What is Order Fulfillment ?
Order fulfillment is the steps involved in receiving, processing and delivering orders to the final consumer.
A fulfillment service is a third-party company that provides these order fulfillment steps on behalf of another party.
These general definitions can apply to many types of orders, from large business-to-business orders, to the individual consumer.
International 3PL has been the choice of many companies for their order fulfillment services.
Order fulfillment is one of the services International 3PL is proud of.
To help better understand exactly what order fulfillment is, here are some of the steps:
Receiving
Count each item to ensure the actual number of items matches the number of items ordered from the supplier(s)
- Inspect the inventory to see if any items have been damaged
- Add SKUs to warehouse management software in order to keep track of the location, counts and number of sales of each of your items
- Apply SKU or bar code labels if they do not already have them
Inventory Storage
Once inventory has been received, counted, inspected, labeled, and added to your warehouse management software, it is time for it to be shelved.
Proper inventory storage is one of the most important aspects of maximizing the speed and accuracy of your order fulfillment operations.
Order Processing
So now your inventory has been inspected, sorted and placed on shelves in the warehouse. Next comes order processing.
The first step in processing an order is receiving that order.
Once the order has been received by your warehouse, the individual items that make up that order are then picked off the shelves by warehouse staff. Transported to an order packing station. The packing station will go through a series of quality control checks, determine the best packaging materials, scan items, add packing slips and any inserts, seal the box, and then move it to the shipping station.
Shipping
After an order has been picked and packed, it is moved to a shipping station to prep it for delivery to the end customer.
The Shipping station will then prepare the order for shipment using the most economical way and according to requirements by the shipper.
Returns Processing
We handle all RMA requests and accept returns by customers should the need arise, we inspect the goods make sure they are in good order and place back on the shelf. damaged goods are handled according to shipper guidelines.
