The main tasks of working in an online store are the processing and delivery of orders, as well as storage of goods and maintaining its inventory. How to survive in the conditions of fierce competition and not lose customers? If you shorten the lead time, this can be one of the advantages in the field of online trading. Expedited delivery is one of the best offers for your customers, especially when making international delivery. Consider what can be done to increase work efficiency, reduce lead times and process orders, and thereby increase overall sales.
The lead time is the gap between how the order was placed on the site and the time it was sent. For some sellers, this may sound like order processing.
To reduce the time for processing orders means to stand out among a huge number of competitors, many stores ship the next day, and some in a few hours. When choosing an online store, many customers choose the one with the fastest order processing.
There are several simple rules that will reduce the lead time.
1. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program. As you know, Amazon are veterans of online commerce, the FBA program will do all the basic work for you: from storage to shipping. This will allow you to devote more time to other tasks, as well as reach the millionth Amazon audience. If you want to expand the list of services offered, you cannot cope with the complexity of processing and fulfilling orders, FBA is perfect for you. To use the program, you need to log in to your Amazon account, send your goods, now they will be stored in the Amazon warehouse, put up the goods for sale on the site. When the order arrives, Amazon will handle the processing, and you will only have to pay a commission. But if you are selling seasonal goods, then you will have to pay for the time that it will be in stock, which is not very profitable.
2. Simplify the supply chain. If you have many suppliers, try to combine them, try to replace specific products with more standard ones.
3. Try to arrange optimal conditions for the fastest execution of orders so that your customers are satisfied with the service. If at some stage the execution of the order is slowed down, then you can use some optimized program (for example, to collect information about the client) so as not to enter all the information manually.
Do not forget that the fast lead times give you an advantage against the backdrop of high competition.
The most popular questions about reducing lead times:
What is the delivery time of an order? This is the period of time between sending goods from the warehouse to receipt by the customer (the manufacture of goods and the time they are stored in the warehouse are not included).
How to calculate order processing time? This is the number of working days that will be needed to prepare the goods for dispatch. For example, a client ordered mugs with the logo of his company. It will take a day to pick up the goods from the warehouse, 2 days to put the image and pack. It turns out that the processing time of the order is 3 days.
Is the processing and delivery time the same? Here you need to figure out what you mean by these terms. Consider several types of order processing.
The time interval between placing an order on a site and receiving a product by a client is the time it takes to process an order. The time interval between placing an order and the willingness to send it is the time before departure or the time of manufacture. The interval between how the goods are ready to be sent and received by the customer is the delivery time. The time interval that is necessary for the manufacture of the final product is the time of purchase. The time it takes to prepare the goods for dispatch, delivery, ordering a new product to replace the sold one, and accepting a new product is the time of inventory management.
This means, if by “delivery time” you mean the time you spend on delivery of the goods when it is ready for shipment, then this is the delivery time. If we are talking about the interval between placing an order on the site and receiving the goods by the buyer, then this is the processing time of the order.
What does the delivery time mean? This is the time you spend from receiving the goods from the warehouse or from the manufacturer until the customer receives the goods. The time it takes to prepare the goods for dispatch is the time it takes to prepare the delivery.
What does analysis of preparation time mean? This is a study of the terms that you will need to process orders. This is necessary to optimize processes so that customers are satisfied with the fast delivery times, and therefore, the high level of your service.
