The Amware Fulfillment & Logistics Blog

Fulfillment warehouse quality management programs have good intentions, but often fail in execution. Why is that?

Your online store is pulling in a ton of sales. Great!

But are you getting your orders where they need to go quickly, accurately and cost-effectively?

Is your fulfillment program enhancing or dragging down customer satisfaction and company profitability?

In today’s hotly competitive eCommerce environment, it’s easy to assume that more is always better.

But that’s not necessarily true for eCommerce fulfillment KPIs, especially if you’ve just started working with a new 3PL or have added a fulfillment operation.

In this past election, voters were faced with two very contrasting alternatives. Decisions on peak season fulfillment center staffing are similarly distinct: you have two very different alternatives to choose between.

On the one hand you have the Don’t Get Caught Short-Handed camp, which presumes any understaffing during peak season leads to inexcusable fulfillment bottlenecks and delays.

If you could use only one KPI to guide your fulfillment operations, what would you choose – and why? 

Here at Amware, we don’t even have to think twice, because we’ve recently begun using and sharing a metric that’s about as close to perfect as you can get.   

When it comes to figuring out how your fulfillment performance stacks up, it’s tempting to compare yourself to industry giants. But what happens when you try to benchmark your order fulfillment services against something a bit more realistic – namely companies that have order volumes and budgets more in line with yours? 

If you’re searching for sound budgeting advice, look no further than the Rolling Stones who once said: 

“You can't always get what you want.  But if you try sometime, you find you get what you need.”

Complete this sentence:  We’re going to need a bigger ______.

Not surprisingly, most movie buffs’ automatic response is “boat.” 

If you sell online and want to prepare your business for exponential growth, the best answer might be: “We’re going to need a bigger order fulfillment warehouse.”

Earlier this year, Netflix introduced a popular but polarizing new show.  Entitled Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, it follows various families as they systematically cull through their possessions, all spurred by the cleaning guru’s famous advice to keep only what “sparks joy.”

Whether you love or hate the catchphrase, you have to admit that Kondo has a point, because we’re all guilty of hanging onto things for too long – and

When you outsource product fulfillment to a third-party logistics company (3PL), you place your trust and your customers' satisfaction in its hands.  Yet, it's shocking how many Etailers have no well-developed program for measuring 3PL fulfillment performance or who use their KPIs in name only. 

That’s what this article is all about.