How CFS Manage Your Fulfillment Orders?

Fulfillment requires three major data integrations between the retailer and the supplier: product catalog, inventory, and orders. It all culminates with fulfillment and shipment from the supplier to the end consumer. To recap the major data

Fulfillment requires three major data integrations between the retailer and the supplier: product catalog, inventory, and orders. It all culminates with fulfillment and shipment from the supplier to the end consumer. 

To recap the major data and workflow integrations, managing product catalog data starts with the premise that the seller-retailer has a virtual representation (i.e., data) of a physical thing — a physical thing that the retailer will never see, touch, or control. Product catalog is the collection of descriptive data — title, brand, category, attributes, images — of that physical thing.

Managing inventory visibility tells you where the item is, how many there are, and what it costs you as the reseller. Orders are where everything comes together, when a consumer has purchased a product that a retailer was selling virtually. The retailer must send that order and fulfillment information to the supplier, who will ship to the consumer.

The retailer must send that order and fulfillment information to the supplier, who will ship to the consumer.

Fulfillment

Assuming all has gone well to this point with the other three data integrations (catalog, inventory, and orders), fulfillment is as simple as the supplier (or a supplier’s third-party fulfillment provider) boxing up an item and shipping it to the consumer.

Here’s the basic data that CFS provide back to a retailer after fulfillment of an order.

Of this data, if everything ships in one package the essential fields (to complete the order lifecycle and provide shipment information to the consumer) are po_number andpackage_tracking_number.

Shipments

One of the key differences for both retailers and suppliers in the ecommerce drop-shipping chain — compared to the more traditional wholesale supply chain — is that customers expect the ability to track the physical product they’ve purchased until it’s delivered to them. That determines which shipping companies are appropriate for both the retailer and supplier.

The other dynamic of shipments involves the customer experience. Typically, a retailer should expect “blind drop shipping,” which means that the supplier will include a retailer-branded packing slip inside of the package and won’t otherwise refer to itself as the fulfiller except for the return address.

As a general rule, retailers shouldn’t assume that they can do more branding than this. Typical fulfillment-related branding items, such as boxes with a logo or marketing-promotional inserts, are possible only for retailers with enough size and volume to justify that amount of customization and cost.

Considerations

Many of the factors around the fulfillment and shipment process are driven by the relationship between the retailer and supplier. These factors need to be identified, discussed, and coordinated at the onset of the relationship, rather than after the retailer receives an order.

Some of the things to consider at the onset of the supplier on-boarding process are as follows.

Fulfillment Success

The drop-shipping retailers and suppliers that have the most success around fulfillment make these details a cornerstone of their partnership. Retailers should work to pick carrier-method combinations that are likely supported across all suppliers, for consistent options to their consumers. A quick poll of supported carriers and methods across a subset of your potential suppliers will help make that choice.

The current average shipping times for most suppliers would be that they need one full business day. If you send orders at 8:00 a.m., most suppliers will ship by the end of the next day. Depending on when the order is placed by the consumer and then delivered to the supplier, it could be about a 2-day lag in the consumer’s mind until there’s a tracking number. Many suppliers are better than this; many are worse.

As far as shipping charges, the most successful retailers understand several things.

Fulfillment is the culmination of the entire drop-shipping process. If managed upfront with its suppliers, a retailer will be well on its way to fulfillment success.

 

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