6 Keys to Successful Web Order Fulfillment

Every retailer today knows that e-commerce is here to stay, but how important is web order fulfillment? If you don’t get this right, your e-commerce strategy will fail. ChainDrive offers these six keys to better web order fulfillment.

1. Keep your fulfillment center organized – You’ll need to decide early on where you’ll fulfill orders from. You essentially have three options: 1) From in-store; 2) Your warehouse; 3) Vendor direct. Each model has its pros and cons. If you are fulfilling your own web orders, whether fulfilling from an in-store location or your warehouse, you’ll need to keep your inventory organized so that you can find the products your web customers order and get them out the door quickly.
2. Have a returns policy – It will inevitably happen that a customer will want to return an item. Either it got damaged in transit, they ordered the wrong product, or your staff sent the wrong product. Make it easy for the customer to return products and state your policies clearly on your website where it is easy for customers to find.
3. Set up your fulfillment center in the right location – In retail, it’s not just your stores’ locations that are important. You’ve also got to make sure your warehouses are set up in the right locations for receiving products from vendors, transporting products to store locations, and fulfilling web orders. Set up your fulfillment centers to control costs and speed of delivery.
4. Use web order fulfillment software – The right solution will help you manage the entire process from beginning to end. Invest in a web order fulfillment solution that makes it easy to manage the process.
5. Establish your transportation method – Managing your own delivery to the customer’s doorstep is very tricky. If you’re not a logistics or transportation expert, you could leave a few important details out. That’s why it could be prudent for most retailers to use FedEx, UPS, or a third-party shipper to manage the delivery process.
6. Focus on the customer – It is difficult for small and regional retailers to compete with Amazon. Don’t even try. Focus on the needs of your customers by carrying the right inventory and delivering on superior customer service.

If you take care of your customers through the web order fulfillment process, you’ll have a much better e-commerce experience, and so will your customers.