The process of order fulfillment is the connecting point for thousands of companies across the globe. 

Order fulfillment jobs have a wide range of responsibilities along the process. They are key towards making sure that companies can send their products to their customers in a fast and efficient way. 

What is this process? What job potential is in order fulfillment? 

Read on below to find out.

The Process of Order Fulfillment Jobs

Fulfillment companies are the middleman of shipping and product business. When a company doesn’t have its own built-in infrastructure, like e-commerce or wholesale sellers, they need fulfillment companies to fill in the gaps. 

The process has 5 general steps.

1. Inventory Delivered

The process starts with the company in question sending their stock of inventory to the fulfillment company. 

To make this process worthwhile, this stock needs to be more than a single order, but multiple orders over the course of several months or even years. 

2. Sorting Stock

Fulfillment companies often boil down to a giant warehouse network. No matter the size, they receive, sort, and store stock in this manner.

As inventory shipments come in, a team sorts through the inventory and checks the products against the database sent to them by the company. 

A specific company’s inventory, especially if it is a large client of the fulfillment company, will get stored together for ease of access.

3. Processing Customer Orders

When the time to send out the pieces of inventory, it will come in the form of customer orders. Another team will gather and categorize all of these orders, giving an easy to pull list from the inventory they have access to.

Making sure each customer order is separate and double-checked is a big part of this step. Sending out the wrong inventory or mismatching the products can be a nightmare for a fulfillment company.

4. Pack and Ship the Orders

Another level of double-checking orders against packed contents comes in on this step.

When you pack each item and bundle it to ship out to the customer, the items in question need a clear check against both the customer order and the inventory.

As well, this process requires organization and care. Each material needs protecting against potential hazards on the shipping route. Fragile products need extra packing while bigger objects need special boxes.

5. Process Customer Returns

In the end, it is possible that things go awry. Fulfillment companies have to deal with this as much as their clients might, as they have all the items that need returning.

In this event, the fulfillment company needs to, in basic terms, reverse the process. They receive the items from the customer, sort it out, process it, and pack and ship it back to the parent company. 

The Positions in Order Fulfillment

With this process in mind, order fulfillment jobs can come in a large variety of positions. Most of them overlap depending on demand and the size of the fulfillment company.

Management will be overlooking the process and need to understand when and where the transitions in jobs are. Each step in the process ends up being another position organized by management.

The rest of the job positions hinge on specific tasks. Sorting stock requires good organization skills. Processing customer orders and dealing with customer returns can require a good deal of customer service experience.

Understanding where your skills may best fit in to order fulfillment jobs can be daunting. Websites like Fulfilltopia help to keep you connected with changes and opening in the market. 

A Better Look at the World

Understanding order fulfillment jobs and how the process works give you a strong idea of how many businesses can operate. 

There is a lot more to what the world can provide in regards to interesting and beneficial information. We at Act Witty want to bring it all to you. Explore our other articles today!