Unlock online growth with effective fulfilment

“I don’t have capacity to grow my online sales”, is a common challenge amongst online retailers. You worked hard, invested in paid advertising, converted sales and built a loyal customer base but now you don’t have the capacity to increase your daily orders because you don’t have an effective order fulfilment process.

Your online success and growth potential depends on providing a smooth and effective order fulfilment process.

What is eCommerce Fulfilment?
eCommerce fulfilment is the backbone of every online store, from collecting orders and controlling stock to picking, packaging, and shipping items.

Customers expect fast and dependable delivery, putting pressure on businesses to get items out the door promptly and properly. Customer satisfaction and loyalty will be influenced by the speed of delivery, how the product is packaged, the accuracy of shipping information, and the condition in which products reach the customer’s doorstep.

Common e-Commerce fulfilment models
In-House Fulfilment: In this model, the online store manages its own fulfilment operations. They typically own or lease warehouse space or dedicate space in their bricks and mortar store, hire and train their own staff, and handle all aspects of order processing, packing, and shipping. This is the most common model amongst Irish online retailers.

Third-Party Logistics (3PL) Providers: eCommerce companies can outsource their fulfilment operations to third-party logistics providers. These companies specialise in handling warehousing, packing, and shipping of products on behalf of the online store. Dropshipping: In the dropshipping model, online stores don’t hold inventory. Instead, they partner with suppliers or manufacturers who ship products directly to customers when orders are placed.

Hybrid Models: Some online stores opt for a combination of fulfilment models. For example, they might use in-house fulfilment for their most popular products and partner with a 3PL for overflow or seasonal items. In-house and hybrid are the most common eCommerce fulfilment models for Irish retailers and increasingly these online stores who wish to scale and improve overall efficiency are looking to automate eCommerce fulfilment.

Why Automate eCommerce Fulfilment?
Speed and Efficiency: Time is money! Automation can significantly speed up the fulfilment process, this is crucial for meetings today’s customers fast shipping expectations. Research shows that offering slow shipping is one of the top reasons for customers to abandon the shopping cart.

Reduce Errors: An error in the fulfilment process could turn a loyal customer into one that will never shop with you again. Coupled with potential for poor reviews and the cost of returns and compensation, errors can be very costly. Automated eCommerce fulfilment, however, allows you to minimize the risk of mistakes by reducing manual data entry.

Scalability: Automated eCommerce fulfilment will help you scale to handle increased order volumes without the need to hire and train more staff. This scalability is crucial during busy periods like holidays or sales events.

Focus on Value-Added Tasks: By automating routine tasks, employees can focus on more value-added activities, such as customer service, marketing and product mix.

Customer Satisfaction: Faster and more accurate order fulfilment leads to improved customer satisfaction. Happy customers will convert into loyal customers and more likely to provide positive reviews.

At Magico we are delighted to have partnered with Irish owned Wave OMS to provide automated eCommerce fulfilment services to our clients.

Wave Order Management System fulfils eCommerce and B2B orders with maximum speed and minimum cost per order, supercharging Pack, Pick & Ship capabilities for retailers of all shapes and sizes.

For example, leading Irish hardware retailer Topline Heavins, www.Heavins.ie are enjoying significant benefits after integrating their Magico AB Commerce online store with Wave OMS. The speed and accuracy of their online deliveries is having a hugely positive impact on their reviews and hence their customer retention. The previous chaos of a busy team tripping over each other to fulfil orders has been replaced with a streamlined organised process that has allowed resources to be redeployed to more value adding tasks. The shipping accuracy produced by Wave OMS is also delivering substantial savings in costs of returns and replacement products.

According to Paul Heavin, “The integration of Wave OMS with our Online Store has been a game changer and has allowed us at Heavins to scale our online business with confidence”.

Improving your eCommerce fulfilment process is crucial to achieve online growth. You can boost order fulfilment speed and accuracy, customer happiness, and ultimately business development by choosing the appropriate eCommerce fulfilment model, putting effective procedures in place, and utilising technology and data. This will eventually lead to more satisfied customers and less workload, unlocking the possibility for rapid and long-term online growth.

Orla Cooney, General Manager at Magico.

For more information, please visit https://magico.com

This Business Support article featured in the September/October 2023 issue of The Hardware Journal