How to Choose an Ecommerce Order Fulfillment Service

One of the most important factors that place an ecommerce in its customer’s heart is error-free and timely delivery. Customers will return to you when they know they can count on you. In any business, returning customers always give the bigger chunk of profit than new customers. Therefore, it becomes very important that you choose the right shipping partner who understands your goals and works on the same values as you. A wrong shipping strategy can have a disastrous impact on your business.



Although the world of ecommerce may seem enticing and glamorous on the surface, it is not so all the way in. However, an ecommerce professional needs to master the apparently unattractive domain of logistics, reverse logistics, and third party logistics to build a strong foundation for stability and future growth.

It is a given that the choice of an order fulfillment service would depend on costs entailed. However, let’s also take a look at some other pointers to keep in mind before selecting an order fulfillment service.

• To minimize shipping costs, choose a service that is more close to your target customer than you. For example, if in India you are a business based in Bangalore, and most of your customers are located in Delhi, it makes sense to choose a warehouse located in Delhi or any place near Delhi. Likewise, if you have customers all over India, you can have multiple warehouses depending on your budget or a service based in the middle of the country, so that there isn’t much difference in costs while shipping products in all directions.
• An order fulfillment service should be able to meet the frequency at which orders are placed at your site. For example, if you deal in products that are in demand around the holiday season, make sure that the service is well-equipped to handle the extra work load.
• The order fulfillment service should be comfortable with the shipping options that you promise your customers and those that you may offer in the future. Basically, it should be enough to accommodate changes without letting customers suffer.
• Clearly discuss the policies followed by the order fulfillment service regarding order processing. For example, the fulfillment service may not entertain orders placed after a certain time in a day on the same day. This will impact your customers as the product would never arrive on the time expected by them.
• Ask them about their error rate and how they handle it; also ask about the inventory management software for ecommerce they use.

While choosing a fulfillment service, you should create a checklist of the features that you want. You can also interview a staff member or get reviews from the company's references.

Have something to add? Your comments and suggestions are always appreciated.

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