Approaches to E-Commerce Fulfillment

Understanding the differences between an order taking and order processing e-commerce site will help avoid some common difficulties. The differences between an order taking site and an order processing site are invisible to site users. Their online shopping experience such as adding items to a cart, checking out and providing payment information is the same in both cases. The difference is that once the order is submitted, an order taking system simply alerts the company via email that an order has been placed. After that point, an employee will download the order from the system and fulfill it using their standard offline practices (though the credit card transaction would still happen online). In an order taking environment, a website is simply responsible for collecting order information. On the other hand, order processing sites not only verify and process credit card transactions they also interact with inventory systems and send details to the fulfillment and shipping center. Generally, unless a company expects to receive hundreds of orders per day, an order taking system is sufficient and the most economical place to start.


When a client's product can be delivered to a customer electronically, as is the case with downloadable software and subscriptions to online content, full online processing is necessary. In these cases users will expect access to the files or information immediately upon providing their credit card information. A delay can cause frustration and fear that they have been ripped off. Because fulfillment is electronic, the typical complications of integration with inventory and shipping systems are greatly simplified.