What Is Awaiting Fulfilment? Reasons Why Your Order Might Be Awaiting Fulfilment in 2024

There are several steps between placing a purchase online and getting goods, including order fulfilment and shipment. First, the buyer places an order and makes payment on their end. Then, upon receipt of your order, the business will add it to those orders being processed and then ready to be sent.

By keeping your customers informed on the status of their orders, you aim to make your online clients feel more involved and informed.

Giving consumers order status updates is now standard practice. In a study, 98.3 per cent of participants said they would like to be informed if their shipment was delayed.

If you’re unfamiliar with the terminology used by e-commerce companies, ordering or purchasing things online might be complicated. When you check the status of your order, you can see the phrase awaiting fulfilment as an illustration. This article will go into great depth on what it means for your order to be awaiting fulfilment to help you with your online purchases.

Awaiting fulfilment simply means that the warehouse has not yet begun packing your things for shipping; when you check the status of your purchase, it shows awaiting fulfilment. When they do, the order is given a shipping number and prepared to be dispatched. You could then get a message that your order’s status has changed from awaiting fulfilment to fulfilled.

To further understand how the pending fulfilment status functions if you receive a tracking message like this, let’s take a closer look at some of the terminologies and specifics involved.

What Is The Meaning Of Awaiting Fulfilment?

One of the steps involved in order fulfilment is awaiting fulfilment. Your order has been received if it displays the order status awaiting fulfilment. It is already in the shipping preparation stage. A confirmation email stating that your item has been sent for fulfilment will be sent to you shortly after.

Therefore, there’s no need to freak out if you notice the order status: awaiting fulfilment. It doesn’t necessarily imply that there’s a problem with your order. In reality, it indicates that your package is already prepared and on its way.

This order status lets you know that the seller has accepted both your money and your orders. The procedure of awaiting fulfilment is a little drawn out. It begins by removing the products from the stockroom and arranging for their tidy packing. The process continues by having the logistics staff pick up and place the items in a shipping queue.

When you check the status of your order, awaiting fulfilment or pending fulfilment may be shown. Essentially, both of these sentences convey the same thing.

Usually, fulfilment takes place within 48–72 hours. You’ll get an email when the order fulfilment procedure has been delivered, and the order fulfilment procedure is finished. Additionally, you’ll get tracking data for your order. You may use this tracking information to find out the status of your order.

Need to Know Order Statuses Besides Awaiting Fulfilment

Following confirmation by the online retailer, the purchase goes through many phases, from the order placing through order fulfilment.

You must promote efficiency across each stage if you operate an e-commerce firm. Order cycle time must be evaluated, nevertheless, to maximize the effectiveness of the order fulfilment process.

Continue reading to learn about essential order statuses your clients will probably see throughout the order process.

Pending

The word pending in your order status indicates that you have begun checking out the products. However, the procedure is still not complete. Therefore, other apps may display an incomplete label in place of a pending label.

There is no chance you will get the products if this is the case. Therefore, you must finish the checkout procedure to move on to the following step.

Pending Payment

You have finished the checkout procedure when your order status reads awaiting payment. The seller is still awaiting your money, though.

Usually, the app or website will instantly reroute you to the payment page after you have checked out the products. You may use an e-wallet or a bank transfer to pay your bill.

You often don’t even know what the status of your orders is. This is because we frequently monitor the progress of our orders after placing and paying for them.

Pending Fulfilment

At this point, the eCommerce logistics partner approves the fulfilment request and starts selecting and packaging the items into the appropriate shipping boxes. The fulfilment procedure is still in progress, though.

Many businesses also use the term “awaiting fulfilment” to refer to pending fulfilment.

You could also see that the order’s tracking information indicates that it is “on hold.” It suggests that some details are needed or lacking for the order to be performed. This can be due to inadequate label information, imprecise packing preferences, missing customs information, etc.

The order processing will restart after receiving the necessary information or data.

Submitted For Fulfilment

Orders are submitted for fulfilment once they have been paid for and approved by the online shop. A similar update verifies the transfer of the order information (invoice) from the eCommerce fulfilment centre to the logistics partner.

However, as the goal is frequently to start the fulfilment process immediately, it could occasionally not appear on the tracking progress alerts.

If your customers utilize the tracking number link to see this update, the payment has been acknowledged and validated, and the purchase is now en route to fulfilment.

Awaiting Shipment

Your order status will change to awaiting shipment once the retailer has coordinated with the logistics group. This indicates that the merchant is now waiting for the logistics department to pick up your goods.

It may also imply that the logistics staff has already received your merchandise. Most likely, your item is still at the logistics centre, ready to be shipped.

Ready for Pickup

If the awaiting pickup status is displayed for your order, you can pick up your item at a seller-specified location.

Unusual Order Status is available for pickup. Business owners who don’t provide door-to-door delivery services benefit from this notice. Instead, they send all their local customers to a location where they may pick up the ordered items.

Partially Shipped

The Order Status “partially shipped” is another unusual one. This is because not all online shopping websites or applications are covered by it. This order status is only used by websites or programmes that provide a variety of online retailers.

Don’t anticipate receiving them all at once when many things are simultaneously ordered from various vendors using a single app since each item will originate from a separate area.

Therefore, if you purchased five things online but only received three of them, your order status will say that it has been partly sent. Until all ordered products have been delivered, this will keep showing up and staying the same.

Shipped

It is a significant development in the order journey since it lets you know that the courier service has securely dispatched the order. It is often determined from this point, i.e., the ship date, the day the purchase is delivered, if an online shop has promised two-day delivery.

Such an update often includes information on package tracking and is sent to the consumer through confirmation email or text. Updates like “in transit,” “out for delivery,” etc., can be anticipated moving forward.

In general, all significant shipping providers, including FedEx, USPS, DHL, UPS, etc., offer projected delivery dates to the receiver so they may better schedule delivery.

Delivered

You have already gotten the things you bought online if your order status reads “Completed” or “Delivered.”

Instead of delivered, some retailers or logistics teams specify completed. This might imply that the buyer has already picked up the item from a place given by the vendor.

The most common way to indicate that the things have already been delivered to the buyer’s door is to use the Order Status “Delivered”. In other words, door-to-door deliveries are more frequently described as delivered.

Cancelled

Orders might be cancelled for a variety of reasons. The use of a debit card with inadequate money serves as an illustration of this. The order status may initially be ‘awaiting payment’ in some circumstances. It will become cancelled if it is still unpaid after a predetermined number of hours or days.

The transaction will also be cancelled if your ordered item is out of stock. The Order Status will thus show cancelled.

It’s also conceivable that you, the buyer, will decide to end the deal. You may always click or press the cancel option to cancel your order if you choose not to move further with it. Your order status will after that read balanced in such a situation.

In most circumstances, a cancelled transaction doesn’t result in a refund. This is because the merchant has not yet received any payments. Therefore, if a transaction was cancelled, but your money still went through, you must work with the merchant to resolve it.

Declined

Your order is listed as declined in the order status most likely signifies that your payment was unsuccessful. For example, your debit card or e-wallet may be underfunded. However, it’s also conceivable that the issuing bank is not accessible.

If your order status is declined, the app or website may not have accepted your credit card payment. Another possibility is that the system of the credit card company is down. However, it might also imply that the retailer is not a recognized credit card provider business associate. In such a scenario, you may try using a different credit card if you have any.

For these transactions, the status often first reads “Declined” before switching to “Cancelled.” However, some retailers no longer utilize the declined order status. Instead, they solely employ cancelled as an alternative.

Partially Refunded

When a retailer sends back a portion of a customer’s payment, they may designate it as partly refunded in the order status. However, merchants do not frequently use this Order Status. Most of the time, businesses prefer to provide a single refund.

Refunded

When the order status is refunded, the seller successfully transfers your payment back to you. If among other things, you didn’t receive the products you purchased or they were damaged, you would obtain a refund.

Reasons Why The Order Might Be Awaiting Fulfilment

You can anticipate this order status to reflect for a more extended period if a product is out of stock or if there are gaps in the order.

The order status should change quickly, but if it hasn’t changed in a while, a few potential causes might be keeping the order stuck at this point.

Unable to Retrieve The Goods

The failure to find the products specified in the purchase will result in an order awaiting fulfilment. It frequently occurs due to poor warehouse management, murky communication, etc. One of these explanations might explain why the order status is still listed as awaiting fulfilment.

Planning inventory location is vital to prevent such unneeded delays. Inventory positioning refers to the location of your stock both physically and generally throughout the supply chain.

When planning inventory positioning, there are several things to watch out for, from keeping heavy or big SKUs on lower racks to ensuring that high-volume goods are reachable.

Inadequate Inventory Control

When a brand is developing, poor inventory management can occasionally result in “out of stock,” “back-ordered,” and inappropriate storage circumstances. All of this may cause orders awaiting fulfilment for longer periods than anticipated.

If your organization expands, you must put in place mechanisms to manage the rising workload and volume. Partnering with a 3PL professional with solutions for orders awaiting fulfilment and integrated inventory management system may be advantageous in such a situation.

5 Strategies To Streamline The Order Awaiting Fulfilment Process in 2024

While many online businesses might focus on the experience before purchasing, the post-order placement experience is crucial for recurring business. For example, after having a bad delivery experience, 72.7% of poll participants claimed they are inclined to stop shopping at an online store.

Efficiency is the foundation of a fulfilment company’s success. However, if efficiency improvements are not prioritized, order delays, low customer satisfaction, and client desertion might occur. Here are five tips to assist you in expediting and awaiting fulfilment while making your customers satisfied.

Inventory Should Be Adjusted To Reflect Your Promotions

The majority of commercial firms launch regular seasonal or product-specific promotions. Placing promotional products in an easily accessible location just before you begin your offer is one of the most acceptable methods to accelerate the process of awaiting fulfilment. For example, if you have mobile shelving or racks, you might move the promotional products’ shelves near your picking team. Then, when your offer is over, you may return the promotional items to their original place and use the nearby spaces for your subsequent shipment of sale items.

Organize Your Inventory Based On Speed

Each eCommerce fulfilment business has some goods that sell more quickly than others. These products have a higher cycle speed than the usual product, which gives them the high-velocity name things. By putting these high-velocity products in a suitable spot, you may expedite the awaiting fulfilment. Following are some suggestions for categorizing high-velocity items:

• Make sure everything with a high rate of acceleration is accessible.
• Put high-volume goods on shelves that are close to the location where orders are prepared and sent.
• Save the top shelves and far-flung warehouse locations for your lowest velocity products.

Utilize Pre-Assembly When Necessary

Pre-assembly is a tactic that speeds up the process of getting orders ready for goods offered with a range of standard accessories. For example, a laptop comes with the usual accessory set, which consists of a carrying bag, and charger. Preassembling or putting the carrying case with devices before submitting the order will speed up order preparation.

Consider Combining Things That Are Frequently Bought Together

There are plenty of buying trends in the fulfilment sector. One significant trend is customers’ propensity to buy two or three things at once.

In certain situations, placing the two goods that are bought at the same time next to one another in your warehouse might speed up the process of fulfilling orders that are now pending. This tactic shortens the selection process and makes organizing easier.

Improve Your Sorting Procedure

The many product lines you sell and the type of your firm should determine how you should optimize your waiting time. Orders can be sorted in a variety of ways. Orders can be grouped in several ways, such as by zone, SKU, line item, or product line. One of the most common methods of order organization is by SKU. Companies that sell several product lines often utilize sorting by product line.

How Can WareIQ Help You Improve Your Order Awaiting Fulfilment

Running an online store has specific difficulties. WareIQ makes it unnecessary for logistics management to be one of them. As a result, many e-commerce businesses have teamed up with us to improve and expedite logistical procedures.

WareIQ promises to use the most outstanding technology while providing you with best-in-class fulfilment solutions. You may anticipate improved order accuracy, a clearer picture of the inventory and shipments with SLA badges, and more control over customer and shipping information after you are onboarded.

WareIQ offers a countrywide network of fulfilment centres that enable you to deliver your items to clients more quickly and economically.

It makes sense for a company trying to expand to outsource logistics and fulfilment to a reputable 3PL professional like WareIQ.

We at WareIQ can provide you with complete supply chain fulfilment solutions so you can concentrate on your company’s main development drivers.

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Supercharge your fulfilment with WareIQ now, contact our team.

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