Benefits of E-Commerce Fulfillment Automation

Time to read: 4 minutes

Automated order fulfillment has become a popular option for e-commerce stores, and nothing is surprising about this. After all, it comes with time and cost savings, not to mention the other benefits. What’s more, automation can reach multiple levels—from robotic process automation (RPA) in manual labor to automated processes, such as sending data about new orders. Let’s delve into these benefits in more detail.

The Two Types of Order Fulfillment Automation

Before we get to the benefits of automated fulfillment, we need to discuss the two forms it can take. What are they?

Manual Labor Automation

The first layer includes manual labor automation. It involves automating processes such as handling goods in your warehouses with the use of machinery. If you work with a 3PL fulfillment company, this is something that you don’t need to worry about.

Process Automation

The second layer of automation involves your processes and procedures. Its range is wide, as it can be applied to, for instance:

• sending data about orders to your warehouses/fulfillment company in order to start the fulfillment process immediately after selling your products,
• automating warehouse storage to optimize routing and pick-up,
• automating data collection regarding fulfillment for the sake of delivery time estimations, optimization, and general analytics,
• and much more.

The Benefits of Automated Order Fulfillment

Automated order fulfillment has multiple benefits for your e-commerce store, as it drives growth and reduces the time you or your employees spend on repetitive tasks. What are the main advantages? Take a look below!

Productivity and time-efficiency

Firstly, automation brings a measurable boost to your productivity. Even if you do not fulfill the orders in-house, you still need to send relevant data to your 3PL provider, and automating this process lets you focus on what matters most: growing your business.

Improved Customer Experience

Secondly, automation enables you to provide customers with more detailed information about their deliveries right after purchase. This is achieved through various means:

• data analytics automation enables you to estimate delivery times, hence providing customers with relevant information,
• automating information exchange with your outsourced logistics provider enables you to provide said information immediately after purchase and confirm that the order is being fulfilled,
• fulfillment automation makes the process faster—it reduces delivery times, contributing to overall customer satisfaction,
• updating your stock automatically ensures that customers are always up to date with product availability.

Easier Returns Management

A good fulfillment process is only half of the success—the way you manage returns is what truly makes the difference. Automated order fulfillment enables you to quickly process said returns and optimize pick-ups (and further decision-making, e.g., reselling returned products). This makes handling returns much more manageable, more convenient, and faster, giving you a competitive edge and helping you boost customer loyalty.

How to Automate Fulfillment in E-Commerce?

Knowing the benefits, you might wonder: How can fulfillment in your e-commerce be automated? It’s much easier than it seems.

If you’re working with a third-party provider (e.g., Amazon FBA), you just need to link your sales channels, many of which let you enable automatic fulfillment in their settings. So is the case with Shopify, in which the whole process requires just a few clicks. Connecting your channels might be a bit more difficult, but there’s a solution to that as well.

Our MCF Shipping App is designed to integrate your sales channels into a single platform and fulfill your orders via Amazon FBA. It promotes not only fulfillment automation, but also streamlines product listing and stock data integration. All you have to do is download the app from the Shopify App Store, link your channels in it, and enable automatic fulfillment on Shopify or any other platform you use. Setting everything up takes just a few minutes, but it saves you hours each month spent on manual order processing.

The Takeaway

Automated order fulfillment brings numerous benefits to your business, from improving the overall productivity of your teams to boosting customer experience. In the end, it’s something that you have to do at a certain point if you want your business to grow—why wait if you can start now?

Automating e-commerce fulfillment is quite easy if you work with a third-party logistics services provider and sell your products through popular platforms like Amazon or Shopify. All you have to do is enable it in the settings and link the channels to remove data silos—voila, your order fulfillment is automated. It doesn’t take much work or investments, but it provides major benefits—it’s a quick win for your business!

Did you like this article? If yes, you might also be interested in reading: Streamlining Your E-commerce Operations with Shopify and Amazon Fulfillment.

About the author

ByteStand

is powed by savvy Amazon industry vets who have been passionate about eCommerce for a decade each. We’ve worked with over 2,600+ brands, generating hundreds of millions of orders shipped through Amazon FBA/MCF program using the ByteStand app.