Order fulfillment is the process of getting products that were purchased online to your customers.
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During the order fulfillment process the products are picked, packed, quality checked, and shipped to the customer all within the estimated shipping time frame that you originally gave during checkout.
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It’s important that a company has clear processes and a good understanding of how to meet customer expectations during the order fulfillment process.

This includes:
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• Reporting the correct amount of inventory is available online for sale from your order management system so logistics team members aren’t scrambling to fulfill orders you may not actually have stock for.

• Picking the correct products for each order in an efficient but error-free manner to ensure on-time delivery.

• Packing the correct products into the correct order and using optimally sized packaging to prevent high shipping costs or delays.

• Shipping the order using the most cost-effective shipping method that matches the expected delivery date of the customer’s order.

When a consumer buys something online or through an offline sales channel that isn’t brick and mortar retail, you will need to have a logistics process in place to get ordered products to that consumer. This is called order fulfillment.
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After the order is placed there needs to be a place to store order information such as who the consumer is, their address, what products they ordered, when they expect to receive those products, how much they paid for the items in the order, etc. This can be done in an order management system.

That order management system should then send the order to a logistics facility or facilities, like a fulfillment center, that can complete the different steps that are necessary to fulfill the order.
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Some common steps in the fulfillment process are:

• Picking the relevant products that need to be shipped to your consumer.

• Packing those products in an efficient manner to prevent product damage and delays.

• Shipping the order using a parcel carrier (ex. USPS, UPS, FedEx, or DHL), freight logistics company (LTL, FTL), or your own last-mile delivery service (managed fleet).

Order fulfillment at a basic level includes processes related to the picking, packing, and shipping of orders placed through an online or offline sales channel.

It can be easy to get started with order fulfillment. However, mastering the process and driving efficiency in order fulfillment is typically an ongoing process.

Some of the goals you can set to improve your order fulfillment process are:

• Have great warehouse organization, so it’s easy to locate products during the
fulfillment process. You can do this by running a WMS or warehouse management
system.

• Increase picks per hour by using a combination of different pick styles and wave patterns. You may want to get started with batch picking, pick to cart, discrete picks for larger orders, and other common pick workflows.

• Reducing errors during the fulfillment process. You can do this during the picking
and packing phases by implementing a QC or quality check process to make sure the correct items are going out to your customers. Systems like our WMS have these scan-based checks built into a mobile app for your warehouse team to use.

• Reduce shipping costs and use the correct methods to get orders shipped out to your customers by or before their delivery estimate. Automated rate shopping and
shipping rules software will help you do this pretty easily. We have one built-in which makes your shipping workflow smoother.

Some more advanced options include forecasting demand to ensure high stock availability, automating repetitive tasks like box selection or shipping label selection, creating special high flow areas or adding refillable pick faces managed by software, and integrating machine handling or packaging robotics.