Managing and processing orders is the key to improving your business growth and development. You can easily manage orders when you have not grown much. As you scale your business, managing orders becomes difficult for you because you will receive more orders every day. What to do in this situation? The best solution is to outsource your order fulfillment process.
3PL fulfillment can save you time and effort by handling the whole order processing unit. You just need to find reliable 3PL fulfillment providers to outsource your orders. You must be thinking about how things work when you outsource them.
Let’s try to clear up your confusion by going through the complete functioning of the 3PL fulfillment process.
Functions Involved in 3PL Fulfillment Process
3PL fulfillment is simply outsourcing your company’s order fulfillment process to a team of experts who know what they need to do to deliver your orders timely and satisfy your customers. The following are the key functions performed by experts to manage and fulfill your orders.
Receiving
3PL is unable to deliver orders unless they have your inventory. So, effective warehousing is required in the case of 3PL fulfillment as well. When a customer places the order, you have to check it and send the desired products from your inventory to the 3PL providers so they can further proceed with the order. This can be done in two ways.
The first one is that you will have to check for the products and then tell them about them to 3PL and they will receive it. The 2nd option is more convenient. You can allow 3PL to collaborate or integrate with your warehouse system. They will check the product availability and then pick it up from your warehouse to proceed with the order.
Picking
Once you receive the order and check it in the warehouse, the next step is to push the order to the 3PL. You have to do so either by manually uploading the orders or opting for a fulfillment provider or software. Such software automatically pushes order details to 3PL. The use of such software systems can bring order details, marketplace, inventory, and shipment to one level by integrating with e-commerce platforms.
After receiving the order details, a picking team of 3PL providers will prepare a picking list of products and accessories to fulfill orders. The team will receive store locations as well from where they have to pick these products.
Packing
The next function performed by 3PL providers is to pack the products. The picking team picks the products from respective stores and then 3PL does the job of packing. Order details are checked again when the packaging starts. Every product is packed accordingly.
For example, if you have to deliver some delicate products then you will have to pack them well in such a way that they don’t get any damage throughout the shipping or delivery process. Apart from that, discreet packaging is also provided on customers’ demand.
Shipping
This is the step where order management is almost completed. Most 3PLs ship orders through some specific courier service. Some 3PLs buy and print shipment labels for products on your behalf. Some left this job on the courier service they are partnering with. And the other compares the shipment labels of different couriers before buying.
After labeling, the product will be shipped to the warehouse of 3PL providers that is closest to the delivery address. From there the delivery partner will pick up the product and deliver it to your customer’s door.
Managing Returns
Parting with a reliable 3PL can assist you in handling your order management system and processing returns seamlessly. Sometimes, the wrong product is delivered to the customers. The customers opt for a return or exchange in such a situation. 3PLs have to deal with this problem as well. They first have to provide information to the customers related to returns and exchange policy. Then they have to manage returned products and send required products to the customers.
Final Words
Order management is no longer a problem as now you can outsource the fulfillment process. Experts will take care of order processing and will manage returns and exchanges as well. It’s time to say goodbye to boring manual order management systems. If you need more information then visit this website https://techbattel.com/.
