What is order fulfillment?

The steps in order

Fulfillment begins when payment is confirmed. The order is confirmed to the customer, usually by email, with what was bought and when to expect it. Stock is reserved or deducted so the same item is not sold twice. Someone picks the items, checks them against the order, packs them with any paperwork, and books delivery or marks the order ready for collection. The customer gets a dispatch notice with tracking, and the order is marked fulfilled. Each step should leave a record, because questions about late or missing orders are answered from those records.

Delivery promises and the law

What you promise at checkout becomes part of the deal. In the UK, guidance for online sellers says goods must be delivered within 30 days unless a different time was agreed, and the contract must be confirmed as soon as possible, for example by email. In Australia, the consumer guarantees of the Australian Consumer Law include supplying goods within the time agreed or a reasonable time, and misleading delivery claims can breach the law. State realistic dispatch and delivery times, and tell customers early when something will be late.

When to outsource

Most small shops start in house, which keeps control and suits handmade or fragile goods. A third party logistics provider makes sense when packing takes more time than making or selling, when orders spike seasonally, or when a warehouse closer to customers would cut delivery times. Dropshipping removes stock risk but hands quality and delivery speed to a supplier, which is risky when the shop's name is on every complaint.

Common mistakes

Selling stock that is not there is the most common fulfillment failure, usually because stock counts are not updated when orders arrive. Others include confirming orders without a dispatch time, packing without checking items against the order, not sending tracking, and leaving cancelled or refunded orders in the packing queue. A simple status flow, from paid to packed to fulfilled, solves much of it.

Where it shows up in OneCraft

OneCraft has no ready made store. With its orders guide, the agent builds orders in the site's own database with statuses pending, paid, fulfilled, cancelled and refunded, prices read from the database and stock deducted when the order is placed, and an admin Orders area with filters by status and Mark fulfilled and cancel buttons that record an order event. Its delivery guide adds zones, slots and a tracking page. Without payments, the thank you page says the owner confirms the order by email.

Questions people ask