The InterFulfillment Warehouse Management System (WMS) is powered by state-of-the-art cloud-based software by 3PL Central. Our WMS allows each one of our order fulfillment customers to view, sort, and export reports outlining everything from their inventory levels to per order transaction details. Reviewing information as a report is key as it can be turned into actionable adjustments that can save you time and money. Best of all, the information provided is all in real-time.
In this article, we will review 4 of the most important eCommerce order fulfillment reports available on the InterFulfillment WMS, how they can be used to bolster your business pinpoint what can be done to make your shipping more efficient than ever before.
Open / Shipped Orders Report
This is by far the most common WMS order fulfillment report. On the InterFulfillment WMS, each user is free to narrow down and sort orders in whatever segments you can possibly manage. For example, a user can choose all orders that were shipped to the United Kingdom, then narrow it down by a specific carrier like FedEx, and only display orders from a specific month.
In addition, our system features the capability to further customize your report and add whatever per order information you need for your analysis. Each user can select exactly what order data they want on their report, and what data they don’t want on their report. Selections like which individual or system created the order, the exact time the order was created, the exact time an order was shipped, and much, much more.
The flexibility to customize open and shipped order reports, and the capability to export the report in various formats can give you the information overview you need to zero on how you can work with your order fulfillment provider to improve your order fulfillment system.
Open / Closed Receipts Report
We just learned how important open and shipped order reports are, but what about reports regarding inventory you are shipping to your order fulfillment provider’s facilities. Keeping track of when you provided your Advanced Shipment Notice (ASN) when your inventory arrived, and how long it took to be added to your inventory and be ready to be allocated to orders can really help you understand how to keep your inventory flowing and readily available. It is critical to establish how long it takes from the moment you order inventory from your manufacturer, for the inventory to be ready to ship to customers. Once you know this, you will be able to place orders with more accuracy and efficiency than ever before, and always make sure you have enough inventory on hand for day-to-day shipments as well as keep up with seasonal spikes in order volumes. The receipts report is a logistics management tool like no other.
Stock Status Report
How much inventory do you have in hand? You may want to know exactly how much and in real-time. Well, that is exactly what the stock status report provided by the InterFulfillment WMS provides. Running a report will show you every bit of information, from how many of a certain SKU you have on hand, to how many you have allocated to open orders, to the dates they were allocated. Truly comprehensive reports, in every way. You will even know how many you have in your returns bin inventory.
You can set date ranges to zero in on how your SKU inventory levels were impacted by certain events like online sales. But best, and most importantly of all, you will be able to ensure that you are not overly storing SKUs that don’t move enough to justify the storage fees. It’s easy to see how the right analysis of these reports can save you a ton of money. We strongly recommend exporting these reports quarterly and using them in conjunction with your inventory manufacturing and receiving turnaround timeframes to keep your inventory well-stocked but not overstocked.
Transactions Report
Last but not least are transaction reports. Detailed reports can help you understand and analyze not only the carrier shipping cost of a specific order but also the cost of the shipping services associated with it.
Understanding both these costs, and how they translate to different orders shipping to different locations can help you ensure you are charging your customers the correct amount of shipping. This is an ongoing process, and these reports and the details they provide you with should be used on a regular basis to zero in on specific types of orders that have been costing more and charged less than they should have been. This will provide specific actions you can take to customize your sales channels and ensure you are being compensated properly when you ship to every customer, and maybe even decide if certain areas are even worthwhile shipping to at all.
Conclusion
As we have learned, just by looking at the overall value of these receipts and how we can use them to optimize our shipping channels, I think that we have confirmed how important and worthwhile each one is, and why. Before choosing an order fulfillment provider, do yourself a favor and ensure that their WMS has the capabilities we have outlined above. If you are an existing InterFulfillment customer and want more information on how you can easily run any or all of the reports we have outlined above and use them to streamline and optimize your logistics, feel free to reach out to InterFulfillment support at any time.
