Shopify Order Fulfillment
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Shopify Order Fulfillment
Things to consider when outsourcing order fulfillment
Integrating your Shopify store with an
eCommerce Fulfillment partner can be intimidating at first. Many prospective fulfillment providers will send a document littered with technical jargon and tangled flow charts referencing FTP drops, APIs and possibly EDI connections. A key consideration in choosing the right eCommerce Fulfillment partner for your Shopify store is the support they offer. A knowledgeable and capable integration specialist, that can speak your language and not get lost in FTPs, APIs, EDI, etc. should be available to help your company. No programmers or technical jargon required. With the support of a capable and experienced integration specialist, on-boarding with 3rd party warehouses should be as simple as clicking a button.
Clean Up Your Inventory
Inventory management is one of the key advantages of outsourcing your Shopify store’s fulfillment. However, to reap the full benefits of third-party inventory management, spending some time simplifying and updating your inventory is key.
• Remove inactive products (technical jargon: SKUs)
• Most Shopify stores have many inactive and discontinued products littered throughout their inventory. Although your customers don’t see these outdated products the data is still shared with any connection to your stores back end. Updating your inventory to current SKUs only will make inventory reports, counts and audits easier to conduct and analyze. Furthermore, the inventory will be simplified and ready for any integration with accounting software.
• Complete and accurate SKU list
• Almost all eCommerce Fulfillment partners utilize software to ensure accurate order fulfillment and inventory management. The fulfillment partner is based on uploading and pulling your store’s SKU data. If the SKU data, you are providing is incorrect the chances of running unintended back orders and sending incorrect items in an order increase significantly. The old story applies: garbage in – garbage out.
Organize and Update Your Inventory
Organize Your Product Data
Shopify is very detailed with the data it sends through its software (technical jargon: API infrastructure) as a result, you can benefit significantly by reducing the time and money it takes to set up your products with your fulfillment partner and scale your business.
Shopify’s product section has many fields that are not typically used when companies first start selling on the platform. Product weight and dimensions, barcodes, and customs related information are fields that are often left blank. While this information is not required for most start-ups, it is key to scaling your business. If your eyes glazed over and you are intimidated by what looks to be an overwhelming amount of data, talk to your fulfillment partners.
Often there are “tricks” of the trade and assistance that can help you get prepared. If you maintain this information as you add to your product line, this will help facilitate an easy transition to outsourcing fulfillment and warehousing.
Key 1: Barcodes are the lubricant that allow your fulfillment partner to process orders efficiently and accurately.
Key 2: Accurate weight and dimensions ensure you are not overcharged on your shipping costs.
Key 3: Concerned about getting the inventory and data in shape? Talk to your Integration specialist. They will have some tricks and be able to find some workarounds. Some of the data may not be required or can be simplified.
If these elements are in place and inventory is onsite with your fulfillment partner, typically you can be testing your first order with complete integration in 48 hours and rolling out thereafter.
Always Communicate With Your Shopify Order Fulfillment Partner
While the major integration work is typically completed during the on-boarding processes, the integration between your Shopify store and fulfillment part must be an ongoing process and may need to be tweaked and adjusted throughout each year.
• Communicating all special sales (i.e. “Black Friday” or “Back to School” plans) with your fulfillment partner will allow them to prepare for any increase order load and ensure fulfillment timelines are maintained. For example, if a product is going on sale with significantly higher expected shipment volumes the fulfillment partner may change how they stage the inventory to be more efficient.
• Releasing new products is always exciting for your business. However, if new products are not communicated properly with your fulfillment partner, it can disrupt the whole process. It is important to send your fulfillment partner the product information including SKU, weight, and dimensions prior to your product going live so they can ensure the data from your store will flow properly into their fulfillment system.
• Supply chains can break down at various points, whether it’s in the manufacturing process or the incoming shipping process. These interruptions can end up costing thousands of dollars to your business. Your fulfillment partner typically has experienced these situations and may be able to mitigate supply chain interruptions. Communicating these to your fulfillment partner can often facilitate quicker solutions.
Include your fulfillment partner as a “partner”, not just a supplier in your business. Typically, they have assisted other customers in navigating unique situations and unexpected challenges.
Transaction Heroes has been providing Shopify order fulfillment and customer care solutions for over 20 years in the B2C (Business to Consumer) sales business. We currently operate online fulfillment and returns solutions for online sellers marketing large-scale televisions, home electronics products, gift cards, apparel, footwear, jewelry and literature with fulfillment solutions to Canada, the United States and Worldwide.
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