How To Streamline Order Fulfillment Operations For Faster Delivery

What’s the secret behind Amazon’s lightening-fast order fulfillment? Strategic placement of fulfillment centers near dense populations and automation with warehouse robots have revolutionized their process. While smaller retailers can’t replicate this scale, they can still streamline fulfillment to speed up order delivery and boost efficiency. This guide explains how to improve order fulfillment operations through smarter routing, digital tools, and integrated software, helping your business compete in today’s fast-paced market.

By adopting digital tools, optimizing warehouse routes, and integrating eCommerce with route planners, businesses can streamline order fulfillment.

 

 

The Role of Order Fulfillment in Supply Chain Management

Order fulfillment is central to supply chain management. In e-Commerce, customer orders drive logistics operations. Once a purchase is made, order pickers locate the products in the warehouse, staff pack and load them into delivery vehicles, and last mile carrier deliver them to customers.

The goal of order fulfillment is to deliver products quickly and cost-effectively. Achieving this requires optimizing all six steps of the order fulfillment process.

 

What Are the Six Steps in the Order Fulfillment Process?

  1. Receiving inventory: Check shipments against the manifest and inspect products upon arrival.
  2. Storing inventory: Label and store products for easy retrieval in the warehouse.
  3. Picking inventory items: Generate pick lists and use digital labels to guide order pickers efficiently.
  4. Packing inventory items: Prepare products for shipment to customers.
  5. Order shipping: Load orders into delivery vehicles for in-house or outsourced last-mile delivery.
  6. Reverse logistics processes: Handle product returns efficiently to maintain customer satisfaction.

Scanning addresses on any surface using Route4Me's iPhone route planner integrated OCR address scanner.

 

How To Make Order Fulfillment Operations More Efficient

A powerful routing solution can streamline order fulfillment. Route4Me helps logistics-heavy businesses optimize middle mile, warehousing, last-mile delivery, and reverse logistics. Here’s how to enhance your order fulfillment in five steps:

 

1. Switch to Digital Labels and Use In-App Barcode Scanner

Digital labels and e-ink barcodes save time and reduce errors. Instead of printing and replacing labels manually, you can update them instantly. Route4Me’s iOS and Android route planners include a built-in e-ink barcode scanner, making order picking faster, more accurate, and more efficient.

Scanning barcodes using Route4Me's Android Route Planner app-integrated barcode scanner.

 

2. Optimize Routes For Warehouse Orderpicking

Plan warehouse routes to minimize walking and streamline order picking. By optimizing pick-and-pack paths, you speed up order fulfillment, reduce errors, and increase warehouse productivity.

Creating a digital picking list for faster order picking in an order fulfillment center or warehouse

 

3. Sync eCommerce Online Orders With Route Planner

Integrate your eCommerce platform with your delivery route planner to automatically sync new orders. Route4Me connects with Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and more. Features include:

Syncing online orders from eCommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce with route planner with order management

 

4. Create Optimized Routes With Online Orders For Last Mile Delivery

Once orders are synced, map them into optimized multi-stop routes. Route4Me helps plan routes that consider:

Route optimization as a short and fast last mile delivery multi stop route vs manual route planning as a convoluted route

 

5. Optimize Reverse Logistics Routes For Product Returns

Combine product routing pickups and dropoffs in a single route to save time and resources. Route4Me optimizes reverse logistics routes quickly, simplifying the management of returns and improving customer satisfaction.

 

Start optimizing your order fulfillment processes with Route4Me today. Sign up for a free trial!

 

 Last Updated:

About author: Alex Yasko

Alex Yasko is the Go-to-Market Product Manager and Information Architecture Manager at Route4Me. With thousands of hours of experience, Alex specializes in breaking down complex last-mile optimization and routing scenarios into simple, actionable instructions, helping last-mile businesses streamline their operations effortlessly.

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About Route4Me

Route4Me has over 40,000 customers globally. Route4Me's Android and iPhone mobile apps have been downloaded over 2 million times since 2009. Extremely easy-to-use, Route4Me's apps create optimized routes, synchronize routes to mobile devices, enable communication with drivers and customers, offer turn-by-turn directions, delivery confirmation, and more. Behind the scenes, Route4Me's operational optimization platform combines high-performance algorithms with data science, machine learning, and big data to plan, optimize, and analyze routes of almost any size in real-time.