding ECommerce Fulfillment: Definition, Process, Resources | Red Stag FulfillmentEcommerce Fulfillment Services | #1 Fulfillment Company (shipbob.com)The Top Six Retail Trends from NRF 2022 - MarketScaleUnified Commerce Is the Future of Selling – Multichannel MerchantMeeting customer eCommerce promises with data-driven fulfillment | ITProPortalE-Commerce Fulfillment: DC Strategies for Riding the Surge - Inbound Logistics