Order Management and Fulfillment
From click to doorstep
Follow the order lifecycle: placement, payment authorization, order management system validation and routing, inventory allocation against available-to-promise, pick-pack-ship, carrier handoff, delivery, and return. Allocation rules decide who gets scarce inventory - first-come, priority customer, ship-from-store proximity, or channel allocation. Split shipments and partial fulfillment must be reflected in what the customer sees.
Fulfillment models: own warehouse, 3PL, dropship, ship-from-store, and BOPIS with curbside. Cost drivers are dimensional weight (billed on volume, not actual weight), zone-based rates, packaging, and speed promises. The delivery promise shown on the PDP is a merchandising decision backed by real capacity; over-promising produces contacts, refunds, and chargebacks.
Traps: confusing authorization with capture; assuming free shipping is free (it is a margin subsidy that belongs in contribution margin); ignoring dimensional weight when a box is oversized for a light item; treating a return as a simple refund when it also carries reverse logistics, restocking, and resale loss; forgetting that inventory visibility is the root cause of overselling.
Rule of thumb: promise date = order cutoff + handling time + transit time, and handling time is the part you control.
Worked example: a 3 lb item in a 20 × 14 × 8 in box bills at (20 × 14 × 8) / 139 ≈ 16 lb dimensional weight - a fivefold increase in billed weight, enough to erase the order's contribution margin when the customer paid flat-rate shipping.