Fulfilment supports e-commerce businesses through every stage: when you’re starting out, it helps set the logistics foundation without requiring major costs or extra time; and when you grow, it becomes the engine that allows you to scale without losing efficiency or service quality.
When you’re starting out:
You’ve just launched your online store. You’ve created your product, designed your website and chosen your sales platform. The challenge begins with logistics: managing inventory, preparing orders, coordinating shipments and handling returns. With low volumes, you can manage it from home or a small warehouse, but soon you realise that every minute spent on these tasks is time you’re not dedicating to attracting customers or improving your catalogue. This is where fulfilment becomes a strategic support to help you start off on the right foot.
When you grow:
Your business takes off, orders increase and logistics become more complex: more SKUs, demand peaks, frequent returns and rising costs. Keeping everything under control without affecting the customer experience can overwhelm your resources. At this point, fulfilment is much more than a service: it is the infrastructure that allows you to scale smoothly, with centralised storage, automated pick & pack, carrier integration and agile returns.
Therefore, if you have an online store, fulfilment is essential for managing the storage, packaging and shipping of products to your customers. As your business grows, you’ll likely need a fulfilment system to speed up the process and reduce delivery times.
If you’ve ever wondered what fulfilment is and how it can help optimise your ecommerce logistics, you’re in the right place. We’re going to explain everything clearly and simply.
What is fulfilment?
Fulfilment is the set of logistics processes required to get a product from the warehouse to the final customer. This includes everything from product storage and inventory management to packaging, delivery and after-sales through reverse logistics. In short, it is the system that makes everything work seamlessly, allowing your ecommerce to operate efficiently.
To understand it better, fulfilment is not just a technical term but a strategy that can transform your business. Instead of manually managing every step, you can delegate it to a specialised provider, allowing you to focus on what truly matters: growing your online store.
Features and advantages of fulfilment
Fulfilment has several features and advantages that make it ideal for small and medium-sized ecommerce businesses, as well as B2B companies. Here are some of the most important:
Reduction of operational costs
It’s likely that your small eCommerce business cannot afford the investment required to equip a warehouse with the latest technology for order preparation. If you outsource this task to a third party, this investment disappears. In addition, the time you previously spent on logistics can now be invested in what you do best: improving your product and increasing your sales.
Scalability
As your business grows, so do your logistics needs. With a fulfilment service, you can quickly adapt to demand without worrying about space or resource limitations. Fulfilment providers are prepared to scale in two ways:
- During demand peaks, such as sales campaigns, Black Friday or the Christmas season, when order volumes skyrocket in just a few days.
- During sustained growth, when your ecommerce progressively increases sales and you need more storage, preparation and delivery capacity on an ongoing basis.
In this sense, GLS provides a scalable solution that adapts to both seasonal changes and your business’s natural evolution, ensuring efficiency and reliability in the management of your shipments.
Improved customer experience
Speed and accuracy in deliveries are essential for offering an excellent shopping experience, but they are not the only factors. A professional fulfilment provider also offers real-time tracking and traceability, giving customers up-to-date information about their order status at all times.
Additionally, a good fulfilment company enhances the experience by offering flexible delivery options: home delivery, convenience points or smart lockers. This variety adapts to each customer’s lifestyle, reduces incidents and increases satisfaction and loyalty.
Ultimately, combining speed, visibility and flexibility in the last mile turns delivery into a real differentiator for your ecommerce.
Process automation
Fulfilment also enables the automation of tasks such as inventory control, sending tracking notifications or managing returns, giving you more time to focus on strategic aspects of your business.
Improved profitability
By optimising the efficiency of logistics processes, storage and shipping costs are reduced, contributing to increased profits.
Easier returns management
Returns are one of the biggest challenges in ecommerce: they involve transport, handling, refurbishing and restocking. The Economic Outlook 2024 report from the Mastercard Institute indicates that 25% of online purchases in Spain are returned, highlighting the scale of the challenge.
In this context, managing returns efficiently becomes a key factor to avoid compromising profitability or the customer experience.
Fulfilment providers offer optimised systems that streamline reverse logistics: from receiving and inspecting products to reintegrating them into stock. In this way, returns stop being a problem and become an opportunity to build customer loyalty and strengthen trust in your ecommerce.
Custom packaging
When you decide to outsource your logistics to a specialised fulfilment provider, you can customise the packaging of your products, offering a premium experience to your customers. Using high-quality packaging materials not only improves your brand image but also helps reduce damage during shipping, resulting in fewer returns and higher customer satisfaction.
Optimised picking
Additionally, by outsourcing picking (the process of selecting products for shipment), you ensure that orders are managed more efficiently and quickly. The fulfilment provider can optimise this process to guarantee that products are selected and packed correctly, with a lower margin of error and reduced preparation time. How? GLS, for example, prioritises orders based on delivery deadlines or customer type; adapts picking to order size; organises the warehouse (by zones, waves, batches or individual picking); and performs quality control.
Precise stock control
Avoid stockouts and shipping errors. Having a fulfilment service means storing products with maximum care and accuracy, according to storage standards, product type, size and turnover, in a dedicated fulfilment zone such as GLS’s 7,000 m² area.
Cases in which outsourcing fulfilment is advisable
Outsourcing fulfilment is especially beneficial in cases such as:
- Expansion into new markets: enables international shipments without complications.
- Sales growth: manages demand peaks without investing in additional infrastructure.
- Reduction of operational costs: lightens internal workload and minimises expenses.
Impact of Fulfilment on Inventory Management and Sales
In the world of ecommerce, inventory management is a critical process that can determine the success or failure of a business. One of the most common mistakes is stockouts, which occur when there is not enough product available to meet customer demand. This not only affects immediate sales, but can also lead to a poor user experience that negatively impacts customer loyalty and, in the long term, the store’s reputation.
How Do Stockouts Affect Sales?
Example: Imagine an ecommerce store specialized in technology products that is promoting a new model of wireless headphones. During a marketing campaign, customers begin placing orders in large volumes. However, due to poor inventory management, the headphones sell out quickly. Customers who try to purchase the product receive an “out of stock” message and turn to competitors, resulting in lost sales opportunities. In the long term, customers who were unable to purchase the product are likely to feel frustrated, which affects brand loyalty.
To prevent this, fulfilment platforms enable real-time inventory management, ensuring stock levels are always up to date and sales opportunities are not lost. With a solid fulfilment system, it is possible to automate stock replenishment and ensure that the most popular products are always available.
Comparison Between the Efficiency of a Fulfilment System and In-House Management
Managing fulfilment internally can be costly and complex. A technology ecommerce business, for example, might try to manage its own warehouses and handle picking (selecting products for shipment) and packing, but this can lead to several issues, such as inefficient processing times, order errors, or high operating costs due to the need for additional staff and specialized equipment.
By contrast, outsourcing fulfilment allows the online tech store to benefit from a more agile and scalable solution, with the ability to optimize logistics, minimize errors, and focus on what really matters: business growth.
How Does a Fulfilment Provider Work?
The operation of a fulfilment provider is straightforward and may vary depending on the service you choose, but it generally follows these steps:
- Product storage: The provider receives and stores your products in its logistics center, maintaining accurate inventory control.
- Order receipt: When a customer makes a purchase in your online store, the fulfilment system automatically receives the order.
- Order preparation: The provider picks, packs, and prepares the order for shipment, ensuring the package is ready to be dispatched.
- Shipping: The order is shipped to the customer using the fastest and most suitable transport methods, whether domestic or international.
- Returns management: If the customer wishes to return a product, the fulfilment provider handles the entire process, ensuring a hassle-free experience for the customer.
Automation and Optimisation of Fulfilment Through Ecommerce Platforms
Automation is one of the key drivers of success in fulfilment. With tools such as Shopify and WooCommerce, online stores like yours can integrate their fulfilment systems, optimizing processes and improving the customer experience.
Let’s return to the technology ecommerce example. Imagine it uses Shopify as its ecommerce platform. By integrating its system with a fulfilment provider, orders are automatically synchronized. This means that when a customer places an order, the information is sent directly to the fulfilment provider, who processes, packs, and ships the order without any intervention from the ecommerce team.
In addition, platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce allow for automated inventory control and stock replenishment, minimizing the risk of stockouts and ensuring efficient operations, even during periods of high demand.
Benefits of Automated Integration
Key advantages include:
- Order process automation: less human intervention, greater speed.
- Inventory synchronization: real-time updates.
- Error reduction: by eliminating the need for manual intervention in order processing.
In summary, ecommerce fulfilment not only streamlines your operations but also allows you to offer a more professional and efficient service. By outsourcing these tasks, you can optimize resources and dedicate more time to growing your business.
If you would like to explore further how fulfilment can transform your online store’s logistics and how to implement it effectively, GLS is a reliable option. With specialized ecommerce fulfilment services, you can have peace of mind knowing that your business logistics are in good hands.