Order Fulfillment - Fulfillment Problems

FULFILLMENT PROBLEMS

E-commerce moves at a fast pace. Marketing, sales, ordering, packaging and shipment all can happen in a manner of minutes or hours. Fulfillment problems arise when a breakdown or bottleneck occurs at some point in the process. Before the Internet, companies could often hide inefficient fulfillment systems, but with e-commerce this is not possible. Among the reasons e-tailers experience problems with order fulfillment are a lack of integration and poor forecasting.

When a company's Web site is not integrated to its other back-end systems, such as accounting or inventory, fulfillment happens slowly. In such a situation, orders come in quickly via a company's Web site and then sit for days or weeks waiting to be manually re-entered by someone into another system. The chance for human error also becomes a problem because product codes, prices, shipping addresses and more can be accidentally altered. When companies do a poor job of forecasting, they often fail to deliver on the promises of product availability and fast shipping made in advertisements. The failure to look ahead and plan for seasonal or cyclical spikes and dips can lead to embarrassing inventory shortages and inadequate warehouse staffing.