Order Fulfilment vs. Order Management: What’s the Difference?
One of the key reasons why thousands of e-commerce businesses are thriving today is that they’ve mastered the art of optimal order fulfilment practices. These practices involve managing customer orders, storing them in warehouses, shipping them, and ultimately having them delivered within the designated timelines. Sometimes knowing the difference between order management and fulfilment is all you need to stand out among the business competition around you.
The key is to always make order fulfilment choices that’ll help you meet your business’s short and long-term goals. Working with a reliable order fulfilment company can keep you from worrying about the best practices, but here’s a quick guide to help you differentiate between order management and fulfilment.
What is Order Fulfilment?
The best way to easily differentiate between order fulfilment and order management is to first know what the former is and what it typically entails. It can best be described as the steps you take to make sure a customer order is stored, shipped, and delivered to them within the promised timeline.
This is an essential step of the supply chain process in e-commerce businesses. The order fulfilment strategies of a business usually involve the roles and responsibilities of multiple suppliers, vendors, distributors, delivery partners, and more.
Anyone engaged in a company’s order fulfilment practices specialises in inventory management, the supervision of product quality, order processing methods, and taking steps to cater to customers’ needs, especially when there’s a need for returns or product exchange.
What is Order Management?
As the term suggests, order management refers to managing of customer orders to ensure they’re completed on time via your company’s order fulfilment practices.
The process of optimal order management starts with receiving an order online and ends when the order reaches the customer’s doorstep. People involved in order management practices make sure orders are placed seamlessly, track every order based on their order dates and tracking numbers, and supervise orders to make sure they’re completed optimally.
The Difference Between the Two
The difference between both order management and fulfilment is that one looks after the order collection and managing of customer orders, while the other takes steps to fulfil those orders through a comprehensive order fulfilment cycle. Both order management and fulfilment are dependent on one another for exceptional e-commerce customer service.
Therefore, working with the right 3PL order fulfilment partner is critical when you’re trying to employ the best practices for your company.
Our pick-and-pack solutions in Birmingham at 3PL WOW can now help you strategise your order fulfilment goals effectively. We understand the significance of meeting customer expectations in the competitive e-commerce environment and do our best to offer order fulfilment services that’ll guarantee faster shipping speeds and satisfied customers at all times. Contact us to request a quote today!