David Morey 
Alt Title: X Tips for Higher Order Fulfillment Efficiency
The more efficient your order fulfillment strategy is, the smoother your business will operate. You’ll be able to reduce costs in this area while making customers happier, ultimately boosting profitability significantly. How do you improve efficiency in this somewhat mysterious department of business operations?
The 3 Benefits of Improved Order Fulfillment Efficiency
An order fulfillment strategy comprises many individual elements, including inventory management, shipping, returns coordination, and even aspects of customer service. Mastering this area of your business in terms of efficiency means:
1. Less time wasted. Greater efficiency means less time waste. That means your employees will spend less time on unnecessary and redundant items, and they’ll be able to complete other objectives much faster. It can also accelerate shipping and delivery timelines, which is beneficial for your business for many reasons.
2. Fewer errors and hiccups. Efficient processes are easy to follow and less likely to result in errors or hiccups. In a perfect system with totally streamlined efficiency, mistakes become almost impossible, allowing your business to save money and reduce necessary effort.
3. Happier customers. Arguably the best benefit is happier customers. More efficient order fulfillment processes mean customers get their products faster and more reliably, which invariably boosts satisfaction.
The end result of these three benefits is greater profitability for your company, since you’ll generate more revenue and suffer fewer losses.
Order Fulfillment Strategy Efficiency: Key Strategies for Improvement
The central question is, how do you improve the efficiency of your order fulfillment strategy?
Audit Your Existing Systems And Workflows.
The first step of the process is to take a look at what you already have. What kind of inventory management systems, shipping processes, and workflows are you using? How are these integrated and do you notice anything wasteful or inefficient at first glance? Are there specific pain points or problems that you routinely experience, such as certain systems not communicating with each other or important workflow steps that are being neglected? These are going to require the most attention.
Scrutinize Your Partners
Your shipping partners play a major role in the success of your order fulfillment strategy. More reliable partners, with independent efficiency and ample options to choose from, are going to make it easier to devise simple, yet powerful processes in your own business. If you have existing partners, evaluate their performance and compare them to their competitors; is it possible to negotiate or collaborate with them for a better system? Or do you think it would be better to integrate new partners?
Utilize The Power Of Automation
Automation is one of the most indispensable technological tools of the modern era. If executed properly, it can greatly reduce the possibility of errors and it definitively decreases the amount of manual effort required at every step of the order fulfillment process.
The more automation you can integrate into your order fulfillment strategy, the better.
Cut Unnecessary And Redundant Steps
Workflows are generally designed with the best intentions and best existing knowledge, but they typically end up with unnecessary and/or redundant steps. Trim the fat as much as you can by keeping things tight and streamlined.
Give Customers A Wider Range Of Options
Giving customers more options means they’re more likely to choose the shipping method and speed that’s most appropriate for their needs. It can also help your business prioritize the most urgent orders and avoid overburdening inventory managers or shippers.
Streamline The Return Process
Returns can be painful for both businesses and consumers, so try to streamline the return process as much as possible. Ideally, customers should be able to issue returns in a matter of minutes, and you should be prepared to receive and efficiently deal with those returns.
Collect Feedback
Collecting customer feedback can help you understand the impact of your current order fulfillment strategy and recognize potential areas for improvement. It’s important to collect employee feedback as well, as employees have unique perspectives on your internal processes, and they’ll likely be able to make strategic recommendations for how to improve.
Analyze Objective Metrics
Efficiency is hard to directly measure, but it can be indirectly measured with several objective variables, like perfect order rate or order picking accuracy. Study these metrics to observe your progress – and potentially brainstorm new ways to boost efficiency.
Keep Improving
If you want your order fulfillment strategy to be as efficient as possible, you’ll need to make this a continuous effort.
If you’re willing to carefully scrutinize your existing order fulfillment strategy and improve upon it with new technologies, more thoughtful processes, and greater support, your business is going to become much more attractive to customers and more threatening to your rivals. As integrated order fulfillment becomes even more of a priority in this highly technological era, it pays to stay ahead of the curve.
