Order Fulfilment Process

Getting it right

Focus on Your Passion, We'll Handle the Rest: The Power of Order Fulfilment

At Green Fulfilment, we understand that logistics can be a complex and time-consuming aspect of running a business. That’s why we offer a partnership model. You focus on your expertise – crafting and selling amazing products – while we become your fulfilment experts.

Our team utilises proven processes and technology to ensure accurate and on-time order fulfilment, keeping your customers happy. This translates to satisfied customers, repeat business for you, and ultimately, growth for both of us.

Organization Of Orders
Outsource your fulfilment

Designed for growing brands

As the UK’s most eco-conscious fulfilment service, we’re built to propel growing brands like yours. We leverage technology at every stage for pinpoint accuracy, lightning-fast order processing, and unwavering reliability.

But that’s not all. We’re laser-focused on optimising fulfilment for lightweight, fast-moving products, a perfect match for businesses on the rise. This specialisation allows us to efficiently handle thousands of orders daily, ensuring your products reach customers quickly and seamlessly.

Five-step process

Order fulfilment process

Onboarding Vector
Step 1

Goods In

Ship your products directly to our fulfilment centres, and we’ll handle the rest. Before your stock even arrives, you’ll have created an account and uploaded all your product details, barcodes, and photos onto our user-friendly Green Portal. This ensures a smooth receiving process.

Upon arrival, our team meticulously scans and logs your inventory into designated locations within our warehouse. Real-time updates in the Green Portal provide complete transparency, allowing you to track stock receipts, inventory levels, and all related activity.

Stock Vector
Step 2

Warehousing

Rest assured, your products are securely stored in our fulfilment warehouses, prepared for immediate dispatch upon your sales orders. Powered by the Green Portal, we maintain complete transparency and real-time inventory tracking. This means you have instant access to see exactly where your products are located and their current quantities. Furthermore, the Green Portal logs all stock movements, providing you with a clear picture of your inventory activity.

Packaging Vector
Step 3

Pick & Pack

Once your stock is available, our fulfilment process shifts to order dispatch. This involves two key steps: picking and packing.

Picking refers to locating the products for a specific order within the warehouse and handing them over for packing. Our team utilises efficient systems to streamline this process, ensuring accuracy and speed.

Packing involves preparing the picked orders for shipping. Here, our skilled packers ensure your products are safe and secure for their journey to your customers. This is where it all comes together – technology, people, and proven processes working in harmony to meet and exceed customer expectations every time.

Industry-Leading Accuracy and Sustainable Options:

Through our expertise, technology, and well-honed processes, we boast an impressive 99.9% picking and packing accuracy rate. This ensures your customers receive the correct items quickly and efficiently.

Furthermore, we understand the importance of eco-friendly practices. That’s why we offer the widest range of green packaging options available, including paper tape and plastic-free solutions.

Shipping Vector
Step 4

Shipping

The final stage of our fulfilment process ensures your orders reach your customers swiftly and efficiently. Green Fulfilment offers a significant advantage: access to our vast network of international carriers, providing both standard and express delivery options.

We take the guesswork out of shipping. Our system automatically assigns the most cost-effective and time-sensitive service for each order, guaranteeing on-time arrival in pristine condition. Plus, you and your customers can track progress every step of the way through our user-friendly tracking system.

Integration Vector
Step 5

Returns

The final piece of the puzzle is returns management – processing customer returns for restocking or recycling when unusable. Did you know a staggering 67% of e-commerce returns are due to seller errors?

Here at Green Fulfilment, we work closely with you to significantly reduce the number of returns happening in the first place.

Our two-pronged strategy tackles returns head-on:

Prevention:

  • Unmatched Accuracy: We boast a near-perfect 99.99% order accuracy guarantee, minimising the chance of incorrect deliveries leading to returns.
  • Superior Packaging: Our robust packaging solutions ensure your products reach customers in pristine condition, further reducing the likelihood of damage-related returns.

Efficient Processing:

  • Swift Returns Handling: We prioritise immediate processing of returned items, providing you with full transparency on the status of each return at every stage.
  • Faster Refunds: This efficient system allows you to expedite refunds, keeping customers satisfied.

Other Services

Kitting & Assembly

Unify your operations across channels, couriers, and orders. Gain real-time inventory insights with the Green Platform, our cloud-based fulfilment solution.

Connect your marketplaces and website in minutes.

B2B Order Fulfilment

Expand reach. Simplify logistics. Reduce costs.

Green Fulfilment: Your seamless B2B partner.

Integrate with EDI to transmit live data

Reach new markets, integrate sales channels, and leverage our expertise.

Customer Support
  • Your Fulfilment Expert: Our account managers average 9 years of experience in the industry, providing expert advice and solutions tailored to your specific needs.
  • Highly Responsive: We guarantee 100% of your queries receive a response within 2 hours, with most issues resolved within 4 hours.
Our software

Streamline your operations

Unify your operations across channels, couriers, and orders. Gain real-time inventory insights with the Green Platform, our cloud-based fulfilment solution.

Connect your marketplaces and website in minutes.

Sales Management
Rukhsar And Cain Award
Rukhsar & Cain - Founders of Green Fulfilment
Our story

Our Philosophy

We are on a mission to create a genuine partnership with all of our customers.

We want to leverage technology, people and processes to deliver the very best service to our customers. However, we want to do this through relationships. People work with people, and we would never want to replace that with technology.

Contact Us

Achieve Your Growth Goals - Talk to Us Today!

Connect with a fulfilment expert to unlock your growth potential! They’ll schedule a free consultation to discuss your current operations, ambitious goals, and any challenges you’re facing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the first step in order fulfilment?

The first step in order fulfilment is receiving the inventory. 

The process starts when you send your products to the fulfilment centre. After the inventory arrives, our team checks and inspects the items to make sure they match the inventory list. If we find any mistakes or discrepancies, we’ll address them immediately to make sure that your stock levels are accurate.

After your products are verified, they are stored in a designated area inside the warehouse — ready for picking and packing when your customers place an order. The first step of the order fulfilment process is important, because it sets the foundation for accurate and efficient order processing. A properly organised inventory means less delays or errors later in the process, plus it ensures that your customers’ orders are fulfilled quickly and accurately.

What type of businesses use order fulfilment?

Order fulfilment services can cater to a wide range of businesses across different industries. However, there are certain types of businesses that stand to benefit from an order fulfilment service provider.

  • Ecommerce businesses often need help with their ecommerce product fulfilment managing high volumes of online orders and ensuring timely delivery.
  • Retail chains and wholesalers rely on fulfilment companies to manage their inventory across multiple locations.
  • Startup businesses, especially those without a dedicated warehouse, use fulfilment centres to handle storage and shipping as their business grows and scales.
  • Manufacturers and consumer goods companies utilise fulfilment services to streamline the distribution of their products to retailers and end customers. 

Any business that sells physical products, whether online or through traditional retail channels, can benefit from outsourcing order fulfilment to focus on growth and customer satisfaction.

How is order fulfilment cost calculated?

Order fulfilment cost is the sum total of expenses incurred in receiving, storing, picking and packing fulfilment, and shipping a product. There are some key components that we consider when calculating the cost. As a general guide, they are:

  • Warehousing costs and equipment
  • Inventory carrying costs
  • Technology costs (the use of warehouse management systems and order management software)
  • Packaging materials for packing and shipping
  • Shipping labels, supplies, and tracking
  • Carrier fees
  • Transportation costs for return shipments
  • Labour costs for fulfilment centre staff

Some factors that also affect fulfilment cost are:

  • Order volume: Higher order volumes often lead to reduced per-unit costs.
  • Product characteristics: Product size, weight, and fragility affect packaging and shipping costs.
  • Order profile: Average order value, number of items per order, and return rates affect fulfilment efficiency.

The cost of order fulfilment is different from one business to the next, so if you’re looking for an exact idea of how much your business needs to pay for order fulfilment services, we recommend reaching out to the team at Green Fulfilment for personalised pricing and support.

Is fulfilment the same as delivery?

Fulfilment and delivery are closely related, but each of them are distinct processes within the supply chain. 

Fulfilment is the entire process of receiving, processing, and shipping an order to the customer. It also includes inventory management, order picking, packing, and preparing the shipment for delivery. 

On the other hand, delivery is the final step of the fulfilment process and involves physically transporting the package from a UK fulfilment warehouse or centre to the customer’s doorstep. 

While fulfilment covers all the activities that prepare an order for delivery, delivery focuses solely on the transportation aspect. Lots of businesses outsource their fulfilment to specialised companies that manage everything up to the point of delivery, so they don’t have to worry about products being shipped accurately and on time.

Is order fulfilment part of logistics?

Yes, order fulfilment is part of the logistics process. 

Logistics covers the broader process of managing the movement and storage of goods, from raw materials to finished products. Order fulfilment falls under this process as it deals with the steps needed to complete a customer’s order.

Effective logistics management is all about being sure that the fulfilment process runs smoothly so costs are reduced and customer satisfaction is improved. Integrating order fulfilment into the overall logistics strategy lets businesses optimise their supply chain, cut down on delays, and ensure timely deliveries.

In short, logistics covers the entire supply chain and order fulfilment focuses on the specific steps involved in delivering a product to a customer.

What are the three types of order fulfilment?

There are 3 primary types of order fulfilment:

  • In-house fulfilment is when your business takes care of the entire fulfilment process in your own warehouse or facility. This gives you maximum control, but it also requires investing in infrastructure, labour, and order fulfilment technology.
  • Third-party logistics (3PL) fulfilment is known as outsourcing fulfilment to a specialised third-party provider. Third-party logistics providers offer various services that include warehousing, order fulfilment, and shipping.
  • Dropshipping is a fulfilment model where you don’t hold inventory. Instead, products are shipped directly from the supplier to your customers.

Each order fulfilment method has its own pros and cons depending on the size of your business, the resources you have available, and your growth objectives.

Is it worth outsourcing order fulfilment?

If you want to scale or improve your business operations’ efficiency, outsourcing order fulfilment can be worth your while.

Partnering with a third-party fulfilment provider, like Green Fulfilment, lets you focus on aspects of your business, like product development and marketing, rather than getting bogged down by logistics.

Outsourcing also offers cost savings. You don’t need to invest in warehousing, hiring and training your own staff, or shipping infrastructure. In addition, order fulfilment providers already have the expertise and technology to streamline the process, and that leads to faster shipping times and fewer errors.

Ultimately, the decision depends on your business’ size, growth plans, and specific needs. Carefully think about the costs, service levels, and your long-term goals before you decide on outsourcing.