Traditional order management and fulfillment can be expensive and time-consuming. Some companies choose to outsource, while others choose to go in-house. Either way, you’re losing money or time.
Omnichannel order management and fulfillment are different, you can utilize your entire inventory and all your local store locations. It allows you to get customers the products they want at the time and place they want them.
By carefully strategizing how you manage your orders the process will become more affordable than traditional order fulfillment. Follow these three tactics to fulfill more orders at a lower cost.
Make shipping costs lower
Once you make a sale, your job isn’t over—you still have to get the product to your customer. Shipping costs are a concern for many companies, as they have increased in recent years. Amazon alone spent $12.8 billion on shipping costs in the fourth quarter of 2019—a 43 percent increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2018. If you operate an online store, you may have experienced a similar situation.
By employing store fulfillment and a powerful order routing engine, retailers ensure orders are sent to the fulfillment location offering the lowest possible shipping costs. A global product inventory provides that ability to know which products are available at which location, and then you can optimize the order fulfillment process by filling orders from the location nearest to the customer. This will trim your fulfillment costs and make the process less expensive—and more efficient.
With omnichannel order management, shipping costs are under better control. There are ways to lower shipping costs, or even eliminate them completely, by offering alternative options to your customers.
Buy online, pick up in-store options
With in-store pickup, outbound shipping costs are eliminated. This is also a convenient option for customers. Sixty-eight percent of U.S. consumers have used the buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) model multiple times, and 50 percent of customers have decided where to buy online based on whether that retailer offered in-store pickup.
Omnichannel order fulfillment allows your store staff to take on new responsibilities. By fulfilling online orders through local stores, you allow your customers to get their products faster through either local delivery or in-store pickup.
It’s a great way to improve customer satisfaction and see repeat shoppers in the future. Simply allow customers to make purchases on their smartphone or another handheld device, then fill their orders using mobile store fulfillment and let them pick up their items in-store.
Efficient order management and reduced fulfillment time
You can cut fulfillment costs by focusing on efficiency during every step of the omnichannel order management process.
Advanced order routing and orchestration help define the best processes to make sure the most appropriate fulfillment location completes every order. It doesn’t make sense to fill an order using a location that’s across the country from the customer. Instead, keep careful track of your distribution centres and fill orders from the closest location to each consumer. This strategy is essential to keep your order management system (OMS) healthy and efficient.
Retailers also incorporate service level agreements, or SLAs. These agreements outline the expectations between company and customer. By using an SLA, you can manage your customers’ expectations regarding how quickly your stores are expected to fulfill each order. This will help you keep the fulfillment promises made to your customers.
What’s more, when local stores are able to fulfill online orders, new markets can be penetrated more easily. There’s no need to spend the money and effort to establish a new local distribution centre. Instead, simply use local stores to fulfill orders. This will open up a whole new audience for your brand and allow you to meet their needs in a way that’s as cost-efficient as possible.
Many companies spend big bucks on fulfillment costs. Yours doesn’t have to. These tactics can help you lower shipping costs, increase customer satisfaction, and fill more orders in less time. Here at Orckestra, we’d love to partner with you so you can enjoy the benefits of our omnichannel order management and fulfillment system. Contact us to learn more.
