Post checkout trick Fulfilment- Shipping & Delivery

Likewise checkout process,  post checkout process also plays a very crucial role in growing business.

No matter how much qualitative products you are providing to your customers, if they haven’t been delivered to them at the right time, all your efforts will be soon going into vain.

For e.g – Suppose a wholesale customer has purchased a product from your online store & he is obligated to resell the same to a small retailer within a stipulated period of time. Now, all its depends upon your shipping & the delivery system that how quickly it’s going to satisfy his needs. In case, you couldn’t manage to do so, your customer will face a huge loss. Slowly & gradually, you will tend to lose the grip of that customer & his interest as well.

Do you think that mere selling the product to the customer will reassure your permanent relationship with him? No, not at all.

You have to take care of your customer’s needs by servicing them with the right order fulfillment strategy. Order fulfillment refers to a service which involves the procedure of receiving, processing & delivering products to the end consumers.

Ultimately, your brand’s identity depends upon your efficient services to your customers.

• How urgently you are meeting the needs of your customers?
• What type of packaging you are wrapping with your products?
• What is the aspect of your return & refund policies?
• How much effective your warehouse management system is etc?

There is a direct relationship between your order fulfillment policy & Loyalty of your customers. If one element is affected, the other automatically reduces its value. It also creates a referral scenario for your products & services. About 75% of consumers willing to have the same day delivery & 52% percent are ready to choose premium for it but only 45% of retailers offer this service to their customers.

If your customers will be satisfied with your services they will refer it to their near ones & would surely make repeat purchases. While the reverse case would hinder their interest in your products & they would end up becoming ‘One Time Buyer’ only.

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As per the survey conducted by statista.com on Feb 2018, 30 percent of respondents said that Amazon always met their expectations regarding delivery speed. 15 percent of respondents preferred other digital retailers.

So, Before going further in this blog let me tell you the different order fulfillment strategies which you can choose for your ecommerce business.

These strategies are only meant for physical products of any ecommerce business rather than those which can be easily downloaded from online itself.

What are the Best Order Fulfillment Options for your ecommerce business?

Order fulfillment is a long complex procedure. It requires full concentration to ensure timely delivery of your products & services to your customers. Both B2B & B2C companies look for such efficient fulfillment strategies which can give them the best results at minimum cost.

According to a survey-

• 75% of customers make repeat purchases if they get the best delivery services & that too at a reasonable cost.
• 38% of customers never purchase from that retailer whose products show certain faults.
• 52% of customers always prefer fast delivery services.

There are mainly 4 strategies which you can use to implement your order fulfillment option. Let’s have a brief overview-

1. Self-Fulfillment Option

• Nothing is good than your own services if you want complete control of your shipping process at a lower cost.
• Equipped your production department with a good warehouse to maintain the storage of your stocks & resources.
• This model facilitates both single owners of goods & large-scale corporation which can easily afford multiple warehouses. at different locations to deliver their products directly to their customers.
• You are completely free to design the attractive packages of your products as per your requirement.
• You can monitor whether your products have been suitably organized or not & whether it is fulfilling the order of the consumers at the right time too.

2. Drop Shipping

• This fulfillment option works between the manufacturer of your product & your customers.
• Whenever your customers place an order, you directly send all the details of it to your manufacturer.
• After manufacturing the required products, he himself picks, packs & makes a proper delivery to your respective customer & charges only for that product.
• In this case, you need not have to keep extra stocks with you & as your customer makes his order, at that time you can direct your manufacturer for its production.
• Here, the advantage is that you can easily concentrate on your marketing & branding strategies as well as customer satisfaction.

3. Third Party Fulfillment

• Third party fulfillment option is also known as a 3PL model.
• There are many companies who store your products in their warehouse on your behalf  & fulfill all the responsibility of packaging & shipping of your products & charge a reasonable amount for their services.
• With outsourcing services, you can easily focus upon other productive activities like customer segmentation, new launchings, financing & administration.
• This method is quite fruitful if you are getting more numbers of orders per day.
• You can choose your 3PL services as per the specialized nature of your products.

4. Integrated Services

• Integrated fulfillment refers to the combination of either self-fulfillment & outsourcing or self-fulfillment or dropshipping.
• If you are dealing with low margin & high volume products then you can use self-fulfillment & outsourcing services.
• If you are dealing with high margin products then you should go for dropshipping & self-fulfillment services.
• For new products, you can use self-fulfillment. Confirm the number of products to be sold & then decides whether to use outsourcing services or not.
• This model is customizable for every type of product.

Steps of Order Fulfillment Process

Well, now you have become completely aware of different fulfillment strategies. You also might have started to measure which fulfillment strategy will be suitable for your products.

But in case if you have just started your business & is totally unknown to the order fulfillment process. Let me take you a step forward to learn the whole process of order fulfillment-

1. Receiving the orders

Your customer places an order to your company for his choice of product. Here, what you have to do is to manage your inventory accordingly.

If you are having in-house services, your inventory is in your own control but if you are outsourcing services, you should transfer your inventory to the third party person to be delivered to your customer.

2. Processing the order

Assure effective processing. This includes picking up the products from where they are stored & their proper packaging & labeling.

Choice of packaging depends upon the perishable nature of your products whether you want to use wooden boxes, bubble mailer, poly bags etc. Symbol of your brand identity is labeling, therefore use them very carefully.

3. Shipping

After proper processing of orders, now is the time to make its proper shipping to make it timely delivered to your respective customer. This involves using the services of a local post office or UPS store. For an efficient shipping process, keep in mind these key elements-

• Focus upon increasing conversion rates.
• Make attractive shipping offers to increase your Average order value(AOV).
• Also, give the right instructions to your team to enhance operational efficiency.

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4. Return services

It is very necessary to have a fair return policy for your customers. As if any of your customers want to return any product, it must be clear that whether they have to ship back to you or your fulfillment provider.

All that depends upon that product if it can be restored or disposed of due to any fault. Therefore, implement a fair return policy for your ultimate customers.

How can you enhance your Order Fulfillment Services?

No best continues to remain best until & unless it is not properly evaluated & efforts are put over to assure its enhancement.

So as with your order fulfillment process. If you didn’t keep on evaluating your services, it will become outdated from the present need of the market.

Here, I will tell you how can you enhance your fulfillment services so that it may be able to give prompt results at right time.

1. Evaluation of orders & their end to end visibility

You & your supplier is interlinked with each other through the order management system(OMS). It gives you the opportunity to keep a complete eye over your order processing through the same catalog.

• Track end to end visibility of your orders.
• Update your inventory if your supplier is dealing with low stocks.
• Find out how many stocks are left, their quantities & their locations.
• Also, facilitate your browsing customer to discover whether his choice of products are available in your stock or not.

One benefit of this facility can be to meet your customers needs at the right moment & hence ensuring the authenticity of your brand.

2. Enabling proper inventory management & control

Proper inventory management will eliminate overstock situations. Therefore, keep a complete record of each & every item which has been taken out from your warehouse & delivered to your ultimate customers.

This will enable you to minimize the inventory costs & meeting the customers demand in a timely manner. Good Inventory management includes these elements :

• Warehouse flow
• Stock rotation
• Enterprise resource planning
• Demand forecasting

3. Integrate your Order Management System(OMS) with suppliers

In the current scenario, Many ecommerce companies source their products from suppliers, drop ship distributors & 3rd party members. In this case, it is very essential to integrate your order management system with that of your suppliers.

This removes the possibility of missing stocks, billing errors, misleading distributions & other aggravations. Therefore, strategize your order management system in order to escape from customer disappointments.

4. Choose accurate shipping method

Always choose the right shipping method for your products delivery. Around 45% of customers break their relationship with that company which offers bad shipping services.

• Do a regular evaluation of your current shipper.
• Find out whether your shipper is offering real-time & accurate order tracking system.
• Keep a check over delayed shipments, lost & damaged shipments.
• Measure your shipper on different parameters before giving him the responsibility of delivery of your products.

A good shipping service may make or break your customer’s loyalty towards your products. Therefore, choose your shipping services very wisely.

5. Regular interaction with customers

As soon as your customer completes his transaction, your order fulfillment process starts right from there.

Keep updating your customer about his order dispatchement, where it was in transit, time of delivery & so on. Assist your interaction with your customers by sending them regular emails & notifications so that they can be satisfied & would decide to make repeat purchases in the future.

6. Devise your warehouses as per customers location

Amazon prime offers their customers 2-day delivery or same time delivery for those who upgrade to premium. This shows that even top ecommerce giants are also focusing on effective delivery to gain the trust of their customers. Include these elements while deciding on the location of your warehouses-

• Opt those warehouses who make quick picking & shipping of your products. For this, you can choose to ship your products by air.
• Go for making multiple warehouses located near your customer’s area. This ensures low-cost ground shipping & also helps in the timely delivery of products to customers.
• Also, employ smart shipping algorithms to decide over optimal shipping method so that you may not tend to overspend or underspend.

Hence, allocate your warehouses as per convenient to the location of your customers.

7. Fair return & refund policies

Around 35% of customers return their orders from any online store as compared to 10% of any brick & mortar store. That means you require an efficient process to manage reverse logistics.

Spell out your return policies effectively on your product pages so that your customers may not remain in any confusion. Also, engage your services with only those suppliers who have a fair return, refund & replacement policies. Offer free return services to your customers so that they are more encouraged to make repeat purchases.

Final words

Your customer’s satisfaction is the first priority of your business. Therefore, decide the best fulfillment strategy for your business which can meet your customers demand promptly & efficiently.

Measure your supply chain management system by regularly evaluating the pros & cons of your order delivery system. Track orders of your customers & assure its delivery at the right moment & at the right time.

Which is fulfillment strategy you have applied to your business? Share us now in the comment box!!