Why Does an Online Business Need eCommerce Fulfillment?

Online shopping has brought great convenience to customers by making an extensive range of products available to them at affordable prices. They can browse the products using mobile or desktop devices from any location and have them delivered directly to their doorstep. For eCommerce businesses, the opportunities for limitless scalability promise great financial rewards. However, they have to operate in an increasingly competitive online environment and must become adept at handling multiple business processes. One of these is order fulfillment for eCommerce.

What is order fulfillment?

Basically, order fulfillment is checking customer orders and supplying these orders to the customer. It involves making sure that the business inventory has the quantity of products that the customer has ordered, or procuring it if necessary. Additionally, it is concerned with packing and shipping the goods, delivering them to the correct destination on time, and handling product returns and exchanges.

Why is order fulfillment necessary for an online business?

Order fulfillment is necessary for an online business for the following reasons:

It ensures customer satisfaction

Order fulfillment is crucial for ensuring customer satisfaction, and is a key factor in what differentiates successful online businesses from the unsuccessful ones—efficient and trackable shipping, delivering goods quickly and in good condition, being swift in the processing of returns and exchanges, and providing excellent customer support service. It influences the customer perception of the brand and plays a decisive role in whether a business will retain or lose its customers.

It allows a business to expand its scope

Online businesses can sell their products to local as well as international markets. However, to do this successfully, they need to get their logistics right. By following the proper order fulfillment methodology, they will be able to ship their products all around the globe. They can find warehouses in different locations, including near their largest markets, and stock their inventory there. That will reduce their shipping expenses for the products. They will also be able to ensure better handling and more efficient deliveries.

It ensures reliability in shipping

Online businesses can research and team up with experienced and reputable packing and shipping companies to ensure the safe and efficient deliveries of their products. These companies know how to use high-quality packing materials to securely pack a variety of goods, how to store the goods in environmentally-controlled containers to prevent spoilage or damage, and how to correctly handle the goods in transit and during deliveries to the customers. They will also get insurance so that if anything goes wrong and the goods are lost or damaged, the business can replace them without incurring a loss.

It allows customers to track their orders

If a business has a sound order fulfillment system in place, it will make it easier for its team as well as its customers to track the progress of the order. The customer can check if the order has left the warehouse, if it is in transit, and if it is out for delivery. They will get a notification about when exactly they can expect it, and that will make it easier for them to receive it themselves or arrange for someone to receive it. They don’t have to stress out, wondering if their package will get there or not.

Over time, as an online business scales up its retail operations, the in-house handling of the order fulfillment process from end-to-end is likely to get to be too much for them. They may even find themselves spending more time with the order fulfillment aspect than with the other essential requirements of their business. In such circumstances, they ought to consider hiring a professional order fulfillment company to handle things for them.

It will be less expensive than hiring new staff to take care of order fulfillment, training them, buying the necessary equipment and software, and leasing or buying and furnishing additional office space. Additionally, the order fulfillment company will have an experienced and capable team to manage everything from getting the stock from the warehouses to packing it with secure materials to finding the right shipping options to ensuring the deliveries reach the right destination at the right time. The online business can keep its focus on other pertinent aspects.