Five Ways to Achieve Online Order Fulfillment Success

Handle More Orders with Less

You listened to your customer's requests, and implemented an online parts ordering system for your website. After clearing some big hurdles in this project-integrating your e-commerce site with your bill of materials and sales order systems, and providing site content in multiple languages for your international customers-you are a step ahead of the competition.

Now your top customers are raving about how easy to use and convenient it is. And your sales and marketing department is chomping at the bit to promote the new system in a major way.

So why do you have visions of the Wizard of Oz frantically turning valves, pulling switches and telling Dorothy to "Ignore the man behind the curtain?"

Because you know that while the new site has made life much easier for your customers, your company's business processes and systems are not designed for high volume online sales. There are still too many manual steps to fulfill an order with too many opportunities for error. And you worry that any significant increase in your online orders will expose the weaknesses in your new system and the results could be devastating-delayed or incorrect shipments, increased staffing and administrative costs, and worse yet, eroding customer satisfaction.

Accuracy and speed go hand-in-hand when creating an effective online order and fulfillment solution. Order, customer, and shipment information must be correct and complete to minimize the intervention required to process the order. And a high velocity fulfillment system has a greater capacity to handle increased order volume. How do you achieve both accurate and timely order fulfillment? By,

• Eliminating unnecessary tasks,
• Simplifying the overall process, and
• Automating tasks where possible.

Here are five real-world examples of what our customers have done to grow their online business, hold costs in check, and keep their customers and sales department smiling:

1. Outsource order fulfillment to a third-party logistics (3PL) company. The 3PL maintains finished goods inventory and processes orders received from the company's e-commerce site for shipment. If you are reselling products, evaluate the use of drop shipments directly from suppliers to your customers.
2. Provide credit and procurement card options for payment. Eliminate purchase order processing delays and cost. Use online credit card authorization to automatically approve purchases. The credit card merchant fees are offset by reduced processing costs and better cash flow.
3. Minimize backorders and the related handling costs by providing real time inventory visibility on your site. Customers can see if an item is readily available before placing their order.
4. Include order status information on your site and send automatic notifications when an order is accepted, packed and shipped. Keep your customers informed and decrease call volume in customer service for routine inquiries.
5. Reduce order entry errors that require manual intervention to resolve. For repair parts or accessories, design the site so that it is easy to order the "right" part. Consider the use of part diagrams or parts lists by model for part selection.

Cost effective, money-making online order fulfillment solutions go well beyond the appealing design and intuitiveness of your web storefront. It's the behind the scenes detail of the complete process that must be challenged and refined. Only then will you truly be a Wizard!

Visit us at www.pragmatyxs.com for more information on how Pragmatyxs can help you build a supercharged order fulfillment solution.

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