What Is Order Processing? Steps & Order Processing Services
Quick answer: Order processing is the work that happens between a customer placing an order and the parcel leaving the warehouse: receiving the order, picking the items, sorting, packing and shipping. It is the most important part of order fulfillment, and fast, accurate order processing means faster delivery and happier customers. Many online stores outsource it to an order processing service such as a fulfillment center or 3PL.
eCommerce, as one of the fastest-growing industries, is getting more and more attention. But some people still have little information about order processing, so this article explains it step by step.
What is Order Processing?
Order processing is the process of working from the time a customer places an order to the time a merchant ship it. Order processing is related to whether the order can be completed successfully, and is the most critical and important part of the entire order fulfillment process. An efficient and fast order processing process can help merchants improve customer satisfaction and increase customer retention.
The main steps of order processing:
Order placing
When the merchant receives an order from the customer, the order the management system will automatically receive the order details. The merchant then selects the nearest warehouse based on the delivery address, quantity, and specification of the goods in the order details to ensure that the goods can reach the buyer as soon as possible.
Pick inventory
The process by which an order picker collects a specified number of items for an order according to a pick list or using a barcode. The earlier the order is picked, the sooner the packing and shipping process can be completed.
Sorting and classification
According to different destinations, the selected items will be classified into their respective order areas or batches for packaging and transportation. This is the key to customer satisfaction. The accuracy of the goods and the efficiency of transportation determine the customer’s attitude toward the order.
Packaging
Refers to the packaging of items in a way that is easy to handle and cost-effective after many considerations. The process may include weighing the package, marking the address, attaching the corresponding delivery instructions, etc.
Order shipping
Deliver the items specified in the order to the customer. In this stage, a reliable tracking system can help enterprises realize real-time monitoring of the order transportation process, which is very important for enterprises.
Website, Phone and Outsourced Order Processing
Orders can reach your business through different channels, but they all end up in the same picking, packing and shipping flow:
- Website (web) order processing: orders placed in an online store are passed automatically from the store to the order system or fulfillment partner. This is the fastest and least error-prone channel.
- Phone order processing: a call center or sales team takes the order by phone and enters it manually, which adds time and the risk of typing mistakes.
- Order processing services: a fulfillment center or 3PL receives orders from your store and handles picking, packing and shipping for you.
Honest FulPhilment, for example, imports orders automatically from Shopify (free app) and WooCommerce (REST API key), or by CSV/Excel upload, and dispatches in-stock orders within 24 hours.
What is Order Management?
Order management refers to the process of orders managed by enterprises or merchants. Tracking and completing orders, from the time when customers place orders to the time when customers receive packages. In this phase, an order management system helps an enterprise or merchant automate the entire order management process, including order collection, inventory management, shipping visibility, and other related services. So that merchants can easily complete the transaction processing of orders.
For most businesses, order management is the key to winning the customer’s attention and improving the company’s brand awareness. Because customers have a great independent choice and can choose the order transaction party at will, so for the merchants in the competitive position, whether to enable customers to obtain a relaxed and happy experience in the process of order delivery has become the top priority whether the transaction can be successfully completed.
How to Improve Order Processing?
Through the improvement of transportation function and the optimal choice of transportation cost to achieve the purpose of saving enterprise time and budget cost. Automation greatly improves the efficiency of inventory sorting and transportation, which is the best choice for both merchants and customers.
Through the investigation and analysis of customer archive data and past purchase trends, to achieve the prediction of customer future demand, more targeted and more effective to help merchants to complete the order processing target.
The previous manual process is not only inefficient, the probability of error is too large but also requires extremely high labor costs. While the automatic inventory tracking system improves the efficiency of order processing through good inventory data accuracy, it completely eliminates the margin for error to a large extent and improves customer satisfaction.
Too much or too little inventory will bring certain losses to the enterprise, which shows the importance of inventory control. Proper control of inventory management can fundamentally help enterprises reduce the loss of capital flow.
Conclusion
Order processing is a critical element of order fulfillment. It refers to the workflow that occurs in a warehouse to ensure customer orders are properly prepared and delivered to the right place. While it is possible to improve order processing on manual systems, the technology available today makes this process much easier and more affordable so it is available to companies of all sizes. Accuracy and reliability are other key benefits because they boost customer satisfaction, and customer satisfaction leads to more sales.
To track customer orders, keep continuous contact with loyal customers, help businesses expand their business, and improve service can’t just talk and not just marketing gimmicks. If You want more information about order processing, you can contact us!
FAQ
What does order processing mean?
Order processing means all the steps between a customer placing an order and the order being handed to a carrier: receiving the order, picking the items from inventory, sorting, packing and shipping. It is the core of the order fulfillment process.
What are the steps of order processing?
The main steps are order placing (the order is received and routed to a warehouse), picking the items, sorting them by order or destination, packing and labeling the parcel, and shipping it with a tracking number.
What is an order processing service?
An order processing service is an outsourced provider, such as a fulfillment center or 3PL, that receives your orders, picks and packs the items from your stock and ships them to your customers. It lets online stores grow without hiring their own warehouse team.
What is website order processing?
Website or web order processing means handling orders placed through an online store. The order is passed automatically from the store, such as Shopify or WooCommerce, to the order management system or fulfillment partner, so it can be picked, packed and shipped without manual entry.
What is phone order processing?
Phone order processing means taking orders by telephone and entering them into the order system, usually by a call center or customer service team. After entry, the order follows the same picking, packing and shipping steps as online orders.