The Pandemic saw a sudden and exponential growth in retail sales. It also led to a significant number of retailers opening shops online. eCommerce, considered an option or luxury for big businesses, was adopted by small businesses too.
The fear of closing the shop or leaving their sales unfulfilled led to embracing online markets. However, several things required consideration, including order fulfilment, purchasing and warehouse management.
The order fulfilment itself is a linear process that comprises several aspects:
The supply chain must consider everything from procurement to inventory management and shipment to enhance customer satisfaction. Managing the data from your inventory systems and enhancing warehouse management can help you with supply chain and order optimisation.
Let’s understand why you must ensure retail fulfilment for your eCommerce store.
This entire process begins with assembling the order, putting it together, packing the shipment and sending it to the customer. The business will start the order fulfilment journey from the warehouse and move on to the shipping or courier. The order is fulfilled when the user’s shipment is sent.
Following a specific order fulfilment process is crucial to ensure smooth experiences and a satisfied customer.
The first step to orders is receiving them. You will receive a notification as soon as the customer places an order on your online store. You can accept the order with the bandwidth and the products available.
It would help to have a single unified channel to combine orders from all places. this would help you accept and ensure you don’t have to deny it later. It will also help enhance the supply chain and improve the outcomes of the order. Having a smooth order fulfilment strategy is crucial to improving the orders.
As a second-best step, you should begin processing the orders for better order management. It can also improve inventory management.
For this, you need a system that can help with warehouse management. This will ensure all your inventory is in a single place, and you can easily track them. You can always check the stockouts versus the available ones.
You can also check if a particular item is available in excess due to under-ordering. These are aspects that can help improve warehouse management. Ensuring a system that can translate all the data from multiple channels into a single place can improve efficiency.
Once the orders are picked, you need to process them for shipment. This means you must pack the orders and fulfil the packaging requirements.
If some orders are to be received from an outsourced company, you can check for availability and complete the processing.
Once the items are identified and packed, it is time to prepare them for shipping. You should ensure the shipments are safe during transit.
As a result, you would choose appropriate packaging materials and shipping services. This would ensure safe and reliable shipments. You should partner with the right third-party carrier in case you aim to complete wholesale shipments.
Your shipping processes end when your shipment is sent to the customers.
It is equally important to process the returns for smooth order fulfilment. You should ensure that the customers have a channel to return the products. There should be a way to easily refund the money or replace the product. This will increase the number of purchasers on the site.
You should assign an SKU number to each product to make the process smooth internally. There should be shipping labels that indicate the shipment/order type.
Order fulfilment can enhance your inventory management operations. Here are all the ways to optimise the process.
Software is a great way to enhance order fulfilment. It can improve order processing and ensure better inventory management. The software can help update your store with stockouts and manage returns.
The software can automate the entire order fulfilment processes, which in turn can improve the outcomes.
The completion of the shipment is crucial to order fulfilment. Partnering with the right shipping company can ensure your parcel has reached the person and the order is fulfilled. It will also ensure the timely completion of the order.
Communicating the details of the shipment with the customer is crucial. You should ensure the customer knows when the order has been processed, when they are likely to receive it, and when it has been delivered.
Even when they process the return, you should constantly communicate with them. This will ensure smooth fulfilment. Timely communication with the customer will also enhance their experience and improve customer satisfaction.
If you use automated marketing solutions, it can improve communication and streamline order fulfilment processes. You can reduce frustrations and manage delays easily.
The warehouse location is important for timely fulfilment. Choose warehouses in locations that make sending orders easy. A warehouse near your delivery location would make things easier for the fulfilment team. It will ensure timely deliveries and smooth processing.
The need for sustainability has risen in recent times. A sustainable fulfilment process can help you manage your business in the long run. It will help if you offer your customers different fulfilment options, including picking up the product from the store.
You can extend the shipping time by shipping multiple goods in that location. Eco-friendly packaging materials are the top consideration. That can improve your sustainability immensely.
This is another best practice that you can incorporate while improving order fulfilment. You can improve the cost-effectiveness of order fulfilment and ensure zero carbon footprint in the long run. The addition of micro fulfilment centres can improve the order packaging and shipment processes. You can even add dark stores or local warehouses to complete your orders on time. This would enhance the localisation of inventory and improve overall management. If you are planning same-day or next-day deliveries, this can help you immensely.
As discussed, software systems can improve overall visibility and enhance data management, which is needed for order fulfilment. ERP systems can streamline operations, improve allocation and enhance visibility.
Warehouse and inventory management plays a crucial role in managing your order fulfilment. The Kardex PPG system is an excellent product, considering the order fulfilment requirements.
The first step towards successful fulfilment is picking the orders. Kardex PPG (Power Pick Global) system completes batch picking, the formula for fast order fulfilment.
You should integrate your picking or warehouse management system with the in-house ERP for better operations and order management.
When integrating the Kardex PPG system with ERP, you should know the functional parts you need to integrate. For instance, the data of orders picked would be necessary for smooth fulfilment. Similarly, the scan codes and bar codes are essential data.
Defining the functional aspects that would be integrated with the ERP systems will improve the integration journey.
There would be specific coding and integration methods that you should implement when integrating the PPG system with your ERP. Determining what you would be including in the process. For example, do you plan to have web services and staging tables? Are you including flat files?
Your integration methods will depend on the type of ERP you are using. It will also depend on the current PPG system you are using.
It would help if you defined the communication piece you incorporate when integrating the ERP with the PPG system.
One of the key ways to integrate the PPG system into the ERP systems would be the API key. If there is a single API key that can translate your integration into a smooth process, you can adopt that method.
You should check with Kardex PPG systems if they have an API key that can help streamline the integration.
Defining the additional factors that can improve or streamline the integration is equally important. For example, incoming inventory management or knowing when the inventory is likely to come can help enhance order fulfilment. That would be a great addition to your integration systems.
Checklist to consider when integrating:
Integrating ERP and the Kardex PPG system can resolve several challenges, including inaccuracy in order fulfilment and lack of visibility. The data is transferred from the ERP systems to the PPG and vice versa. This data flow will enable the fulfilment managers to view the entire shop floor system and manage the orders smoothly. Most of the processes are automated with this integration, which solves many issues.
If you want to integrate Kardex and PPG system with Existing ERP, you should partner with a capable IT company like Space Stem. They can provide the exact pointers and help with the flow.
