E-Commerce Order Fulfillment: 10 Expert Strategies to Optimize Efficiency & Customer Satisfaction

Today’s consumers expect a lot from your E-commerce brand. You can thank Amazon for that. When people can log on to the world’s largest online retailer and have items on their doorsteps in one or two days, this creates a relatively high bar.

A study by Salesforce found that 80% of consumers consider the delivery experience a top factor in awarding repeat business to a brand. Fortunately, fast shipping isn’t the only thing that helps your business win and keep customers on the fulfillment side. Here are some of the key aspects of E-commerce order fulfillment, why your business should care, and an expert guide to optimizing these processes to maximize business results.

What Happens During E-commerce Order Fulfillment? E-commerce order fulfillment involves multiple stages, each vital to ensuring customers receive their orders promptly and accurately. Here is a brief breakdown of those stages:

1. Inventory Receipt & Management You need goods on hand to sell to your customers. The fulfillment process begins with receiving adequate inventory from suppliers. It involves ordering items, inspecting them for quality upon delivery, and keeping inventory records properly updated to avoid stockouts or overstocking.

2. Storage & Warehousing Proper storage and warehousing strategies are critical to maintaining an efficient and organized warehouse. Workers should be able to access products for storage and retrieval easily.

3. Order Processing A customer placing an online order should trigger an automated process in your E-commerce system. Order processing typically involves payment processing, updating inventory levels, and generating packing and shipping slips.

4. Picking & Packing Picking and packing are some of the most labor-intensive processes where products are retrieved from inventory and packed for shipping. Promotions or seasonal spikes can overwhelm these operations if you don’t have the right processes in place.