Definition

The e-commerce market has been growing rapidly for years. This is accompanied by the growth of services serving this market. This includes logistics services (e-fulfilment). Due to increasing online sales, it is in fact difficult for many webshop owners to keep up with the large number of orders without compromising quality. The merchant is then faced with the choice of investing in a warehouse himself or outsourcing the logistics. Webshops are increasingly choosing to outsource logistics because of falling costs, advancing automation and the time savings they can now invest in maintaining their webshop.

Services

Logistics handling begins with inbound, where products are carefully checked, followed by warehouse storage. Once an order is placed with the online store, it is automatically communicated to the e-fulfilment service provider. The service provider collects the ordered products from the warehouse, packages them and handles shipping. If products are returned by the customer of the online store, they can be sent back to the e-fulfilment service provider who evaluates the saleability and may or may not re-stock the product.

Other

E-fulfilment companies often also offer additional services such as reports on the web store's performance, customer service, developing the web store, photographing products or handling payments.