The Role of Barcode Scanner in Order Fulfillment Warehouses

If you are the owner of an e-commerce warehousing company, what is your plan of inventory management? How do you manage thousands of clothes? There are many sku with different colors, sizes and styles, which increases the frequency of sending wrong goods and returning them. So the barcode scanner become a necessary in the work of order fulfillment, but how should the warehouse use the barcode scanner to optimize management? 

1. Inbound

For those e-commerce companies that operate their own warehouses, because they are not equipped with some professional warehousing equipment, the warehousing of clothing is manually checked and accepted. When there are too many goods, they cannot be accurately checked and problems are prone to occur. The e-commerce warehouse is equipped with a barcode device and an intelligent system. Before the goods are put into the warehouse, the corresponding barcode will be recorded, and the inventory data will be updated in real time, which greatly improves the accuracy and timeliness.

2. Outbound    

If the workload in the warehouse increases during the promotion period, the e-commerce’s own warehouse may meet unexpected accidents due to insufficient manpower and insufficient specialization. As a result, store reviews plummeted, and there were a lot of negative reviews. So how does e-commerce warehouse solve this problem? Therefore, the code scanner plays an important role, and the specific products can be quickly matched by scanning to ensure the accuracy of delivery.

3. Inventory Checking

Due to the large variety of products, inventory counting is also a difficulty for e-commerce sellers. For products of various colors, styles, and sizes in the warehouse, manual inspection takes too much time and is very error-prone. The scanner and system equipped in the e-commerce warehouse can perfectly solve this problem. A product is matched with a barcode, which allows the warehouse staff to scan the barcode only when checking the goods, instead of checking the specific size, color, and style one by one, saving a lot of time.

How to Ensure the Warehousing Safety While Keeping Order Fulfillment Efficiency ?

The efficiency of e-commerce warehousing operations is a problem that many companies pay attention to, which will directly affect the warehouse capability . So today we will share some safe operation methods for e-commerce warehousing.

1. When someone is carrying inventory, the other employees try to avoid standing on the road.

2. When placing high-height goods, the warehouse staff should pay attention to the stability of the item. They should sort the unstable item out in time.

3. When warehouse employees are climbing the ladder, they need someone to help stabilize the ladder and take protective measures.

4. Use targeted tools and handling requirements for operations according to the features of the goods in the warehouse.

5. The workers are required to concentrate and avoid accidental injuries when using machine.

6. When handling the goods, pay attention to whether the packaging of the goods is broken.

7. When loading the goods, pay attention to placing them in a stable and close fit to ensure that the goods will not be damaged or lost during the subsequent driving process. At the same time, no less than two workers are responsible for loading and unloading.

8. When there are some dangerous goods in the warehouse, employees should be familiar with the characteristics of the goods in advance, how to ensure safety, take necessary protective measures, and standardize safe operation methods.

9. The warehouse needs to be equipped with sufficient fire extinguishing equipment, protective equipment and necessary medical supplies. When problems occur, simple containment can be carried out to ensure sufficient buffer time.

Although the efficiency of e-commerce warehousing operations is important, everything should be people-oriented. From the perspective of human safety, the efficiency of warehousing operations can be improved in a better way, accumulating corporate reputation and bringing more customers and benefits to e-commerce warehousing companies.

Something You Should Know about Eco-friendly Dropshipping

Let’ s know something about eco-friendly dropshipping and save the earth together!

Improtance of Eco-friendly Dropshipping:

Due to the pressures of overconsumption, population growth and technology, the biophysical environment is being degraded, consumers have been highly educated about buying items which support the preservation of the planet. Since the 1960s, environmental movements have created more awareness of the multiple environmental problems. There is disagreement on the extent of the environmental impact of human activity, so protection measures are occasionally debated.

EU citizens benefit from some of the highest environmental standards in the world. The EU and national governments have set clear objectives to guide environment policy until 2050, which means the european e-commerce sellers need to pay more attention to their environmental responsibilities.

Available Eco-friendly Item:

After communicating with our customers insist on environmental protection, ChinaDivision found it is promising to ship the following eco-friendly products.(If you are an Amazon seller or Shopify website owner, it is time to update your inventory, haha.)

Reusable Bag

It is reported that human have produced 18.2 trillion pounds of plastics, but less than 9% of all of the plastic have been recycled. And the average American family use up to 2000 plastic bags per year. Plastic ends up in landfills where it can take hundreds of years to break down. And if the plastic doesn’t end up in a landfill, it could end up in the ocean, where it can cause pollution and marine animal deaths.

Stopping polution is the best solution, more and more people tend to use reusable bag in their daily life.( degradable express bag, silicone snack bag, washable storage bag, reusable mesh bag, etc.) BPA free design makes our reusable bag safer to store food.

Eco-friendly Plant Bag

Home garden management plays an important role in people’s daily life. More and more families are into growing their own herbs and vegetables. So the eco-friendly plant bags have become the treasures in the e-commerce market. For example, non-woven plant bag is ideal for planting potatoes, carrots, onions, and many other vegetables. One of our customer said the non-woven planting bag had become a hot-seller in his Amazon store.

Paper/Stainless Steel Straw

Are you still drinking from a plastic straw? It is the suggestion of world health organization that we should use eco-friendly and straw to drink. The straw made of paper and stainless steel will be a good choice for both kids and adults. Compared to plastic straw, the paper and stainless steel straw will be more popluar in the green environmental protection world.

Dropshipping eco-friendly items is a lot easier than it would have been ten years ago. And a lot of this had to do with the limited product. There just wasn’t much in the way of eco-friendly items for consumers. For a long time, these kinds of products were considered a niche. But eco-friendly products and brands are mainstream in this century. Eco-friendly products are a great niche. But it’s even better if you can combine these products with items that support eco-friendly households. For example, if you’re already selling organic and natural foods on your website, eco-friendly products would fit perfectly with your inventory.

ABC Classification in Order Fulfillment Warehouses

Most of the e-commerce sellers are familiar with the ABC classification rules of dropshipping company, but they have not totally understood it. When the inventory in the e-commerce warehouse is excess, the ABC classification method is used to optimize the inventory to bring better warehouse management.

First of all, we should know the principles of the ABC classification method: classifying the goods in the e-commerce warehouse according to their importance, value, and delivery frequency.

The first category is C-type, which are basically slow-moving goods with very small sales. Therefore, warehousing companies will put such items in the back of the e-commerce warehouse, and use less time to manage and count them.

Category B products still have a certain sales volume relative to Category C products, but they are not hot-selling products. The storage location of this kind of goods is better than that of the C-type goods, and it is easier to pack out the warehouse than the C-type goods.

Finally, there are Class A goods, which are fast-moving goods, with high sales and fast turnover. Such goods need to be placed in the position closest to the sorting area to ensure that after receiving the relevant order, the third-party warehousing and delivery company can package and ship them in the shortest time to improve work efficiency.

3 Factors Makes it Worthwhile to Choose an Order Fulfillment Warehouse

When e-commerce sellers choose a third-party warehousing agency, they are bound to have a question. Is order fulfillment warehouse really safe and reliable? Can e-commerce sellers feel completely at ease? Is it really trustworthy? Therefore, we have summarized three major elements.

First of all, it is the safety of the goods. After e-commerce sellers put the goods in a third-party warehouse, they are bound to be a little unsure about the safety of the goods, for fear that the dropshipping company may not be able to keep the goods and cause economic losses. In fact, the order fulfillment company will sign a contract with the e-commerce seller. The warehousing company will take on the responsibility if the problem occurs.

The second issue is efficiency. In fact, efficiency is the least worrying issue for e-commerce sellers. Most third-party warehouses are located near the express distribution center, and delivery efficiency and order cut-off time can be guaranteed. After receiving the order, the third-party warehouse can quickly pick and exit the warehouse for processing, and can usually enter the distribution center within an hour to quickly deliver the goods, achieving the effect of the invention.

Finally, what needs to be considered is the price of third-party warehouses. E-commerce sellers will also worry about whether or not to deliver warehousing and delivery to a third-party company, although the efficiency has improved, but the price has also increased too much. In fact, e-commerce sellers do not need to worry about such problems. The first is the price of express delivery. Dropshipping companies and express delivery companies have closer cooperation, and the prices given to e-commerce sellers are bound to be more favorable than those communicated by themselves. In terms of warehouse rental prices, a professional third-party warehouse like ChinaDivision has a competitive warehousing policy, which is also very advantageous in terms of price.

On the whole, the order fulfillment agency deserves the trust of e-commerce sellers.

How to Accelerate the Order Fulfillment Process?

Every minute counts in the business called order fulfillment, a significant part of supply chain management. The success of your business depends on how quickly and efficiently you can process the orders. The more order you can process, the faster you will be able to ship. This increases customer satisfaction and gives you a competitive edge over your competitors. Here we offered some tips for improving your order fulfilment performance.

Order Picking System

An effective system can pick order from its customers in a faster and more accurate way. The workers in the order fulfillment warehouse can recognize the specific item of the orders easily, instead of worrying about mistake or inefficient work. Therefore, more and more order fulfillment companies tend to develop their own system.

Inventory Update

It is frustrating if your customer find that their items about to be shipped are out-of-stock. Since out-of-stock situations are unavoidable, it is better to obtain the updated information of your inventory. Generally speaking, you can check your inventory update through the system chosen by your dropshipper.

Open Communication Channels

Communication is the key to building trust and increasing orders, so you need to keep all the communication channels opens, covering face-to-face meeting, telephone, e-mail, online chat, etc. Besides, you can tell the responsibilities of each person in your team to your customer for better communication.

Reasonable Return Policy

Return policy is an inevitable problem of order fulfilment. Your customers are more likely to place an order if you have is a good return policy in place. With so many suppliers they can go to, they don”t want to buy from one who won”t give a refund or exchange for goods that turn out to be defective. Thus, you need to make sure that your customers know your return policy and understand it, it is practical to mention it clearly and unambiguously on your website and contract.

9 Questions You Should Ask Before Choosing a Chinese Dropshipping Agent

A Chinese dropshipping agent is a ‘middle man’ with a real warehouse in China, who can offer one-stop service to help you find products with the best price. Order fulfillment warehouses fulfill the order, arrange shipment, and save your time to focus on marketing. They can also take care of high volume orders and product quality along the way. However, it is hard to find an ideal and long-term dropshipping partner. This blog will share nine questions that you can ask when contacting a Chinese agent. They’re useful to sort out the good from the bad. Ask these questions wisely, and you will get what you want.

1. Do you have a warehouse? 

The real dropshipping agents is definitely have their warehouse. In other words, physical building with walls, doors, and windows. Generally speaking, they are pleased to tell you about their warehouse location and show you photos. Because they have invested a massive amount of money building and improving it every day to give you the highest quality service. You can ask them directly when considering a Chinese dropshipping company.

2. What is your processing time?

It is practical to find a dropshipping agent who can give you a definition of processing time like this:

Processing time starts from the moment a fulfillment request is received to the time that you get the tracking number of order.

Processing time is different among dropshipping agents. It’s usually anywhere between 2-3 days. The longer the processing time, the longer the shipping time.

3. How do you conduct a quality control inspection?

Dropshipping agent is responsible for checking product quality to ensure every product fits the order specifications. Once the products arrive at their warehouse, they will check their colors, size, quantity, flaws, etc. If there is any quality issue, they’ll contact suppliers to require an exchange or return.

4. Do you have product labeling and packaging?

You need to ask if a dropshipping agent will offer labeling and packaging service. For example, you can ask if they can add a logo/pattern or a thank you tag in the package. 

5. What is your return policy?

It is normal to return the product in the e-commerce business. So you need to figure out the return policy in the dropshipping cooperation. The following questions count a lot in the return policy.

How do they carry out the overall return process?

In which cases do they accept to resend products or make a refund?

Whether will they cover shipping fee when resending products to customers?

6. Do you have MOQ?

MOQ is the abbreviation of minimum order quantity, which refers to the lowest number of a specific product that a dropshipping agent is willing to order and stock at their warehouse. If you cannot reach their MOQ requirement, the dropshipping agent won’t accept your request. But different dropshipping agents have different MOQs. Some may have a MOQ of 100 units while others may require you to order at least 20 units. The coolest thing is you don’t need to order one by one with a dropshipping agency. A CSV file can easily be applied to save your time.

7. Do you provide inventory data updates?

If you’ve got an order from your customer and transfer it to your dropshipping agent. Unfortunately, they tell you that it’s out of stock, which is the worst case you should be aware of at the beginning. In order to avoid this problem, you should ask the agent if they provide you inventory status and how often the data will be updated, especially during holidays like Chinese New Year and Christmas. In this way, you can make plans to order more products early.

8. What’s the service charge?

In most cases, dropshipping agents don’t use a fixed cost. The cost often depends on types of products. But all the fees should be visible and transparent. A responsible dropshipping company only charge a very reasonable service fee without any hidden costs or commissions.

9. How to contact you if I have questions?

Your dropshipping agent should be present (almost) whenever you need their help. Compared to email, the instant communication channels(like WeChat, Skype, WhatsApp, etc.) is more effective and convenient. So you can make sure if they can provide some instant communication choice for you.

How to Protect Shelves in Order Fulfillment Warehouse?

With the rapid development of the e-commerce industry, storage shelves have been widely used in many order fulfillment warehouses, but few people pay attention to shelves maintaining. So today we will share the importance points of maintaining storage shelves.

  • Reasonable use

The storage shelves must strictly follow their internal parameters to place items. Too heavy goods will seriously affect the shelf lifetime.

  • Regular cleaning

In most cases, few staff will pay attention to the cleaning of shelves. Most of them will approach the shelves only when they need certain goods, and then leave quickly, which will accumulate a lot of dust on the shelves, undoubtedly, it will affect the goods on the shelf, and at the same time, it will also have a certain impact on the life of the storage shelf.

Regular cleaning of shelves can extend shelf life. The cleaning of bookshelves is not always cleaned with water. Remove the dust from the shelf. If the shelf is washed with water, it is easy to oxidize the shelf surface, shortening the shelf life greatly.

  • Load-bearing capacity

When placing goods, you need to pay attention to the load-bearing capacity of the shelf and avoid overweight. Place lighter goods on the upper floor and heavier ones on the lower floor to avoid safety accidents.

  • Keep the warehouse dry and ventilated

Storage shelves need to be painted with protective paint on a regular basis to avoid corrosion. Do daily inspections, fix the loose screws in time, ventilate the warehouse, keep the warehouse dry, and avoid excessive humidity.

  • Develop specifications for the use of storage shelves

Warehouse managers need to formulate specifications for the use of storage shelves, cultivate the awareness of protecting shelves while improving the standardization of storage operations.

Clean and tidy shelves in ChinaDivision

How to Avoid Errors in Warehousing Logistics?

Although order fulfillment warehouses have embraced faster developing, the automated operation has not been popularized for the current economic and technological level. At present, most of the order fulfillment work is based on manual operations. Therefore, it is normal to meet mistakes in the case of manual operation, which will cause losses. But how to avoid logistics errors? Have you found the effective way?

In order to take useful actions, ChinaDivision summarized the main reasons and some solutions:

Reasons:

1. The warehouse staff are not focused enough when delivering and picking goods;

2. The staff is not proficient in the operation of their job;

3. Excessive fatigue of staff leads to an increase in the error rate.

Solutions:

1. The order fulfillment warehouse should set up punishment system on employees who fail to concentrate on their work and cause logistics errors.

2. More communicate should be covered when encountering problems. For example, all the parties can discuss, analyze and sum up together, instead of shirking responsibility.

3. Staff training should be more practical to ensure that the staff follow the standard at every step. Warehouse employees need to work strictly in accordance with operating procedures, and must not omit certain necessary procedures for convenience. The operation process of a project is discussed and formulated by many professionals, and needs to be strictly followed.

4. Ensure that employees have a full working state. For employees who are tired from working overtime for a long time, they need to be given a certain amount of rest time to ensure a good mental state.

In general, it is necessary to carry out the action to avoid logistics errors. High error rate will lead to a decline in the reputation and prospects of a company, which requires great attention.

What a responsible colleague! He is checking the order details with a mask on his face.

Messi’s Choice Reminds the E-commerce Sellers of Periodic Dropshipping Goal

Messi told Barcelona on Tuesday that he wanted to leave after nearly two decades at the club, which caused a heated discussion on the Internet.

In fact, Messi arrived at Barcelona as a teenager in 2001, joining the club’s famed La Masia youth academy. He first-team debut happened in 2003 as a 16-year-old, and since then he led Barcelona to 34 titles. He holds most individual records at the club, scoring 634 goals and making 276 assists in 731 appearances with the club.

Messi’s story shows the periodic goal and achievement on his life journey, which can be applied in the field of order fulfillment. If you are an Amazon seller start from scratch, you may set up an available plan of choosing niche, partner, dropshipping agent, etc. But niche and dropshipping agent is vital for your business. You can find your ideal niche through related data and research, however, it is hard to find an ideal dropshipping agent from the begining, especially for the entrepreneur who has never chosen an order fulfillment warehouse. Thus, ChinaDivision suggests that you review our previous article for more details about how to choose your cost-effective order fulfillment center.