Sustainable order fulfillment means reducing the impact of your packaging design. Order fulfillment shouldn’t take place on a massive scale for it to become costly in terms of waste. According to the EPA "Environmental Protection Agency," packaging is responsible for a third of all household waste. Sustainable order fulfillment is necessary to save you money and impacts your brand perception. In this post, we will be discussing some wonderful tips for sustainable order fulfillment.

Standardize Your Process

The first step to sustainable order fulfillment is consistency. It is one of the most important elements of a sustainable order fulfillment process. Everyone in your business should know their role and be able to handle their duties well. Maintaining a consistent process effectively solves any issue and allows you to reach a sustainable order fulfillment goal.

Avoid Over-Packaging

Over-packaging is when more packaging is used than necessary to protect a product. Perhaps, this is a widespread problem within e-commerce. Before you make any design changes, it’s important to consider whether you need the amount of packaging you have been using. Eliminating unnecessary packaging reduces packaging waste, saves money, and saves time by simplifying your order fulfillment. By cutting down the amount of time it takes to put together each package, you are creating a far more sustainable order fulfillment.

Decide If Boxes Are Necessary For Order Fulfillment

Due to online marketplaces like Amazon, the brown cardboard box has become a ubiquitous part of online retail. However, it might not be necessary for every online order you receive. For dropshippers selling small-sized goods and with smaller order sizes, shipping mailers present a lower impact, and more cost-effective, alternative. Because they are less bulky than boxes, they will keep your shipping costs down. If you do need boxes, make sure you're buying the appropriate size. In sum, the right-sized box is the foundation for sustainable order fulfillment.

Explain Your Order Fulfillment to Customers

If any specific disposal procedures should be taken with your packaging, it’s very important to make sure that your business communicates this. Adopting sustainable e-commerce packaging is the first step. If your customers don’t know about it, then your business can't ensure responsible disposal. Consider enclosing packaging inserts with your orders that explain what steps you've taken in your order fulfillment, why you have done it, and what customers can do to help. This adds to a sustainable order fulfillment process

Maximize The Use Of Renewable Materials

When it comes to sustainable order fulfillment, renewable materials like paper and cardboard are your biggest ally. It’s easy to source. It also offers a loa t of recycling and reuse options. It’s also incredibly versatile and can be used for many different packaging elements, like containers, tissue paper, wrap, attackers, and packing filler.

Organization Leads To Success

If your online store is a disorganized mess where no one can find anything they need, efficiency will suffer. This inefficiency will make your order likely to be delayed or lost. And in the end, your bottom line will suffer. It is worth the extra time to organize yourself and to educate staff on where everything can be found.

Focus On The Customer Experience

The customer experience is key to creating lasting loyalty to your business. If your customers have been kept waiting or told inaccurate information about their product once, they might forgive you. However, if this becomes a habit, you will likely lose this customer to one of your competitors who makes customer service a priority. In the end, a good customer experience boils down to honest communication. If a product is lost, let the customer know, and tell them how you’ll make it right. While they may be upset at the moment, they’ll likely respect you more in the long run for your candor.

Encourage Reuse By Your Customers

The main reason packaging causes environmental issues is that it’s usually designed to be single-use. Once packaging has gotten a product safely to its destination, it’s fulfilled its purpose and is thrown away. In essence, it’s a linear model of production, use, and disposal. This results in mounting waste and simply isn’t sustainable. Your brand can challenge this by choosing packaging elements that can be reused by customers. For example, wrapping your orders inside branded tote bags is a fun value-added extra which is of genuine use to your customer.

Conclusion

While there are many moving pieces in a successful order fulfillment process, the 8 wonderful tips listed above are some of the easiest and most intuitive ones that can be applied to any business. As long as you implement a consistent, data-driven, organized, transparent process designed with the customer in mind, your order fulfillment process will be sustained.Do you need a reputable order fulfillment services company for your ecommerce business? Contact us today at Fulfillman. We provide a wide range of services including Global Fulfillment, China Sourcing, Drop Shipping, Third Party Logistics, and lots more. Our trusted experts will be happy to speak with you and provide suitable answers to your questions and concerns. A fantastic experience awaits you.