At present, e-Commerce has brought numerous benefits to businesses of all sizes ranging from large firms to SMEs and small businesses, opening up additional channels of distribution for products to consumers. Gone are the days in which businesses require complex supply chain systems to run e-commerce. Businesses can now easily sell their products both domestically and internationally. In addition, B2B (Business-to-Business) transactions have become increasingly digital, assisting innovation and technological advancements for warehousing and logistics businesses, thus further supporting rapid expansion of the e-commerce market.
As a result, players in the e-Commerce market must adapt in order to become more competitive. From processing orders 24 hours a day, packing, stock management and delivery, all of which is time-consuming for the back-of-house, as well as require large amounts of resources and manpower. However, there still exists a high margin of error, especially in the stock management system. Therefore, fulfillment solutions were developed to help alleviate this problem.
Fulfillment Digital Warehouse
A fulfillment system is a deposit and delivery service that provides convenience to online merchants through provision of storage space, packing and a systematic delivery service.
Fulfillment is a warehousing technology designed to cover all ranges of warehouse operations. When connected to a logistics system, they greatly benefit the growth and efficiency of e-Commerce businesses.
Fulfillment services cover a wide range of functions such as providing storage space, processing orders, product delivery, tracking and real-time stock management whereby information from online marketplaces and e-Commerce platforms that the merchant is listing from is utilized. This suggests that merchants have an Internet Warehouse (Internet for Logistics Business) that they can use to continuously check their shop’s status. Furthermore, buyers can be informed of available products and the number of items remaining. Thus making databases such as the back-of-house extremely useful and can therefore be regarded as helpful in increasing online sales opportunities.
Types of fulfillment services
1. Order Fulfillment: a warehouse that provides storage space, packing and delivery services as well as manage orders systematically. When an order comes in, it will prepare the product, pack it and ship it to the customer immediately.
2. Fulfillment Center: a warehouse that acts as a central hub for storage and distribution to sub-warehouses. Alternatively, it can also be used to deliver packages directly to customers. The warehouse management system will systematically link various sources of information together to operate effectively.
3. Fulfillment Service: a warehouse service that contains every aspect of order fulfillment, from storage, packing, delivery to finding the right products for buyers. This type of fulfillment service will reduce the burden of online merchants in having to start from the beginning.
4. e-Fulfillment: an online warehouse that uses technology and the Internet to manage the entire system from searching for products by order, tracking orders to quality control. This helps to improve the convenience and speed of selling products online.
Fulfillment, a solution that addresses the needs of e-Commerce businesses
Fulfillment services in Thailand are growing and becoming more popular. They are suitable for e-Commerce businesses that want their online business to become more systematic.
Delivery pick-up services eliminate the need for merchants to travel and bring their products to the warehouse and replaces this with a service to pick up packages at a designated location. This saves time and increases convenience for business owners.
Fulfillment storage services are warehouses designed to store various types of goods safely, even if in large quantities.
The fulfillment packing service is a comprehensive warehousing service where in addition to that of storage services, there is also a parcel packing service.
Delivery service: once the goods are packed and prepared, the fulfillment service will deliver the goods to the customer through the use of a reliable carrier.
Fulfillment System Workflow
The fulfillment system contains a dashboard for users and those who run e-Commerce businesses so that they are aware of the total inventory including the number of products that have been sold, the remaining inventory and the number of parcels that have been delivered. Such information will be reported through the warehouse system. There are 3 steps to this workflow: 1. Collecting products 2. Packing products into parcels, and 3. Delivering parcels.
1. Storing Products (Store): merchants/stores will bring inventory to store at the warehouse (or have a pick-up service) where storage type can be selected according to product type. They can choose to store inventory in the general warehouse or at a temperature controlled warehouse for storing fresh produce such as fruits, or flowers. The inventory in these warehouses are sorted by SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) of the product.
2. Packing services (Pack): when an order comes in, merchants will send the packing order into the fulfillment system for warehousing staff to inspect product quantity for each order before packing the products into boxes to be delivered.
3. Delivery of Parcels (Ship): after products are packed into boxes, the staff will bring them to the delivery department. There are many types of delivery methods to choose from such as EMS, Cash on Delivery or COD (Cash on Delivery). After that, the tracking code will be entered into the system so that the merchant can inform customers of the tracking code for their order.
Benefits of Fulfillment Services for e-Commerce Businesses
1. Reduces the cost of business operations: fulfillment services decrease the cost of warehouse rental, packing equipment and transportation for online merchants.
2. Saves time for merchants when doing business: all the back-of-house processes after taking orders such as stocking, packing and shipping will be done by the fulfillment system, thus saving time and hassle.
3. Increases storage space for inventory: fulfillment warehouses are large in size and provide enough spaces to store products as they are designed for this purpose. This results in efficient storage and ability to support various types of storage for small to large businesses.
4. Helps reduce the cost of delivery staff, fulfillment services, storage spaces, packing and delivery services. Thus, reducing the need to hire employees in such sections.
5. Ability to quickly find and inspect product condition: fulfillment systems link product information with users enabling quick access to product information and orders from anywhere at anytime. Users can search for products by order or check the availability of goods instantly.
Operating a business to survive and grow is not just about sales. Effective cost control must be taken into account as well as systematic inventory management.
Choosing the right fulfillment service will increase convenience, save time and reduce operating costs. Therefore, freeing up available resources and enabling them to be used to the fullest in order to help grow businesses. Business owners will have no worries and will be able to fully focus on sales planning and customer service while still having enough time for their families.
For businesses to enter the fulfillment system, an effective communications technology is key, from data transfer, communication to data storage. Cloud storage is becoming increasingly popular because it is flexible in terms of quickly increasing or decreasing the amount of storage needed. There is no requirement for high investment costs of purchasing equipment, while users can safely access data from anywhere.
NT Cloud provides a cloud computing service that is connected to the Internet via a fiber optic network. It covers all areas of the country with a large bandwidth channel that is able to meet the applications of every use. NT Cloud can be accessed anywhere in the world from an infrastructure, platform or software level. Meeting the needs of small, medium or large organizations to support fast computing, allowing businesses to keep up with the competitive world of business. We also have an after-sales service unit and technical staff operating 24/7, thus giving you peace of mind.
For more information, please contact NT Contact Center at 1888.
Alternatively, consult one of our experts for free at https://nt-metro-service.com/nt-business-solution-expert/
References:
https://www.page365.net/all-articles/what-is-fulfillment
