With many of us turning to shopping online for both essential and non-essential items, some online retailers have been left struggling to cope with the increase in order volume, and therefore fulfilling orders.

Order fulfilment is the process of picking, packing and dispatching of orders to the customer – but it isn’t just as simple as it sounds, especially if you have a large volume of orders and may not have the time or staff members to complete the orders.

How does order fulfilment work?

When an order is received, generally speaking, a notification will be generated by your eCommerce software. This allows for the picking and packing of the items safely and securely. The software updates the inventory with new stock levels. Once all the days orders are packed, a courier service will be contacted to collect the parcels for delivery.

Outsourcing your order fulfilment

For some businesses’ where staffing levels are minimal or those whose online orders have increased recently may look to outsource their fulfilment to a third-party fulfilment company, which can dramatically save time and money. So, how can using an outsourced order fulfilment help your business?

  1. Reduce staffing costs – Outsourcing your order fulfilment means that you won’t need to hire and train new members of staff or take on temporary members of staff for those seasonal peaks and sales.
  2. Reduce storage costs – Your chosen fulfilment company will be able to house your stock in their warehouse, therefore reducing your overall costs of extra storage capacity.
  3. Freeing your time – As time is so precious, any time that is not spent packing orders is extra time for you to utilise on other areas of your business, such as marketing activities.
  4. Excellent customer service – With your order fulfilment being taken care of your customers will receive their goods on time and in excellent condition.
  5. Control over your inventory – With dedicated software that provides up-to-the-minute information on stock levels, you will know what stock is selling, therefore helping you to plan sales and promotional events.

For companies of any size, The Fulfilment Warehouse can help. We tailor our fulfilment services to suit you and your requirements. We can provide short-term cover for sales and seasonal peaks, or longer-term order fulfilment that can adapt as your company grows. Get in touch with our team of experts today and find out how we can help you.