You might be the one among the people who keep on ordering some or the other thing frequently. And you might find ordering the products from the comfort of your home easier than going offline to each and every retail shop, then choosing which one to go with and finally paying for your desired thing. But have you ever thought of which is the basic supply entity which ensures this order processing to be done on time?
Yes, it's none other than the 'fulfilment centres', the unsung heroes of modern retail. They are responsible for receiving, processing and delivering the orders to the respective customers on time with best service possible.
In this blog post, we are going to discuss about how the fulfilment centres actually work across e-commerce to empower our shopping experiences.
Inside the Fulfilment Centre : A Behind-the-Scenes Look
1. Receiving and Storing Inventory
The process starts when the products are received at the ecommerce fulfilment centre from either the manufacturers or the suppliers. Post that, the items are carefully lodged into the inventory management system & provided with a specific place or location within the warehouse. Overall, organization of the products is to be done firstly so that they get arranged strategically and properly. This ensures the whole occupied of ample storage space and also streamlines the retrieval process further.
2.Order Processing
Now as the customer orders some product online, it's the time for the fulfilment centre to come in action. The order is taken to the warehouse floor via electronic means and then it joins the queue of other pending tasks. After that, proper barcodes, MRPs, and other required information are pitched over the corresponding products through automated conveyor systems. Then, the requested stuffs are gathered for packaging within the vast inventory.
3.Picking & Packing
This is the paramount step in the whole order fulfilment process, hence needs to be taken care of more efficiently. The workers gather real-time information of the orders & scan them to confirm the inclusion in the actual order. After collecting all the items together, they are packaged by the workers carefully.
4. Shipping and Delivery
After securely packaging the orders to be delivered, they are finally shipped with proper labeling and dispatch. Often the fulfilment centres are seen collaborating with shipping carriers to offer them a wide range of delivery options with warranty. After labelling, the orders are loaded onto the respective trucks or other vehicles to transport them to the distribution centres or to the customers directly.
5.Technology and Automation
Behind all these, technology keeps on playing its crucial role. Once order is shipped, the fulfilment centres keep a proper eye on tracking all the products timely with the help of sophisticated software systems.
5. Continuous Improvement
As the world of e-commerce is on a constant growth continuously, the fulfilment service are also coping up with the changing demands. They take use of data analytics and machine learning algorithms to identify the going-on trends to improve their management practices. Also, the feedbacks from the customers are also taken care of properly to enhance customers' experiences.
Conclusion
Overall, the fulfilment centres are the backbone of the modern retail in the field of logistics and e-commerce. They are the behind-the-scenes heroes of making sure that every customer receives its order on time in proper condition & keep on working 24*7 for continuous improvement.