The term E-fulfillment is one that is being used more and more; however, not everyone is sure what is meant by it. It sounds quite technical, but in reality is very simple. It is just a specialist form of third party order fulfillment.
How it Works?
Rather than a firm delivering the products its customers order on-line, it uses a third party warehousing and distribution, or logistics firm, to do it on its behalf. When a customer orders a product on the web, that order will usually go to the retailer they are ordering from. It is then passed onto the third party distribution firm. Alternatively, when the customer hits the buy button the order can go straight to the third party distribution firm.
Either way as soon as the order is received, it is picked and sent to the customer in one of three ways. It can be sent through the normal postal service, sent by courier or distributed using the logistic firm’s own transport network.
The end customer gets their product quickly and is not aware that the firm they bought it from has not been involved in the distribution process. Firms who use e-fulfillment provide their customers with an excellent service as well as saving themselves time and money.
They do not have to pay to staff and run their own warehousing and transport. In addition, they pay less for postage or courier delivery. The logistics firm sends out hundreds of thousands of packages, so can negotiate low rates for postage and courier services. Therefore, it can provide a faster distribution service at a lower cost.
