Many e-commerce business owners tend to focus most of their attention on-site, that is, on attracting visitors to the website and motivating purchases. However, this site-specific focus misses out on one critical step, order fulfilment. The success of your order fulfilment processes can ultimately determine the long term success of your e-commerce business. This guide is here to help you understand what it is that makes order fulfilment, such as influential process and how to improve your current operations.
Why is Order Fulfilment So Influential?
Order fulfilment might not be the most glamorous part of running an e-commerce store, but it is certainly one of the most influential. The list below has been designed to help you better understand why order fulfilment is just so important for any e-commerce store that is operating today.
1. It Builds Relationships With Customers
High-quality order fulfilment processes help you build strong and lasting relationships with customers by offering them the best customer experience. In addition, studies have found that a great deal of purchasing decision making is based on unconscious influences. This means that the way that a customer feels during their entire interaction with your business can influence future purchasing potential.
High-quality on-site experience and customer service communication can only get you so far. If the quality of your order fulfilment does not match up to your high-quality user experience, then a customer will be disappointed before they even receive their order. Namely, when a customer receives an order on time, or early, in good condition, they are automatically inclined to view the product and, by extension, your businesses as high quality too.
It is the experience that a customer has while shopping with your brand as much as the product itself that will motivate returning purchases. Building a base of loyal, returning customers can determine the success of your WordPress store. This is because returning customers spend much more per purchase than first-time customers. Loyal customers are also much more likely to be receptive to your marketing techniques than first-time customers. Not only do loyal customers tend to spend more per purchase they are also more likely to recommend your business to a friend or family member than someone new to your brand.
2. High-Quality Order Fulfilment Reduces Returns
Low-quality order fulfilment will increase the risk of damage to your products, mismanagement in the order packing and other stock issues. This means that e-commerce stores that do not operate with high-quality order fulfilment are much more likely to experience a high rate of returns. Having a frequently large number of returns can be potentially devastating to your business’s long-term health.
Frequently experiencing high returns increases the amount that you are having to spend on order processing. This is because every time a return comes in, your staff has to unpack, unload, process and refund the customer. This takes away available time and money that could be spent on more profitable order fulfilment processes.
A customer likely to return an item they are dissatisfied with will probably leave a negative review too. Having a large number of negative reviews on your e-commerce store can be potentially devastating. Since over 50% of online shoppers will consult a review section before making a purchase, it is vital your reviews are not all from unhappy customers.
Order Fulfilment Impacts Inventory Management
Your inventory management and order fulfilment processes are inextricably linked. Therefore, experiencing frequent problems with your order fulfilment processes will lead to issues with inventory management which in turn creates more difficulties with order fulfilment. This negative cycle can have a number of consequences that all threaten the health of your business.
Poor inventory management can be a huge drain of resources, especially for small businesses. Since you likely have a large portion of your assets tied up in your inventory, problems with management can be very influential. For example, poor inventory management can lead to a glut of outdated stock. This is wasted money that is simply sitting in your warehouse, taking up valuable space.
It can be very difficult to understand what stock you actually have when you are experiencing poor inventory management. Unfortunately, this means that you are more likely to offer products on your site that you are unable to deliver, not knowing they are not actually in stock.
How to Rectify Issues With Order Fulfilment
Now that you understand a little bit more about why order fulfilment processes can have such a big impact on the long term success of your WordPress e-commerce store, it is time to look to the future. If you are experiencing problems with your order fulfilment processes, you can take steps to rectify this.
1. Improve Seasonal Management
Even companies that are operating well all year round can be knocked to six by an unexpected boost in sales. Creating and implementing an effective seasonal management strategy will help you to adapt to the fluctuating demand quickly. The first step is to consult all of the data you have available to understand when these highs and lows usually occur. The next step is to find additional delivery support for when a boost in sales happens. There are resources online available for those looking to use a dry van load board during seasons boost. This will connect you with a database of available drivers that can help you. Having resources like this to hand will enable you to act quickly to boost demand to ensure relationships with customers are sustained.
2. Take Stock
This step can be a rather time consuming one, but it is completely necessary. First, you need to take stock of all that you have in your inventory and then set about creating an effective organizational system. You should then teach this new system to all warehouse workers to ensure everyone is on the same page.
3. Review Your Comments Section
Reviewing your comments section might be slightly tedious, but it can supply you with a bank of invaluable data. You should note down all positive and negative comments regarding your products and deliveries. You can then use the insights you have gathered to make critical changes in your order fulfilment processes.
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